Bumblebee (2018) Review

"The darkest nights produce the brightest stars."

-Memo

As the Autobots are forced to flee Cybertron, Bumblebee (Dylan O'Brien) is sent to Earth to protect it until the rest of the Autobots arrive.  Seriously injured, Bumblebee goes into hiding as a VW Beetle and is inadvertently bought by Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) and they form a strong friendship.  Two Decepticons, Shatter (Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux), arrive on Earth to hunt down Bumblebee and team up with Sector 7 to do so, but the Decepticons plan to bring in the rest of their army to wipe out all of humankind.

What Works:

I'll be upfront; I hate the Transformers series.  I've seen the first four movies and I hate all of them.  It's one of my least favorite movie franchises.  I cannot possibly understate how much I hate these movies.  I was actually hoping Bumblebee would be terrible and make no money so this franchise would simply go away.  I had no intention of seeing it until the reviews came in.  They were so overwhelmingly positive that I felt obligated to see this movie.  I have to report that, for the first time in this series, we have a good movie on out hands.

The action induced no nausea this time time around.  I could follow what was happening on screen and I knew who the characters were and usually cared about them.  All of these are firsts for the series.  It's very obvious that this was not made by Michael Bay, so I have to give credit to Travis Knight for making a Transformers movie watchable.

The story has a much smaller scare than the rest of the films and there are really only three major transformer characters.  It's refreshing to have such a stripped down story that focuses more on the characters rather than the spectacle.   

Shia LaBeouf's character in this franchise is one my least favorite movie characters of all time.  I can't stand any second he is on screen.  In Bumblebee, I actually really like Hailee Steinfeld's character.  Charlie is well developed and, for the most part, I like the journey she goes on.

This film actually has themes and interesting subject matter to support the film.  The major theme is grief.  Charlie is still grieving about the death of her father, while her mother, Sally (Pamela Adlon), has moved on and has a new boyfriend.  The rest of her family is happy and enjoying their lives, but Charlie is not.  This makes it very easy to connect with her.  My favorite scene in the film comes when Charlie confronts Sally about how everyone wants her to get over her father's death, but she can't.  There's more emotion packed into this one scene than the rest of the series combined.

Finally, all of the middle-school humor from the Bay films is gone.  Instead, we get humor I actually found funny.  Not all of it worked, but I actually found myself laughing and enjoying the humor, which I never have before in this series.

What Sucks:

The writing isn't perfect and there is definitely some dialogue that could have been spruced-up.  Some of it is pretty cringe-worthy and like I said above, not all of the humor works.

I couldn't stand Charlie's mother, Sally.  For most of the film, we're supposed to have a disconnect with her, which is fine.  Then we get that great scene where Charlie confronts her mother, but I figured after that, Charlie and Sally would have some sort of moment where they repair their relationship and Sally gets some redemption, but it never happens.  She just continues to be annoying and aggravating.  She is by far the worst character in the film and this leads to a problem I have with the film's ending.  Very minor spoilers ahead.

Basically, at the end of the film, Charlie has to make a choice between her family and Bumblebee and she chooses her family.  There is never a good reason why she does this.  There really isn't a moment of redemption where her family supports her.  I would have much preferred it if she had chosen Bumblebee.  It would have been a much more exciting ending and made more sense.

Verdict:

As much as it pains me to admit it, Bumblebee is a good movie.  It has likable characters, action scenes I can comprehend, decent humor, and actual emotions.  Not all of the writing and humor works, Sally is a terrible character, and I didn't love the ending, but this movie has got it going on.

 7/10: Good