Review of BUMBLEBEE: Yellow and Youthful

January 14, 2019

The Transformers film franchise by Michael Bay have been going on from the first film 2007 to "The Last Knight" in 2017. By and large, they were CGI-crazy, explosive spectacles which were critical duds despite the fact that they all hit it big at the box office. Even if I knew exactly what noisy senseless action movie I was getting into, I still watched each each and every one of them because the kids enjoyed them, and I guess me too, 

This year for the latest installment of the franchise, Bay relinquished the helm to acclaimed "Kubo and the Two-Strings" director Travis Knight for his only first live-action feature film. From films starring the whole ensemble of Transformers, this time the story was going to focus on only one of them. For this first spotlight feature, they have chosen the young and yellow audience favorite Bumblebee.

When Cybertron fell to the Decepticons, Optimus Prime and the other Autobots evacuate to different planets in the universe. The scout robot B-127 was sent to Earth to secure it as the possible future base for the Autobots. However, upon landing in California, the US Military immediately wanted to apprehend him. To escape capture, B-127 took the shape of a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle.

Meanwhile, ever since her father died, teenager Charlie was having a rough time with her harassed mother Sally, dorky stepfather Ron and snooty little brother Otis. On her 18th birthday, she found a certain old yellow VW Beetle at the junkyard. Upon bringing it home, Charlie discovered that it was no ordinary car but a gentle giant robot whom she became fast friends with, calling him Bumblebee. However, it was not long after that the deadly Decepticons were on already his tail. 

I think the factor that made "Bumblebee" connect more easily to the audience is his youthful demeanor and charm. He is also smaller than the other Autobots, with a decidedly cute puppy-dog face anybody can love. His friendship in this film with Charlie (as played by a spunky and winsome Hailee Steinfeld) felt more sincere and real than it was with Sam Witwicky, who also found and bought Bumblebee (as a Chevrolet Camaro) in a used-car lot in the first movie. This movie is more personal, and character-driven, which explains why most reviews are calling it "the best Transformers movie" ever. For us, Gen-X'ers, the 80s pop soundtrack and movie references certainly helped a lot. 

While the story sort of confused the timeline of the other Transformers films by showing Optimus Prime and other Autobots on Earth in 1987 (not 2007 as the first film established), it can also be seen to reboot the series in the direction of more intimate stories of the relationship between humans and individual Autobots. There may have still been a lot of corny, cheesy lines and impossible close calls in "Bumblebee," but the "Iron Giant"-like heart of its story still shone through all that to win us over again and give the "Transformers" series another chance. 8/10.