Disclosure: This review is being written by someone who has seen not one of the previous five ‘Transformers’ movies. This, he is finding out, can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he can judge the sixth movie of the series, ‘Bumblebee’, based solely on its cinematic merits. On the other, the review risks coming out as a little (or a lot) short-sighted.Anyway, let us jump right into it. First, it’s a storyline of a typical sci-fi movie: a tale of ‘good’ and weaker creations of science triumphing over ‘bad’ and superior ones. On the planet of Cybertron, the good guys are the ‘Autobots’ who are in a civil war against the evil ‘Decepticons’. If the Autobots lose, the planet is doomed. But then they are losing the war.
They need time to regroup. Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, sends B-127 to planet Earth where he will prospect the land for an Autobot base. If B-127 fails, that will be the end of the Autobots. Once on Earth, B-127, which can take the shape of any car in its view, opts for the body of a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
Who should watch it?
If you are a die-hard fan of sci-fi action movies, and have loved previous Transformers flicks, you may like this one too. If you are not, you can skip it.
To cut a long story short, one day, teenager Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) finds this car in an old garage. She repairs the car and makes it come to life.
Watson finds that instead of an old car she has invited into her garage a good-hearted humanoid robot. Since the robot cannot speak, she names him Bumblebee. Unbeknown to Watson, when she starts the car, Watson also inadvertently signals the Decepticons in Cybertron. They now know the Autobots are trying to regroup on planet Earth and resolve to destroy both the Autobots and the planet that could be their potential refuge. Without giving away the plot, what happens next should be familiar to any fan of a superhero movie.
On planet Cybertron, the good guys are the ‘Autobots’ who are in a civil war against the evil ‘Decepticons’
Steinfeld’s performance as a fatherless 18-year-old rebel living with a stepfather she does not connect with is nearly faultless. She is that all-important human touch in a movie packed with metallic characters. There then is John Cena, the wrestler who plays an agent of Sector 7, a government agency that monitors extra-terrestrial activities on Earth. He is a hard-noised former US Army Ranger who finds himself embroiled in the fight on Earth between the Autobots and Decepticons. Cena is perhaps the only wrestler in the WWE history who has been consistently projected as a ‘good guy’—an image that ‘Bumblebee’ amply exploits.
Based in 1987, ‘Bumblebee’ might offer those who grew up in the US at the time a sense of nostalgia. But for the rest the neither-here-nor-there timeline can be hard to relate to. Moreover, the instant bonding between Watson and Bumblebee appears forced, as does the depiction of Watson’s love for her deceased father.
There are great action sequences, especially the ones showing physical combat between the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ robots. And there are some hilarious moments when Watson is teaching the bungling Bumblebee disguise technics. Yet the film feels far too metallic and far too less humane. Not a bad movie at all. But it may not be to the taste of everyone.
Movie: Bumblebee
Genre: ACTION, SCI-FI
CAST: Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Cena
DIRECTION: Travis Knight
