Bumblebee is Sweet as Honey

Bumblebee (2018)

Bumblebee is the Transformers movie that fans deserve. It was by far the most character driven Transformers movie and just a fun family action movie. While Michael Bay spent 5 movies making Bumblebee a simple set-piece with no mystique after being the core of the first movie, Travis Knight built a sympathetic character from those ashes. Knight’s Bumblebee had a similar feel to Spielberg’s E.T. Both are movies about an alien being stranded on Earth, trying to find their people, then being found by a sympathetic human as scary government types try to capture and experiment on the alien. The stories were very similar at their core, but Bumblebee was largely different because the protagonist was nearly an adult. Bumblebee is found and helped by Charlie, emotionally portrayed by Hailee Steinfeld. Charlie and Bumblebee face adversity and grow together, slowly learning more about each other until they reach a deeper understanding of friendship and belonging. Steinfeld and John Cena were excellent, but for very different reasons. Steinfeld showed the good nature and potential in humankind when faced with the unknown and Cena displayed humanity’s understandable fear of that same unknown. Both were relatable and did a fantastic job carrying the movie. Even though the action scenes were terrific, especially those on Cybertron, the movie was more of a personal tale of friendship and finding your place than a traditional sci-fi action blockbuster. It even had a fantastic ‘80s themed soundtrack, including “The Touch” from the original Transformers movie. I never thought that this movie would be one of the most emotionally satisfying movies of the year, but it far exceeded my expectations. I give Bumblebee ’60 out of the ’67 Volkswagen Beetle that Bumblebee used as a disguise.