Movie Review: Bumblebee

Michael's Movie
Grade: B










Review: This movie may be predictable and cliché but despite this it is a lot fun and actually features a good amount of genuine heart.

What amazed me about this movie is that I actually liked the human characters, which I always felt were the weakest parts of the previous Transformers movies. This is especially true of our main human character, Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld). She is not the cardboard cut out character she could have easily been. Instead she has a fully formed personality that feels genuinely real to us. The way she deals with the death of her father is completely relatable and real. We feel for her and there are many scenes in which I honestly wished I could give her a huge hug. There is not a false note in how this part of the movie is handled and it is never simplified, but instead treated with real unmistakable feeling. Her relationship with Bumblebee is also very well handled. You truly believe the two's friendship. There is not a second in which we don't completely feel the warmth and affection between the two. When Charlie gets angry at Bumblebee, we see that the Transformer is really hurt by this. We also see how much Charlie truly worries about her new friend getting hurt. Her love interest (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) is pretty charming. The two really do make an adorable couple. It is hard to believe I am calling a Transformers movie heartwarming, but this truly is. This movie is also helped by some legitimately funny humor.

As good as this movie is it is not by any means a perfect film. While the storyline is charming, it is also predictable and we have seen everything here before in other movies. The villains also fall rather flat. The action scenes also sometimes go on too long at times and aren't as entertaining as the scenes focusing on the characters. Luckily scenes involving bullies are brief as these are the stereotypical movie bullies we are all very tired of. I was very happy to see those characters didn't take up much time.

All in all there is nothing new or groundbreaking here, but when a movie is this much fun and has some emotional moments that actually work, it is hard not to recommend it.

-Michael J. Ruhland