Bumblebee

Bumblebee is a movie about Transformers, but it isn’t exactly a Transformers movie. Perhaps most noticeably, it isn’t directed by Michael Bay, who is responsible for the rest of the toy franchise’s movie offerings. I unironically enjoy Transformers, the first film, in the same way I do some other Bay films like The Rock and the first two Bad Boys films. They might not be the most intellectual of flicks, but they are great empty-headed fun (for the most part). They are Bay’s overpacked visual style, sometimes referred to as Bayhem, serving the right material. From that first film, however, the Transformers franchise falls steeply off a cliff to the point that the third film was so bad I couldn’t even finish it. Bumblebee, the sixth film of this flagging series, is a real return to form or even improvement on the best Transformers has had to offer up until its release. This is likely due to its new creative team and ability to distance itself from what came before.

One of the cleverer things about the movie is that it can function both as a stand alone piece and as a part of the larger Transformers cinematic story depending on which way the viewer is coming to, or contextualizing, the story. It takes place in the 1980s and the events of the film in no way conflict with the premise of the first film. It is a prequel, but in a very arm’s length kind of way. The 80s is also far enough back that the end of the film does not need to immediately dovetail into the beginning of Transformers, which would be the next film chronologically. There is plenty of time for the titular transforming robot to find its way to Sam Witwicky, decades later, without distorting the natural flow of the story Bumblebee wants to tell.

That being said, there has been a marked increase in media that plays into nostalgia for the 1980s, from Stranger Things to Wonder Woman 1984. As children of the 80s enter the prime years for nostalgic media consumption, it is understandable that more movies and television shows are beginning to tap into this genre reservoir. And, in fairness to Bumblebee, it was among the first to take advantage of this aesthetic. However, if you are growing tired of this new trend towards capturing 80s-centric nostalgia, then Bumblebee may end up feeling like just another film in that mold and not in a good way.

It would be a shame, too, as though Bumblebee isn’t exceptional enough to stand out from many of the other 1980s throwbacks, it is still a really fun movie. It is certainly better than the first Transformers flick, since it drops some of the original’s mindless action set pieces for more heart and humanity.

In fact, the worst part of Bumblebee is the giant robot fights. I found myself quite bored by all of the set pieces in which giant robots punched each other, of which there were mercifully few. Instead, the main focus of the movie is the sweet family story of a young girl trying to make peace with her new step father and brother, as she still grieves her late father’s passing. The titular transforming robot isn’t entirely tangential to this story either, as their unlikely and unspoken friendship helps both conquer their feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Although it doesn’t match perfectly, Bumblebee is perhaps most similar to a family movie centered around a pet. A young girl adopts an abandoned dog and brings it home against her parent’s wishes. She must then find all these different ways to hide the dog in the backyard, take it on walks, and help it live its best life without anyone finding out. Only, the dog is a transforming robot from another planet, the backyard is the garage, and helping it live its best life is shielding it from both the government (which views it as hostile) and the Decepticons (other transforming alien robots that want to kill it). This connection may seem far-fetched, when laid out this way, but Bumblebee’s tone and structure is much closer to this than it is to the raucous, spectacle driven movies that preceded it in the franchise and it is all the better for it.

Bumblebee isn’t going to blow anyone away with its filmmaking but it is really good fun. Plus, it does this with genuinely good storytelling and well thought out characters rather than the more empty-headed cheap thrills and slightly juvenile spectacle of the best of its predecessors. I might even recommend this movie to people who are overly snobby about the Transformers film franchise. Whether you see Transformers as nothing more than a cinematic commercial or as the literal embodiment of low quality, blockbuster filmmaking targeted at the undiscerning masses, Bumblebee, in a manner reminiscent of The LEGO Movie, reminds us that if a movie is well made enough, it can transcend the apparent limitations of its status as a movie about a children’s toy.

Would Recommend: If you’re in the mood for a better than average popcorn action flick.

Would Not Recommend: If discovering you might actually like a Transformers movie would shatter your self conception as a viewer of good taste resulting in mental whiplash so severe it could only be addressed by expensive therapy.