I saw the first of the live-action Transformers movies on its release over ten years ago now, and I didn’t love it. I also found the video game tie-in, Transformers: The Game, to be a little boring. I was a weird child who didn’t care for huge robots fighting. At a young age, I could tell there was something wrong with the film’s editing and the focus on “too much action.” The film didn’t live up to the hype I had been promised. Since then I’ve seen segments of the later Transformers movies, which all include more and more explosions, or what is often called “Bay-hem.”

Now I won’t lie, I’m not a massive fan of the Transformers series outside of those live-action movies either. I can’t tell you why the Autobots can turn into cars on their home planet, Cybertron because there is no explanation to my knowledge. I don’t know why they speak English when they have never met an English speaking human before.

However, I do know it makes the whole franchise more accessible to us. We see a car and we say, “I trust that,” and we hear English and say, “I can understand that.” Ultimately, I understand why some may enjoy the early films, but it is the one Transformers movie Michael Bay didn’t direct I enjoy the most.

2018’s Bumblebee, is a fantastic example of how to balance the explosive action of the series preceding it, and the conventions of a ‘normal‘ movie. Being a prequel to the franchise we already know, sets itself up for a number of pitfalls if it diverts too much from what we know of Transformers. However, the Autobots vs. Decepticons story is set up in the first ten minutes, but becomes a sort of secondary plot, and caps off at the end before the primary plot is all tied up. This includes setting up a sequel in the last five minutes of the film, so don’t expect this to be the only movie in the prequel series.

The best way to explain Bumblebee is that the film is quintessentially 80’s and nostalgic to the core. As the fall of Cybertron has come and gone, B-127 or Bumblebee is sent to earth as a scout for the Autobot resistance. Bumblebee winds up crashing headfirst into a military training ground as the part-time wrestler and full-time wannabee marine, John Cena, is training with a team.

B-127 lands in hot bother from his first moments on the planet. To cause more trouble a Decepticon has followed Bumblebee, along with the marines that were training, to a mine in which we see our first bot-on-bot action. This is all the set up we see before we fall back in time into the ’80s and B-127 becomes a yellow Herbie.

From here is where we meet Charlie, played by Hailee Steinfeld, and her family. Charlie is an 18-year-old rocker who is sick of her soon-to-be step-dad Ron. The rest of the family consists of her mom who is unaware of what Charlie wants and her little brother who is just a little brother. A perfectly anti-social family ripped apart by the death of a family member, what more could anyone need: aside from a car.

This is almost the only problem I have with the movie, aside from a slight inaccuracy in the timeline I’ll detail later, and that’s the birthday. Don’t get me wrong, people have birthdays and so should characters, though it is used in a turning point in the plot about twenty-five minutes in, in a strange way.

Hank, the owner of the garage in which Charlie works and hangs around, gives her, the now transformed Bumblebee because it’s her birthday. She even offers to do every fecal matter based job she can think of, such as scrubbing oil off of the floors, picking up the disorganized paper, and even scrubbing toilets. Though he bends on this and just gives her the car, advances the plot, though he himself doesn’t add to the plot either.

From here on out, the movie excretes nothing but charm. Bumblebee is unable to speak and terrified of humans after being shot by them. At first, he is fearful of Charlie. He loses his voice in a fight with Blitzwing, and early on B-127 has the only movements to express himself and later, his signature radio play.

Now I think I’ve spoken enough directly about the first 30 minutes, I’d like to pinpoint exactly what I liked in later moments. Mostly the human, Roy, popping like a balloon filled with water in the wind. This, in particular, reminded me of the stylistic deaths in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Finally, the charming scene wherein Bumblebee is a complete alien, destroying things, watching pong, almost sitting on the dog, and sticking his finger in a socket.

However, the best thing that spans the entire movie is the soundtrack. Mostly a collection of ’80’s classics from Simple Minds, A-ha, Duran Duran, among others. As a huge fan of this “old” music, I love almost everything about it. Aside from the track that plays during the end credits, which is written & performed by Hailee Steinfeld herself. Otherwise, the soundtrack is almost perfect, aside from the movie being set in late August of 1987 and features “It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock which didn’t release until a year later.

In conclusion, Bumblebee is an excellent action movie, with a pitch-perfect build to the final climax, and some good acting on the part of the live-action cast. If I were to suggest an action movie to watch from 2018 it would be between Black Panther, Ant-man and the Wasp, and Bumblebee. For not enjoying action movies as much as the next person, and for not enjoying previous Transformers movies I can’t give 2018’s Bumblebee more praise than telling you to go watch it.

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Bumblebee

$19.99

8.2

Score

8.2/10

Pros

• Almost perfect soundtrack
• Big battles without copious editing
• Great acting

Cons

• A shoehorned section of plot.