[Review] Bumblebee (6.5/10)

Title - Bumblebee
Studio - Paramount Pictures
Starring - Hailee Steinfeld, Pamela Adlon, John Cena, Kenneth Choi, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Stephen Schneider
Writer - Christina Hodson
Director - Travis Knight
Release - 21 December 2018

I squeled three times in the cinema watching Bumblebee.

First was when Bumblebee spoke. His voice was perfect - resembling the 80's cartoon type of voice. Dylan O'Brien was a great choice.

Second was when Soundwave said, "Ravage, eject!" And Ravage ejected.

Third was when "The Touch" came on at the perfect timing.

Travis Knight did a lot of things right. But he also did a lot of things that made me question continuity in the story.

That first three minutes of the movie was absolute perfection. Not only did we see a lot more of Cybertron, that all out war between Decepticons and Autobots were a reminscent of the cartoon as well. Plus the fact that we saw the Transformers just like they were in the cartoon. That was the best fan service this franchise could ever give us.

If we were to look at Transformers the franchise as a whole, this would be the Iron Man 3. Not in terms of quality, but in the tone of the franchise because this did not feel like a Transformers movie but it still took place in the overall storyline.

Hailee Steinfeld, Pamela Adlon and Stephen Schneider did the best they could with the script. Though Steinfeld really created a character that became likeable as her backstory was revealed.

Jorge Lendeborg Jr.'s character was such an upgrade from all the young love interests we had in the last few movies. And his performance was good too.

The writing and directing are where I had most of my issues. Christina Hodson gave quite a kiddie script and I think Travis Knight delivered it the best way he could. Some scenes just made me scratch my head, like when Steinfeld asked Lendeborg Jr. to take off his shirt. That was such a weird scene and made no sense.

But John Cena was quite entertaining, surprisingly. Even though his character was so one-dimensional, at least his lines were the best.

But generally, though, it was a fine movie. It delivered what it promised, just slightly different in content than what I had hoped for.