Moviefone's 'Bumblebee' Review
The posters and promotional materials for "Bumblebee" all feature the computer-generated title character more prominently than any of the film's human actors, which is an important reminder how much of a cultural fixture Transformers has become. But Travis Knight's spin-off/ prequel to the five Michael Bay monstrosities that catapulted the franchise to worldwide box office success shrewdly -- and powerfully -- sidelines the mechanics and mythology of its predecessors to focus on the changing emotional conditions of its characters, amazingly including those that actually came off an assembly line.
Bolstered by solid performances from Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, and in a voice role, Angela Bassett -- not to mention a 1980s jukebox of pop-rock classics -- "Bumblebee" clears an admittedly extremely low bar to become the best "Transformers" movie yet made.
Steinfeld plays Charlie Watson, a tomboyish teenager struggling with the death of her father, and her mother Sally's (Pamela Adlon, TV's "Better Things") subsequent remarriage to the goofy but well-intentioned Ron (Stephen Schneider, "You're the Worst"). Desperate to get a car for her 18th birthday, she convinces her uncle Hank (Len Cariou, "Spotlight") to give her the dilapidated Volkswagen Beetle collecting rust in the back of his junkyard. But when she gets it home, Charlie discovers that it's actually an Autobot in hiding, whose identity and memories have been damaged or even erased. Dubbing him Bumblebee, Charlie quickly realizes that she's found not just the car she so badly wanted, but a friend and confidante that she really needs. But when two Decepticons, Shatter (Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux), arrive on Earth and contact the American military hoping to locate and eliminate Bumblebee before he can remember and complete his mission, Charlie and Bumblebee find themselves in the middle of a brewing conflict of potentially intergalactic proportions.
