Welcome back to Maddie's Movie Reviews. The Transformer Franchise is one that I hold very near and dear to my heart. I was a massive Transformers fan as a child, always wanting to go down the toy isle and beg my mom for the new Optimus Prime toy to bring home (to no avail because as it turns out they were, like, $40 or more a pop). Transformers as a whole is a franchise that to me holds a legendary legacy, so naturally my standards are set in the sky for this movie. Let's get right into Bumblebee (2018).
This movie wasn't one I was expecting to be as good as it was. While the original Bayverse films were technical marvels in visual effects and computer generated images, their stories typically left something to be desired. In the Bayverse films, some characters were different entirely. Optimus was written like a childish and tantrum-prone dictator while somehow making the Decepticons as irredeemable as the Autobots. This movie takes what the Bayverse had going and instantly flips all of it, creating a story that will carry with me since my viewing. This movie instantly makes sure that you know that this isn't the Bayverse, but instead it's own continuity that stands out from the rest.
Where initially Optimus was written as though he were an ignorant brutalist, in Bumblebee he is instead written as the valiant hero and leader of the Autobots that you would expect someone worthy of holding the Matrix of Leadership to have. He cares about his comrades while also stopping at nothing to secure a victory over the opposing Decepticons. I also think that The Decepticons in this movie are the exact amount of moral grayness that you would come to expect from a faction of people based on radical action.
Speaking of people, this movie does an amazing job at humanizing its characters. The main character, Charlie, actually forgoes a proper character arc unlike her predecessor Sam Witwicky. At the beginning, Charlie is the cynical teen struggling with grieving over the loss of her biological father, and turns to working on cars as a way to cope with this. It doesn't help much, but it leads into the intersection between humans and Autobots. She is gifted by her uncle an old yellow Beetle that can barely run on its own as a birthday gift. It's stated that it may as well be a death trap, but Charlie is happy nonetheless to have her own pet project to operate and repair. When she takes it home, she discovers almost alien technology inside of her new car, and awakens the one and only Bumblebee, who is terrified, confused, and lost.
Bumblebee, who was once a heroic member of the Autobots, was reduced to this form after fleeing his home planet of Cybertron. After being chased down by a Decepticon enforcer, Bumblebee's speech synthesis is permanently destroyed and is thrown off a cliff, wiping all of his prior memories of being an autobot. The last thing he sees is a yellow beetle in a park, and promptly transforms into this beetle to hide from the Decepticons, as he hadn't truly died after falling off that cliff.
It's moments like these that are abundant in Bumblebee. Everything is written so naturally, and I find it to be a refreshing break from the almost evil writing of the Bayverse films. Another thing that I like are the designs of all of the transformers. They're more cartoonish and reminiscent of their prior designs that weren't based in reality. It makes scenes of them fighting against the gray backgrounds much more interesting and digestible to follow, another issue I have with the Bayverse films. Another thing I'd like to mention is fucking John Cena getting a proper character arc??? How the hell do you get John Cena of all people to play a compelling character in a movie that isn't Fred!?!?
In general, Bumblebee is quite possibly the best Transformers film ever made, and with the masterful writing of Transformers One as well, I think Transformers fans are in for a treat in the coming years. I give Bumblebee a resounding 9/10.
++ Easy to invest in characters
+High stakes action that actually feels important
- John Cena as a celebrity cameo