‘Bumblebee’ Review: Finally, a ‘Transformers’ Movie That’s Actually Good

‘Bumblebee’ Review: Finally, a ‘Transformers’ Movie That’s Actually Good

Can a “Transformers” movie be good? It turns out the answer is yes — if the right talent is given enough leeway.

The latest, “Bumblebee,” is the sixth in the franchise. As directed by Travis Knight, an animator who made his directorial debut with the striking 2016 animated film “Kubo and the Two Strings,” “Bumblebee” is cleverly plotted, neatly allusive and has dialogue you can envision real people and, um, real Transformers speaking. The screenplay is by Christina Hodson, whose most recent other writing credit is on the bonkers, rather forgettable thriller “Unforgettable.” Which just goes to prove you shouldn’t base all of your expectations on previous credits.

“Bumblebee” is an origin story, and it begins on Cybertron, the realm of the Transformers, where we witness a decisive battle between the car-morphing Autobots and their sworn enemies, the Decepticons. If I were to lay out the whole “Transformers” mythos here, I’d exhaust my word count, so: The Autobot B-127 gets shot off to the Northern California of 1987; the fireball in which he descends makes a bit of a latter-day Captain Ahab out of an Army dude played by John Cena; and a Decepticon pursuing B-127 rips out the good guy’s robot voice box and pounds him until he loses his memory, and his sense of purpose.
After which the Autobot warrior turns into a Volkswagen Beetle.


Which is adopted by a feisty teenager, Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), who christens the car Bumblebee. The two form an affinity not unlike the one we saw between Elliott and the alien in “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.” (That film’s director, Steven Spielberg, is an executive producer of this film and the whole franchise.)