Here are my thoughts on the film Bumblebee which stars Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena and directed by Travis Knight.

Bumblebee Movie Review – PROS

• The first five minutes of the film gives fans hope that Hollywood can finally make a good Transformers movie without Michael Bay touching it in any way.
• The first five minute also just undid any bad blood I had for the past few Transformers movie. It was that good and that satisfying.
• Hailee was gorgeous here. Shes also starting to show complexity in her acting. She’s definitely grown up as an actress and her take here as Charlie is one that’s mostly positive. I have to admit there were some scenes of her and her missing her dad that tugs the heartstrings. Not strong enough to make you cry but strong enough to make you care for her and flesh out why she’s this “aloof” teenager.
• John Cena once again reaffirms that he’s a good actor. Thing is with the film, you can’t quite put where he wants to be in the narrative. But let’s all chalk it up to problems with reshoots and rewrites that “Bumblebee” got before its release this year (late last year in the US).

• If there’s anything that made Bumblebee such a strong movie in my opinion, its got to be the action and all those battle scenes. I’m not a HUGE Transformers fan but I did enjoy all those little moments that gave us Cybertron.
• Congratulations too on making Bumblebee a bad-ass and a character really worthy to stand side-by-side with the iconic autobot Optimus Prime.

• I have to give props for the song choices in this movie. Hearing “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears and “Take on Me” by A-Ha really helped paint the picture that the film is set in the 1980s.

Bumblebee Movie Review – CONS

• The humor in this film isn’t as funny as I was expecting. There were some moments were you’d get a giggle or two and some supposedly funny scenes where you just sit there scratching your head.
• I hate the fact that the war on Cybertron was just a teaser. Even suckier is the fact that the Decepticons were cool and they barely made a big splash. We don’t even get an A-list villain here like Soundwave or Shockwave. We have triple-changers and that’s supposed to wow us?
• I know its a prequel but I’m setting this down in this Bumblebee review for the record that the film is more of a soft reboot rather than a prequel for the first Michael Bay Transformers movie. Market it properly damn it. Nobody likes the Bay-formers, not in 2019.

Bumblebee Review – Verdict

8/10

This is pretty much a “girl and her autobot”. Seen this story a thousand times with the only difference is the fact that they made for interesting backstory and a promise of a better series of movies down the line. Travis Knight and his team did a rather OK story that can cater to all age groups while the action scenes are satisfying. Nice performances from John Cena and Hailee Steinfeld too.

Bumblebee is NOW SHOWING.

Special thanks to United International Pictures Philippines.