Review: Bumblebee

Directed by Travis Knight

Starring: Hailee Steinfield, John Cena

The plot follows Bumblebee, who is on the run from Decepticons in the year 1987.

Again, I was invited to watch a film, this time with a couple of friends. Upon hearing about it, I though it was going to be the usual abomination by Michael Bay. Now that I see that it has a 94% on RT and has no Michael Bay, I had to watch it. After recently seeing it, I can say that I am kind of disappointed.

The film is a prequel to Michael Bay's Tranformers, so the plot will involve how Bumblebee first arrives on Earth and encounters human life. As expected, the plot is slightly predictable. The first act is slow, but picks up eventually and ends well. The performances were sub-par, I think I liked John Cena the most in the film (who would have thought). I thought I would see some decent character development, and that was the case but only for a selected few characters, the others were just flat and two-dimensional. The presentation of the film was great, I liked the time setting taking place in the late 80's which is shown through the cars, to the costume design, and the music (got to thank Stranger Things for this trend, although you got to think these 80's setting films are getting old).

The visual effects were the best thing about the film by a mile. The CGI looked flawless, and the action sequences were entertaining and fun to watch. The music as stated before was mostly 80's music, and that I absolutely loved. If you were raised or you have experienced the 80's, you will certainly feel nostalgic and immersed.

I felt the humor was really forced. It worked at times, but most of the times it just felt out of place and cringy rather than funny. The tone is all over the place, at one point it feels serious, then the next moment it feels emotional, then funny. At times, it just feels like I am watching a Transformer version of Free Willy. While Thor Ragnarok did really well to balance it's tone of seriousness and humor, this film fails to hit the mark.

In conclusion, it was entertaining, but it wasn't what I expected. Even after seeing the high ratings, I feel disappointed. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good either. If you are a fan of Transformers, you might love this film, and this film might be the best Transformers film (I don't know, I don't really care much for the franchise). Maybe, I expected too much from this film.

My rating: 6.5/10

#FilmReview #2018