Bookshelf Battle

This review is more than meets the eye, 3.5 readers.

BQB here with a review of “Bumblebee.”

The first “Transformers” film wowed us and then the rest have been garbage.  Admittedly, it is a tough situation.  Focus too much on the humans and the nerds get upset.  Focus too much on the robots and it becomes just a very expensive CGI cartoon.

I’m not sure “Bumblebee” is good in comparison to other films but in comparison to the rest of the Transformer movies, it shines.  On the surface, it is the same old story told over again, namely that yet another wayward teenager (Hailee Steinfeld) seeks out a broken down car in a junkyard in the hopes of driving it to a new life, only to discover the car is a Transformer (and usually Bumblebee).

It’s shortly after the fall of Cybertron and Bumblee is scouting out Earth, waiting for Optimus and pals to arrive. He and Hailee will have to team up to fight Decepticons and John Cena who is an Army dude who isn’t quite sure what to think about transformers and, oh holy shit, do you really care?

It sucked less than the other films in the series.  However, I think at some point Hollywood either needs to can it with the Transformers, or re-start anew and figure out a way to embrace some decent plots whilst not becoming too silly.

Ironically, the 1980s kid show was heady for its day.  It was all about the fight for limited resources (the transformers need energy to run and Decepticons want to steal it from Earth) and about the responsible exercise of power (Decepticons believe that as twenty-foot tall robots they are destined to rule over humanity whereas Autobots believe that just because they could crush the humans doesn’t mean they should.)

Somewhere, there’s a good Transformers movie, but it hasn’t been made yet.  This came a little closer though, largely because this particular human, set in a 1980s world, had a more compelling story than the other humans, i.e. Shia and Wahlberg.

STATUS: Shelf-worthy.