Director Travis Knight
Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Cena
Rated M
Score 4.5/6

On the run in the year of 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie, on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken.

I will admit that the last Transformers movie did not leave me with any great desire to watch any more Transformers movies in a hurry. Bumblebee is different from any of the other movies in the franchise, that could easily be put down to the fact that this is the first live-action Transformers that Michael Bay did not direct, but he stayed on board as producer. So, as you would expect that are less explosions (I suppose it could be joked that you know your watching a movie directed by Michael Bay when the explosions have explosions.) It should also be noted that Bumblebee is the third movie in the series to be written by only one screenwriter.
Bumblebee really did manage to set itself apart from the films in the series, this was done by scaling back the action sequences, but it also featured Cybertron in a meaningful way something none of the other movies in the series did. Though the third act didn’t have enough of an emotional gut punch and the hero really did not seem to be in grave peril
It was great to see that most of the transformers featured in this movie had more of a classic look to them. On a personal note I enjoyed seeing the decepticon soundwave being used in this movie.
Hailee Steinfeld gave an okay performance, I’m curious to see if her character is a one off or if she be featured in future movies. On a slightly related side note it seems that after looking at her filmography it turns out I’ve seen more of her movies then I remember, simply put she is a familiar unfamiliar face. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. gave a decent performance as pretty nerd boy (in at least one interview he has described himself as the Megan fox character). John Cena gave an okay performance he has great comedic timing. However, I will admit that I went into this expecting his character to be eviler then he actually was. This is clearly something that is not going to happen anytime soon.