So I thought that "Herbie" had it tough! Well his traumas look like tea with the Queen compared to poor old "Bumblebee"! He actually starts off life with the much less friendly moniker of "B-127" when he is sent to Earth to set things up amidst what looks like the end of the war between the his "Autobots" and the "Decepticons" on their home planet of "Cybertron". He lands slap bang in the middle of some top secret American military testing that handily looks at all things extra-terrestrial and that's when we encounter the menacing "Burns" (John Cena) who deduces that our yellow Meccano is not natural and that it must be hunted down and captured or destroyed. As if that we're not enough, "Blitzwing" is also on the planet and they have a duel that renders our yellow hero unable to speak and forced to turn into his more recognisable motor car shape while he repairs the damage from that combat and awaits his pals. "Charlie" (Hailee Steinfeld) discovers it hiding in a scrapyard and by touching things she shouldn't, activates all sorts of beacons and gadgets that breaks his cover and summons friend and foe alike for the usual slew of "Transformer" tear 'em limb from limb escapades. There's quite a bit of fun from the dialogue and the visual effects are enjoyable too as we follow a well trammelled path of formulaic storytelling, tempered with a little human bonding, and some mediocre acting. They've tried to give "Bumblebee" some personable characteristics - think of a less cowardly "C-3PO", but as an action adventure it's all just a bit long and predictable. The denouement is quite action-packed, though, and I think it's at the better end of this franchise so just about worth two hours.
<em>'Bumblebee'</em> is a decent attempt at a reset of sorts for this franchise, but unfortunately I found it to be a bit boring. There admittedly isn't much to whine about, though alternatively nothing overtly positive springs to my mind about it either. It is still one of the better from the series.
Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena are the two that are most noteworthy on the cast, across both the human and robot actors. Steinfeld does good and is a well chosen lead, Cena feels a little off from his usual schtick but is perfectly OK. None of the voice cast stand out to be honest, despite the presence of Angela Bassett.
The titular character is an interesting decision to give a spin-off (prequel) film to, I can't say he stood out to me in the preceding entries. In fact, if I hadn't already known that they had based a movie around him I wouldn't have really took any extra notice of the yellow robot. As a <em>'Transformers'</em> noob, I thought Optimus Prime would've been the logical choice?
I do appreciate that this one decided to be more story-driven, as opposed to matching the bombastic action that preceded it. There are some alright moments in there in fairness, I was just never noticeably hooked into what I was following onscreen.
