Film Review: Bumblebee

Clunky and overblown, it nevertheless is a film of firsts: the first in the series not directed by mega-explosion-happy Michael Bay (Travis Knight steps in for the now-producer); the first written by a woman (Christina Hodson); the first prequel, which always indicates that the ideas have run out; the first rated PG after it was very slightly trimmed

We open with the usual business of Autobots and Decepticons fighting their endless war on that faraway planet of Cybertron, and Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) sending young and significantly shorter scout B-127 (initially voiced by Dylan O’Brien) to the safety of Earth in what feels like an echo of Superman’s origin story.  When he gets to California it’s 1987 and the poor lad conveniently crash-lands into a training exercise undertaken by a secret government group called Sector 7, and makes an enemy of Lieutenant Jack Burns (moderately well-played by wrestler/actor John Cena).

Forced into hiding and masquerading as a rundown yellow Volkswagen Beetle, B-127 is bought by sour aspiring mechanic Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), who’s about to turn 18 and is grieving over the death of her Dad a few years previously, which means she’s not very nice to brother Otis (Jason Drucker), long-suffering Mom Sally (Pamela Adlon) and goofy stepdad Ron (Stephen Schneider). She discovers the amnesiac and mute B-127’s true identity, christens him ‘Bumblebee’, finds her sense of wonder restored (naturally) and teaches him about the way of the world, or at least the way of the world 1987-style.

Movies almost never get the 80s right (The Wedding Singer, anyone?), and this is no different, although it’s full of outdated tech (old phones, videocassettes, dodgy televisions), clips from The Breakfast Club and TV’s ALF, and lots of corny, Spotify-friendly songs from the period. And therefore we’re barraged by Howard Jones, Simple Minds and, you guessed it, Rick Astley (who’s also mocked in another Xmas movie, Ralph Breaks The Internet), while Charlie shows an improbable interest in The Smiths, something that upsets Bumblebee no end.

Naturally Bumblebee is also being pursued by a pair of big and nasty Decepticons, Shatter (voiced by Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (voiced by Justin Theroux), who con Burns and Sector 7 into thinking that they’re the good guys. Yes, he’s an idiot.

While there are elements here that work, including Steinfeld’s impressive performance as a formidably sullen teen, it’s still, at heart, just another damn Transformers movie, which therefore means that eventually we get down to the biz of gigantic animated robots smashing and blasting the crap out of each other, which, after six movies, gets really old. There might be fewer of them here, and more conscious efforts to make the characters real and add a little sweet humour, but it’s nonetheless same Transformers, different day.

Bumblebee (PG) is out December 20