In a sentenceThe giant robot is good company; the people explaining the plot are harder work
In the 1980s, Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) finds a companion in B-127 / Bumblebee (voiced by Dylan O’Brien), a robot whose arrival draws her into a conflict involving the Decepticons and the military. Charlie is finding her way towards adulthood, with family life and a friendship with a junkyard owner occupying her days. Jack Burns (John Cena) is among the people caught up in the robot conflict. As Charlie and Bumblebee grow closer, she tries to protect a friendship that brings problems far beyond her everyday world.
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Travis Knight’s Bumblebee is a warm, engaging adventure with a friendship worth caring about. Hailee Steinfeld makes it work, even when the familiar plot calls everyone away for another explanation.
Bumblebee is a good-natured adventure that understands why we might want to spend time with a robot before asking us to worry about him. Travis Knight puts Charlie Watson and her unlikely friend at the centre, and the film is better whenever it stays with them. The story around that friendship is familiar, sometimes to the point of impatience, but the affection is persuasive. We recommend it to anyone who likes their science fiction with room for people.
Hailee Steinfeld does much of the work as Charlie, giving Christina Hodson’s coming-of-age story a person we can recognise beneath its well-used lessons. She treats Bumblebee as someone whose reactions deserve her full attention, and that helps us do the same. Their quieter exchanges moved us more than we expected, because the expressive animation gives her something to respond to and she never condescends to it. There is patience in the performance that the plotting could use more often.
Travis Knight handles the robot’s physical presence with similar care. The animation lets Bumblebee look uncertain as well as formidable, and his awkwardness makes the physical comedy work without requiring somebody to explain the joke. Enrique Chediak’s cinematography gives the action enough colour and clarity for us to follow the robots as they move. The fights benefit from that readability, but so do the smaller gestures: we have time to notice how Bumblebee responds to the people around him.
Sean Haworth’s production design makes the 1980s setting inviting, though the film can be too pleased with its period references. There are stretches when recognising the decade seems to be offered as entertainment in itself, and the characters are better company than the reminders. Dario Marianelli’s music supports the warmth, but sometimes encourages feelings that the central pairing has already earned. A little less encouragement would have been enough.
Paul Rubell’s editing gives the robot encounters a cleaner flow than the surrounding explanations, which repeatedly interrupt the film’s momentum. The Decepticon material is where Christina Hodson’s script most often sounds as though it is supplying information for a different, less interesting evening. None of this is difficult to follow; it simply takes time away from the pair we came to see. At 114 minutes, the film has stretches that could be shorter without making Charlie’s friendship with Bumblebee feel rushed.
Against the louder habits of the Transformers films, this smaller focus is welcome, though being easier to follow is hardly an ambitious standard on its own. Travis Knight’s interest in Charlie makes the difference, giving the action someone whose safety matters to us before the fighting starts. There is still a conventional adventure to sit through, and it becomes less distinctive as the action takes over. Watch it for Hailee Steinfeld and the robot, with some tolerance for the explanations that keep interrupting them.
Most critics welcome Bumblebee as a warmer, more coherent Transformers film, with praise centred on Hailee Steinfeld and Charlie’s friendship with the robot. The reviews repeatedly credit that relationship with giving the action emotional weight. Travis Knight’s direction, Bumblebee’s expressive animation and clearer action staging also earn approval, while the smaller-scale coming-of-age story offers a welcome break from the franchise’s usual excesses.
The reservations concern familiar plotting, uneven pacing and stretches where action or exposition interrupts the character work. The spread is wide, despite a clear positive majority: some find the simpler approach touching, others merely safe. The AV Club praises Steinfeld but finds the relationships rushed and the action muddled, directly challenging a common strength elsewhere. The New Yorker is more firmly opposed, finding the earnest approach short on style and missing the sensory thrills of earlier entries.
Dyer finds the film a gleeful, heartfelt improvement that finally delivers a Transformers movie with real charm. He singles out Charlie and Bumblebee’s touching partnership, supported by Travis Knight’s expressive direction.
Read the full review →The review calls it the best Transformers film so far, praising its emotional focus and clear, enjoyable action despite some pacing problems. It especially singles out Hailee Steinfeld’s performance and the bond between Charlie and Bumblebee.
Read the full review →Lazic finds the film a sweet, emotionally effective family adventure that improves on the franchise’s earlier entries. She praises Hailee Steinfeld’s performance and the more intimate, coherent action, which makes the robot battles hit harder.
Read the full review →Chang praises the prequel as a charming, refreshingly intimate improvement on the earlier Transformers films. He singles out the delicate rapport between Steinfeld and Bumblebee, while noting that the plot is boilerplate and the ’80s references sometimes overdo it.
Read the full review →Harley finds the film a charming, breezy reinvention that brings welcome warmth and fun to the franchise. He particularly praises Hailee Steinfeld’s grounded, capable Charlie and her heartfelt bond with Bumblebee.
Read the full review →Lowe finds Bumblebee a charming and effective reinvention that improves on the franchise’s earlier excesses. He particularly praises its character-driven coming-of-age story and Hailee Steinfeld’s performance.
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E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialAnother unlikely friendship makes an alien’s safety feel urgently personal.
The Iron GiantA boy and a robot give familiar adventure real tenderness.
My Neighbour TotoroChildren find reassurance in strange company, with room for quiet discovery.
Robot & Frank · not reviewed yetRobot companionship gets an older, drier treatment, without losing its warmth.
The Kid with a Bike · not reviewed yetFor the coming-of-age story: a child learning to trust someone again.
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