Bumblebee the Autobot tries in this exciting adventure to be in a shelter in a small coastal town in California. On the other hand, there is a girl named Charlie, 18 years old trying to help him and trying to find her place in the world. Charlie begins to encourage the robot, but soon the robot finds out that there is a battle to take place.
Steinfeld injects the right mix of sparky teen angst and feisty humour, adding layers to each scene that builds Iron Giant-style emotions between this girl and her car.
Bumblebee works because it dares to tap into a new dimension in this franchise: Legitimate emotional reactions. We humans like to refer to them as feelings!
It has taken the franchise more than a decade to get its act together, but finally we get to experience what a Transformers movie should have been all along.
Steinfeld is an enormously talented actress, and the film knows to spend some time with her and not try to hurry things along to the next big set piece.
Everything about Bumblebee feels like a fresh start for the franchise: director Travis Knight strips down the Transformers aesthetic to something cleaner and more coherent...
Nostalgic without being mindlessly retro; a sweet, heartfelt girl-and-her-alien-robot-car action-adventure buddy dramedy that hits all the right notes. Hailee Steinfeld is terrific, and there's not a whiff of Michael Bay to be found.
