It’s time to transform and roll out. Paramount Pictures decided to hire Travis Knight, the director of “Kubo and the Two Strings,” to throw his hat in the ring and bring the audience fresh new life to the Transformers movie franchise, in the form of “Bumblebee”. The movie stars Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie Watson, John Cena as Agent Jack Burns, Jorge Lendeborg jr as Memo and Dylan O’Brien as the voice of Bumblebee. The movie has review score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 94%. Seems like a victory for Paramount Pictures, right? The Transformers fandom agree that the film has brought hope to the Transformers movie franchise after 11 years and five movies all made and directed by Michael Bay since his 2007 film “Transformers”.

Plot and story:
The plot is about Bumblebee leaving his home planet “Cybertron” and arriving on Earth to continue his mission. While surviving from a secret government organization known as “Sector-7”, he meets a teenage girl named Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) who had just experienced a major loss in her life and the two begin to help each other get through their respective life issues in a heartfelt friendship. Meanwhile, two “Decepticons” come to Earth and trick Sector-7 into working with them to hunt down Bumblebee.
It’s a very simple coming of age story and a “human and alien friendship against the government and other bad aliens” story. This is the type of story that wasn’t shown in the previous movies or at least in the first film.

The Movie is a Reference to other Movies:
Bumblebee was written by Christina Hodson, who took a lot of pages from four loved sources: “Star Wars”, “ET”, “Iron Giant”, and “Herbie”.
The main Decepticon villains in the movie act like the Empire from Star Wars as they keep addressing the main hero and his allies from Cybertron as “the rebels” and “the Resistance”. They also have a judge jury and executioner attitude similar to that of Star Wars when facing the heroes. Charlie meets an alien from another planet that is on the run from the government and the two form a close friendship and help each other to get through their respective life issues. The same plot formula as ET, human and alien friendship against the government. There’s a scene in the movie were Bumblebee attacks the human government in a similar fashion to “Iron Giant”. Last but not least, Bumblebee is a sentient Volkswagen Beetle that gets bought by the main human character who is down on their luck and the two form an unlikely friendship between human and machine which is the same plot as 1968’s Herbie movie.
One other reference is 1985’s “Breakfast Club” movie, which made a short cameo in the background during a scene where Bumblebee and Charlie are in a garage watching VHS tapes. Bumblebee does the iconic fist in the air just like at the end of Breakfast Club and even the song “Don’t you forget about me” plays at the end just like in Breakfast Club. It’s a very heartfelt movie with a lot of references to 80’s movies.

What it did right:
The movie starts with the only thing a Transformers fan would have ever wanted, the war on Cybertron with all of the Transformers in their classic designs. The main characters both human and robot all have personalities and significance to the plot unlike in the previous movies which are the total opposite. The movie also returns back to the 1980’s setting and have human characters that help carry the film, once again the previous films were the opposite. Essentially this movie fixes all of the issues and hated things about the previous movies that both fans and critics complain about. “I’m a child of the 80’s, I grew up watching the original Transformers show when I was a kid.” (Travis Knight, 2018). Michael Bay, admitted in an interview back in 2011, that he himself wasn’t a fan of Transformers, in fact he thought it was stupid. Clearly Knight is the winner.

It’s an 80’s movie:
Bumblebee is not only a good movie, according to reviews, but it’s also an 80’s movie as in it felt like it was made in the 1980’s. It’s not only because the film takes place in 1987 but the clothing, the way the human characters behave, the cars, the style, the architecture and the character designs for the Transformers are all from the 1980’s. Bumblebee alt-mode is a 1980’s “Volkswagen Bug”, which was his very same alt mode from when “ The Transformers” TV show first aired back in 1984. The biggest straw that broke the camel’s back were the designs of the Transformers themselves: The movie focuses on five Transformers those being Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Blitzwing, Shatter and Dropkick. All of their designs resemble their 1980’s counterpart, most notably Optimus, Blitzwing and Bumblebee. It’s as if this movie was made immediately after the old TV show had ended. It’s truly an 80’s movie and so it will bring instant nostalgia to anyone who grew up in the 80’s. Anyone who watched the 80’s Transformers show and grew up in the 80’s will instantly recognize those characters and will feel joy at returning to an 1980’s setting.

The Bearer of Hope:
Bumblebee was directed by a fan of the source material regarding Transformers. Michael Bay was not a fan but he did revolutionize Transformers to be more mature and more for all audiences not just for kids like the way it was before 2007. Travis Knight made a movie that respects the 80’s and the Transformers brand. So many critics and Transformers fans all agree that this is the best live action Transformers movie ever made. This film had jokes that were funny, action that is very easy to tell what is happening, characters who are treated seriously and have characterization, music that fits with the 80’s theme, nostalgic references for anyone that grew up in the 80’s and a lot of respect for the Transformers brand. After eleven years and five Transformers movies that keep ignoring its own continuity and keeps making things up as it went a long without any respect for the 80’s or the brand pre-2007, then this widely agreed wonderfully made movie can now bring new life to a future of movies based on sentient shape shifting robots and a potential tease for a new cinematic universe, fans can now relax as hope has been brought to the franchise.