I've always been hesitant when it comes to Michael Bay's Transformers franchise. The first film was fun, but every sequel was just the same movie with different characters involved, and bigger explosions. I watched them all for the sake of completionism, but I enjoyed each one less and less.
But to see Steven Speilberg's name attached to this...prequel? reboot? It helped to calm the nerves a bit as I went into the cinema to buy a ticket.
I would generally place a bit of time into talking about whether or not Bumblebee is a prequel or reboot, as it takes place before the Labeouf/Wahlberg films, but contradicts the first film. That being said every Transformers film has contradicted itself coming up with a new time that Transformers arrived on Earth, so I guess it's not really the sort of film franchise that cares too much about continuity.
Bumblebee is a much smaller scale film. With only three Transformers being on Earth throughout the film (I'll exclude the two that were only in one scene each) we are finally provided with a film where we can watch and follow the entire thing. When you have bright red, bright blue, and bright yellow, it is much easier to see what is going on during battles.
With such a minimal Transformer presence, the film is going to be much more human-centred, and I have no problem with that. It allowed for some rich character development from Hailee Steinfeld, who plays the angsty teen protagonist Charlie Watson, as well as providing Bumblebee some time to gain an emotional connection with the human race. In fact, the film goes so far against the grain of what we have come to expect from a Transformer movie, that it actually feels like a combination of the Iron Giant and E.T. where the problem isn't the world ending, instead it's how the world reacts to little alien/robot Bumblebee.
The pacing is a little off and takes a while to get into, but once the ball starts rolling, it speeds up very fast. This slow pace is juxtaposed quite nicely by the opening scenes that show a full-on Transformer fight during the fall of Cybertron. A complete mess to watch, but we finally get to see Optimus Prime is his classic red truck disguise from the animated shows/movie. That alone put a smile on my face.
John Cena showed off some rather exaggerated acting as the military presence in the film but didn't hinder the flow of the movie. Hailee Steinfeld is the standout star of the film, however, far surpassing Mark Wahlberg and Shia Labeouf in terms of emotional engagement and enjoyment. Proof that we don't need Megan Fox or Rosie Huntington-Whiteley to saunter around sexily with the right amount of makeup sweat and dirt to keep the interest.
Bumblebee's missing voice is addressed in this film too (which again makes you wonder if this is a prequel or a reboot), but apart from that, it is largely a film separated from the rest of the franchise. Simply, a young woman who has discovered an alien, and tries to hide it to keep it safe from the military. A plot we've seen many times before, but with a protagonist at an age that we can have some real emotional character development.
Potentially the best Transformers movie to date, and I hope that if more films are on the way, that it continues on from this new starting point.