The critics have spoken, and they're saying that the Transformers spin-off Bumblebee is, in a word, transformative.
The first entry in the franchise not to be directed by Michael Bay currently sits at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, garnering the best reviews by far of any film in the series. Critics were won over by the film's '80s setting, an emphasis on character development absent from the preceding flicks, and an appealing lead performance by the Oscar-nominated Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse).
Directed by freshman live-action feature helmer Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) from a script by Christina Hodson (Shut In), the film focuses on Charlie Watson (Steinfeld), a troubled teenager who discovers the titular Autobot hiding out in a junkyard in the guise of a 1967 VW Beetle. Sent to establish an outpost on Earth, Bumblebee must enlist the young woman's aid in evading the military while defending the planet from pursuing Decepticons. Also among the cast are John Cena (Blockers), Pamela Adlon (Louie), and Angela Bassett (Black Panther).
Bumblebee's critical reception represents one of the most dramatic turnarounds in film history for a franchise, as 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction and 2017's Transformers: The Last Knight both stunk up Rotten Tomatoes with ratings under 20%. We're not going to trash Michael Bay here — there's enough of that going on elsewhere on the internet, and he seems impervious to criticism in any event — but we will go out on a limb and say that the injection of fresh blood may have something to do with Bumblebee's jump in quality.
Clint Worthington of Consequence of Sound would certainly agree with us. "Everything about Bumblebee feels like a fresh start for the franchise," he wrote in his review. "Travis Knight strips down the Transformers aesthetic to something cleaner and more coherent, the robot designs looking more like elevated versions of the old '80s toys than the crumpled tinfoil looks of Bay's designs." He also singled out Steinfeld'd performance, which he called "lovely," and admired the flick's use of its setting: "Imagine Stranger Things if Eleven was a big yellow robot, and you'll have a good idea of how Bumblebee puts nostalgia to effective use," he said.
