Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures
Written by Corbyn Jenkins
On the Sunday before Christmas, I headed to the movie theater with my eager 10-year-old brother to see the Bumblebee movie that he had been talking about ever since he saw the trailers for it weeks ago.
From the very moment that the film began, we were pulled into the action. For my brother, that was a given—he is a huge fan of the Transformers films and Bumblebee happens to be his favorite bot. I, however, wasn’t really sure what to expect, since I had only seen one of the Transformers films. I, of course, thought that movie was cool, but I definitely expected the 10-year-old to be a lot more into Bumblebee than I was. But that was not the case, as I found myself constantly whispering to him “oh my gosh did you see that? That was so cool!” Let’s just say it earned me more than a few eye rolls and smirks from him throughout.
Bumblebee takes place in 1987 and centers around an 18-year-old girl named Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) discovering the bot in a junkyard in a small town in California. Charlie has recently lost her father and is struggling to find her place in the world as well as who she is and wants to be. Bumblebee is also struggling, as he is broken and left alone in the junkyard until being discovered by Charlie. The pair become great friends and, together, help fix each other’s wounds and find themselves along the way.
After the film ended, one of the things that my brother said to me was that he wishes he could have an autobot best friend, and honestly, I don’t blame him. Where can we get one of those?
Overall, I felt like the casting for this movie was great. Steinfeld was a perfect fit. Charlie’s character was interesting and very easy to connect with. By the end of the movie, I was in love with her and just how badass she was. Her love for cars and music carried well throughout the film and also helped connect a lot of points—one being how she came across Bumblebee, and later how Bumblebee speaks to her. Agent Burns, played by John Cena, was also a great match.
In the movie, Bumblebee is transformed into a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, which so happens to be his original form. It was cool that they brought it back for this film, plus, it is an adorable car. My brother, on the other hand, was not impressed. He kept commenting that he just wanted Bumblebee to whip into his “cool Camaro.” He couldn’t quite move past it. Thankfully, towards the end, Bumblebee scans a Camaro and all is well. The 10-year-old could breathe again.
Overall, Bumblebee is definitely worth going to see. It is a great mix of action, adventure, sci-fi, and I’d even say drama. Also, it’s just super entertaining and will definitely earn a place on my movie shelf when it comes out on DVD.
The overall rating from a 10-year-old: “9.5/10 because it should have had the Camaro the whole entire movie.”
