A Transformers movie for kids? Wow, what a concept!

The impossible has happened. Paramount has made a good, maybe even great, Transformers movie!
When the first live-action Tranformers movie was announced around 14 years ago I was hugely excited. After Star Wars, Transformers was my childhood obsession. I loved the toys and Marvel comic, and I have fond memories of the animated movie, though it doesn’t hold up that well when rewatching as an adult. I thought that a new Transformers movie would finally do justice to the characters on screen. Then I heard they hired Michael Bay to direct.
To be fair, that was before he went full-on Bay all the time. His previous movie, The Island, had actually been pretty decent despite being a box office flop, and I had hopes that Transformers would manage to at least have some sense of wonder thanks to Steven Spielberg’s involvement as producer.
The “boy and his car” story, clearly influenced by the animated show and comic from the 80s, was entertaining enough (I could even forgive them turning Bumblebee into a Camaro instead of a VW bug). But unfortunately, that was only the beginning of the movie, and once the rest of the Autobots join Bumblebee and Optimus Prime on Earth (in, admittedly, a nicely done scene) the movie became a mess of hideous robot designs, incomprehensible action, crude humour, sexism and military propaganda. How little interest Bay had in the title characters can be seen by his choice to cut away during Prime's legendary "one shall fall" speech at the climax.
The sequels, of course, were even more obnoxious. Revenge of the Fallen is the worst movie to make $400 million in the US, and the following sequels were a blur of female objectification, psychotic Optimus Prime killing everyone in sight, racist caricatures and increasingly ludicrous action.
So I wasn’t expecting much from a sixth(!) installment, but luckily Paramount and Hasbro decided to do a few smart things with Bumblebee. They replaced Bay as director with Travis Knight, who made the entertaining stop-motion film Kubo and the Two Strings. They centered the story on a teenage female protagonist, played by the wonderfully talented Hailee Steinfeld. And they dialed the exposition and OTT action way back, making it a coming of age story set in the 80s.
I knew I would like it right from the opening on Cybertron, which features clean action, old school boxy Transformers designs, and the Soundwave fans know and love. Once Bumblebee arrives on Earth, we’re soon introduced to a military man who wants to hunt him down (don’t they always?) played amusingly by John Cena, and then Charlie, a young woman who desperately needs a car. She fixes Bumblebee and discovers his secret. The two soon bond (though he doesn’t share her love for the Smiths) and try to evade the military and a couple of especially deceptive Decepticons.
The plot is light, with a few characters too thin for comfort (the mean girls that Charlie has to deal with don’t really add anything) but it gets the most important thing right, the emotional core between the main characters, so for the first time you give a shit when the big action set piece lands at the end.
We’ve seen this story done before, of course, in movies like E.T. and The Iron Giant. Bumblebee doesn’t quite reach that classic status, but it’s enjoyable from start to finish and the comedy won’t leave a bad taste in your mouth. Fun for people who grew up in the 80s and will appreciate all the references, as well as today’s kids. More of this, please.

Oh, and I also saw Mary Poppins Returns. It was an enjoyable, if overlong, sequel with an appealing cast. But nothing can top the Julie Andrews version, sorry.