Having seen the original Bayformers movies, I didn't really have high hopes for this one, even though I'd heard good things, but right out of the gate it impressed me by looking about what you'd hope the transformers would look in 'live action'. I was never really big into the show—or any of the franchise entries since, save for enjoying Beast Wars—but seeing how close they look and how cool they are is really exciting for anyone who has ever been the kind of child who enjoys big robot toys being smashed into each other. There aren't that many big robot fights, since the story is mostly about Bumblebee, but where it does have them the movie does a really good job of making them interesting. These are some really agile giant robots. They do flips, throw each other around, and they have kicks and joint locks. And thanks to the fact that they aren't all made of nothing but grey spikes and chrome, you can actually tell what's going on. I'd love to see more fight choreography like this in movies with actual humanoid people doing it. But you can see the creativity inherent in having giant shapeshifting robots punching at each other as well, like scenes where Dropkick and Shatter swap between all three of their modes in a fight.
The movie itself has that same "kid and a dog" vibe that a lot of alien movies have, and I really love it. Bumblebee gets his memory erased and his voice removed at the beginning of the movie, which has big "No parents? Han... Solo" vibes to get him into the status quo he has from the original Bayformers movie that this is ostensibly a prequel to. But Bumblebee is a cute dog, and I only felt a little irritated at Charlie's reactions to him destroying things after being left alone. And I'm definitely curious what kind of insurance policy might fix their house.
The friendship between Charlie and Memo is also nice. They don't really get all that much screentime to justify a relationship proper, but Charlie is clear that she's not quite ready to be in one, either, which is nice to see.
There's also payoffs of both her spunky quirky "hey this girl knows cars, that's not a girl thing!", which comes in handy throughout and doesn't just feel like a thing to make her seem cool, and also her trauma at her high diving, which was the last time she ever saw her dad. I do think that there could have been a little more with the parents. They came to her rescue, sure, but their scenes are practically bludgeoning the audience with how out of touch they are. The mom gives her a bike helmet in a style that clearly doesn't fit her and her step dad gives her a book on how she should smile more. That's pretty horrible. The movie also has a few really good eighties bullies. Like what the hell were people on in the eighties? The mean girl makes fun of her dead dad and I think Charlie should have legally been allowed to throat punch her.
All in all, it's a fun movie. It's not great, but I don't really think it has to be or should be. It's exactly the kind of thing that a lot of older millennials and young Gen Xers wanted when they heard their toy commercial was getting a big budget live action movie. It doesn't necessarily have the time to grow on the audience like a dozen episodes after school might, but I'm betting that it's got more depth than the real thing, so that's nice.
I'm actually kind of looking forward to seeing the sequel. I have no real memories of Beast Wars other than that it existed, but I am programmed to enjoy things that I'm familiar with. And if it's as good as this one, that'll be exciting.
I think the next Transformers movie should have a 55 year old Charlie reuinite with Bumblebee. The most frustrating part of this is that she can't stick with him and keep having adventures because this is just a prequel and things need to make it to the Status Quo.