I’ve studiously avoided all of the Transformers films since the very first one, and indeed looking it up, that means I haven’t seen one in ten years. I decided to give this prequel a chance as it was not directed by Michael Bay and I quite like the idea of a smaller scale film featuring just Bumblebee. Unfortunately while this is definitely better than Bay’s own work for many reasons, it’s still recognizably the same type of action movie and that means I cannot in good conscience call it a good film.

A lone Autobot scout escapes from the losing war on Cybertron and arrives on Earth in the 1980s. He at first crash lands on top of a US military training ground, alerting the government to the existence of extraterrestrial giant robots and is injured by a Decepticon which causes him to lose the ability to speak. He eventually ends up in a junkyard disguised as a Volkswagen beetle where he is found by teenager Charlie Watson. She is still grieving the death of her father and is upset that the rest of her family has moved on and her mother even has a new live-in boyfriend. A hobbyist mechanic, she acquires the Beetle and tries to fix it up only to discover that it is an Autobot. She names him Bumblebee and they become friends but this also sends a signal to pursuing Decepticons who promptly come to Earth. The two Decepticons are met by US authorities but manage to convince them they are in pursuit of a criminal from their own world and obtain their cooperation.

It has been so long since I watched that very first Michael Bay Transformers that my memories are unreliable, but my first impressions of this is that it looks so much better. The designs of the Transformers are cleaner here so they look more recognizably like those from the original cartoon and most importantly even in the middle of a big fight, you can actually follow the action and see what they’re doing. Bay’s version always looked so busy and chaotic to me that you can’t even tell who is who much of the time. It’s notable that even my wife who isn’t actually a fan of the original cartoon can recognize an iconic transformation from the cartoon in this version. In line with that, they went to a lot of effort to give relatable expressions to the faces of these robots. Giving Bumblebee puppy-dog eyes is probably overdoing it but it does work in allowing him to emote effectively and so act as a real character opposite Charlie. On top of all that, this is just a more tonally pleasant, wholesome film that significantly cuts back on the military fetishism. From what I understand this back to basics approach and straightforward plot also retcons most of the ridiculous plot contortions introduced in the later parts of the previous series.

Unfortunately even as it fixes these longstanding problems of the franchise, it still makes plenty of other mistakes. Bumblebee is supposed to be an underdog but he ends up defeating multiple Decepticons in combat pretty much on his own. He keeps being hit and tossed about, which looks awful at first, but then you realize that he never takes any lasting damage. No matter how many times he is punched by giant robot fists, his car form never has so much as a single dent, punctured tire or broken window. He can take a shot at point blank range to his head and then be fine moments later. It feels like the fighting has zero stakes and so doesn’t matter at all, except when it suddenly does when Bumblebee can suddenly wreck an enemy Decepticon in a single move. You can also tell that the script struggles to find ways to have Charlie to contribute meaningfully during fights and just can’t come up with anything plausible. It seems to me that as easy fix would be to actually have Bumblebee be seriously damaged after fights so that Charlie can help patch him up with her mechanic skills. But that appears to be too grim and serious for this film’s producers.

All things considered, I would agree with other commentators that this is probably the best Transformers film and Travis Knight proves that he has the technical skills to match Michael Bay. Impressive for someone who has previously worked only on animated films. Yet this is a very low bar to clear and this film still holds back far too much to be an effective action movie. The best that can be said is that it has a good heart and shows love for the original cartoon where Bay’s attitude seemed dismissive of it so old fans might get something out of this.