Continuing my Transformers series watchathon:
Bumblebee - 8/10
Absolutely loved this. Such a refreshing change from the typical mess of a franchise.
It's a teenager befriends an autobot movie set in 1987. Hailee Steinfield absolutely shines is this, and her friendly nerd friend is good. John Cena is there to try and portray a dumb, yank commander and does an amicable job too. It is a fun movie that doesn't go overboard with an angsty teenager for once, and just focuses on relationships with her and Bumblebee, her family and said nerd.
Being set in 1987 meant a very low reliance on tech ie mobile phones etc and the era just made the film a lot more enjoyable for me.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - 6.5/10
This was a strange film. Mirage was hilarious and Optimus was a grumpy old fart. The intro made my jaw drop. I'd been waiting since Transformers - The Movie to see Unicron come alive.
"Dude, you were inside of me" from Mirage literally made me burst out with laughter, not done that in a while and the line delivery was perfect. The film didn't really do much of a job of showing us the full potential of the Maximals though, hell the Cheetah and Rhino maximals have a single line between them. The main human character has a lot of cringey moments, especially with his brother - I ended up fast forwarding those bits as they add nothing to the film.
Overally Mirage steals the show in this film, though a superb LL Cool J track for Bumblebee at some point in the film was awesome.
Finally, this watchathon can end!