Travis Knight’s joyful 2018 children’s fantasy by way of sci-fi adventure film, “Bumblebee,” was a breath of fresh air for the live-action “Transformers” movies.
It also marked a triumphant return to the Spielbergian formula of Michael Bay’s original 2007 film (i.e.
a human befriends the lovable puppy dog in Autobot form known as Bumblebee), minus the, well, Bay-isms that make it difficult to give that first movie a full-throated recommendation.Sadly, nearly a decade of Bay-directed “Transformers” sequels ranging from okay-ish (“Dark of the Moon”) to actively terrible (basically the rest of them) had taken its toll on audience interest by that point, resulting in “Bumblebee” becoming the lowest-grossing live-action entry in the franchise to date.
As such, the movie’s incoming sequel, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” is tasked with having to further rejuvenate the property while at the same time finding a way to progress its overarching narrative…
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