Bumblebee 2018 ***

How about a film about a towering yellow robot learning to love The Smiths? That might sound great, but Bumblebee is also a Transformers movie, so you have to sit through a lot of rubbish about Autobots and Decepticons to get to the funny bits. This is the first modern Transformers movie without Michael Bay directing, and they’ve clearly rethought the running time (not three hours long!), the usual sexism, racism and massive dumps of exposition are missing (a female writer!), and the whole film is more of a throwback towards 80’s movies like ET or Mac and Me. Pop star Hailie Steinfeld is the lucky girl who buys a VW Beetle from a scrapyard only to find it has magical powers like Herbie. It’s an Autobot on the run from Decepticons, two muscle cars which also transform into huge robots. Wrestler John Cena leads the army forces trying to get in the way of the big robot battle. Bumblebee is a cute film, not as loud or bombastic as the other Transfomers movies, and actually kind of small and charming in comparison. 80’s music is slathered on, complete with pop-culture references to ALF, The Breakfast Club and somehow, The Smiths.