Optimus Prime’s Mission for ‘Bumblebee’ Revealed in New Trailer for Transformers Spinoff (VIDEO)

I don't know what it is about movies where automobiles turn into killer robots that people seem to go nuts over, but the next Transformers movie is a prequel focused on fan favorite character Bumblebee. The film is being directed by Kubo and the Two Strings helmer Travis Knight, which gives me a modicum of hope it won't be another Michael Bay-sized sensory overload disaster.

The film's logline, however, doesn't inspire the same sort of hope, sounding more like a girl and her dog movie where the dog is a giant Volkswagen bug that turns into a 20 foot tall murder machine...

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken.  When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.

It also doesn't help that the film's script is being written by Christina Hodson, whose only two produced screenplays were for last year's Unforgettable—about a murderous Katherine Heigl—and 2016's Shut In, where Naomi Watts is trapped in a bathtub, or something. I'm all for diversifying the boys club that is the screenwriting world, but maybe go for a screenwriter with at least one decent credit to her name.

Bumblebee opens on December 21 where it will face-off against Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, and Holmes & Watson.