It feels like things are in a transitional phase for the brand as a whole and Lorenzo's trying to put his foot on the door. The Bumblebee movie might be fine, despite his influence, but I feel bad supporting it, if it means supporting Lorenzo's crusade to keep his hands on the cow's titties for as long as possible. If things turn out the way he says, it's going to be really bleak. It's like he's holding the franchise hostage and even trying to cripple its future.

 

Indeed. I wish there was something we could do, (maybe a letter-writing campaign, but as far as I know that hasn't really been successful since Star Trek in the 60s) but for lack of better alternatives, I'll just have to hope Hasbro and Paramount know what they're doing, and will remove him along with the rest of the stuff they're upturning.

 

Well... There are always two things we can do. Excercise our consumer right to opt out of financially supporting this movie, out of principle, and express ourselves online.

 

Look, I understand the younger fans loving Murder Prime and Slaughterbee because that's what they grew up with, but they must understand that this type of movie, this type of characterization and the whole sitting on the couch gag is how the franchise started. Cheesy lines, silly ideas, crazy plots, and schemes, etc... All of it comes from G1 because that's how it was marketed. You couldn't sell toys and have the heroes be murderers. It was upbeat, cheery and no one ever really died because kids did NOT need to see that crap during their childhood.

Part of the problem with today's world is that people were exposed to the garbage they didn't need at that point in their lives.

They're returning Transformers to the original form, is all. There's nothing wrong with that. We tried it your way for a decade, now it's our turn. If it fails, it fails, but if it succeeds we could see a bright film future for our favorite bots.

 

I think people tend to forget how much silly stuff was in G1. A lot of people criticize things like this for being too 'cutesy' and not 'epic'. People forget that G1 had the Transformers doing plenty of trivial, everyday activities. Powerglide riding carousels, Grimlock wearing an apron, Optimus playing basketball. A lot of episodes start with the Transformers and humans doing a passtime, and then move into the adventure.

Transformers: Prime (frequently considered the "darkest" and "most serious" show) had a LOT of stuff just like this. Transformers watching TV with humans, helping kids with school projects, etc.

I really don't know why some fans want Transformers to be 'epic' all the time. I like seeing characters in action movies have downtime and preform trivial activities in normal settings. It makes them more relatable and reminds us that they're people (even if they're robot people from space). This is the reason why the Shire stuff in Lord of the Rings and the restaurant scene in the Avengers are such iconic moments. It's fun to watch characters just chill like real people.

 

My favorite scenes is still when Optimus and Cade are hanging out in the barn. And in the The Last Knight when Crosshairs is poking Hound's belly saying "No he's a chunky Autobot."

 

BUMBLEBEE: The E! True Hollywood Story

Bumblebee started out as a young star filled with innocence and exuberance.

He was cute and loved by kids around the world.

But soon fame went to the young autobots head. He sarted lashing out at his co-stars.

He would turn up on set strung out on robo-meth.

Bumblebee was soon fired for his obnoxious behavior.

When asked about Bumblee’s current state of mind, Optimus only had this to say before breaking down in tears, “I can’t help but feel I failed him. If only I could get him the help he needed. It’s Red Alert all over again. I’m sorry, I can’t....”

Destitute and alone, Bumblebee resorted to leaking on desperate old men for money.

Disappointing many of his biggest fans.

To this day, Bumblebee remains unemployed and working the corners for change. Hopelessly addicted to robo-meth.

 

Yeah, those are great moments. I love the entire junkyard sequence. I think it might be my favorite setting and vibe in any of the films. It's neat to just see all the Autobots chilling there, itching for any action they can get.

 

I like this.

 

Amen!

 

You say that like he's not simply a mouthpiece for internal talks as it is. That really all he's doing is relaying the marketing message that the higher ups are okaying already and telling him to say. Making him the easy mark for disdain, yet how much full creative control do you really think he has? Hasbro's calling the shots more and more on this, and Paramount's supporting it. Could it be that maybe Hasbro higher ups who are in charge of this and have seen the final product might see something in it and possibilities you don't?

Do you really think he'd be saying any of this if it wasn't already marked by the higher ups as okay to say? Especially if they got Cullen to randomly appear in the audience and make a quip about Optimus getting a prequel? I think you might be putting too much pressure on one person, not realizing that this is a bit more complicated than the name you see saying it. Are you sure you're even blaming the right person? It's called marketing for a reason.

 

That's alright. I'm often rude.
I was just reacting. Overreacting perhaps. My apologies.
I'm not convinced the action movie format is something Transformers needs to leave behind.
But it needs to be done in a more intelligent way. They need to put more effort into the story and the characters.
I have the same reservations about the Bee movie.
Obviously It's gonna bug me, because it's all about Bee again. Even though it makes sense to me to have him star in the movies.
But the way they are doing it seems to me that again they are putting little effort in the characters and the story and they are just copying the ET story instead of dreaming up something new.
I don't mind them aiming at drawing people in by making him cute if they put some thought into it. But they can't seem to come up with a good original story for this franchise.
And for the record, I wasn't too thrilled with the first movie either.
To me there's a lot of cringy things in it.
Messing production and product placement aside I still enjoyed the last two movies the best.
They weren't trying to be G1.
There was still dumb jokes, but they weren't as annoying to me as Sam's misadventures.
I thought Hopkins was hilarious. He should do more comedy.
I liked the human characters better.
But that's all personal.
I hope the Bee movie does well.
We need a new succes to capture the imagination of the public and of children.
But I'm not thrilled by what I've seen.

 

One thing both the original G1 franchise and the Bayformers franchise have in common is that they wanted to sell action figures. G1 heroes were not murderers, but the Decepticons? Boy was the G1 animated movie a hard watch at times. Killing off so many characters to simply clear the toy shelves of the old line, ready for the new. In fact you could say that this is the biggest area that both franchises differ. G1 massacred Autobots, whereas Bayformers massacre Decepticons.

Balance restored?

 

Could be the Shia Labeouf story....................unless that was the intention!

 

So many Decepticons have bitten the dust. They must be running out now. Looking forward to the next movie with Decepticon characters in it such as "Whats his name", "Deadsoon", and "Ah shit, I liked that one"

 

Nope.
Not intended, but now I know why it seemed so familiar.

Actually, that could be almost any celebrity.

 

I wouldn't say the balance is restored. Not by a long shot. You're right about Hasbro clearing house to make way for new product, but that's not all of G1. Up to that point, no one had died. We had favorite villains and heroes and it was all fun and silly. Kids and families were UPSET when all their favorite characters had been killed. That hadn't been done before. It wasn't normal. Critics didn't like it, the audience didn't like it and even some of the people behind the scenes didn't like it.

Bayverse on the other hand came out with guns blazing, literally, killing nearly everyone on screen in the opening sequence. We'd never seen Decepticons kill humans before. Was it realistic? Sure. Was it necessary? Yes/no. Yes because it was a war movie instead of a Transformers movie, no because it was supposed to be a Transformers movie.

You also have to remember, and people seem to have a terribly hard time grasping this and I don't know why, but the Bayverse is its own universe. It has ZERO to do with G1. It's an entirely new standalone universe made solely to make live action movies. All it did was borrow ideas from G1. They're not one and the same, however. So to say it balances out is not only incorrect, it just doesn't make sense.

All it is is Michael Bay having one of those ''Merica, f*ck yeah!" hard ons while promoting the military and using the name Transformers to sell it.

After TLK failed, it seems the writer and producers decided to borrow more than just ideas and elements from G1, now they're borrowing the heart of it.

Perhaps people are tired of seeing "Transformers: Bucket Of Blood Part 7 - Brick Killed A Guy!" It just doesn't work anymore, it never really worked.

 

Well something has to change. Does it make sense when I say that I want to be proud of these movies? Whenever I explain to people that I am a Transformers fan, I feel I have to broaden this statement by adding "not the movies". You see to me they are not Transformers cannon in the truest sense. They could be any movie. They just happen to have transforming robots in them.

By saying "balance restored" I am not for a minute saying that it definitely is the case. It just amused me that one cannon killed off a number of Autobots whilst the other killed off a larger bunch of Decepticons. For us every Decepticon or Autobot has a characteristic. They are individuals. I have always had a tremendous difficulty in seeing well known named Decepticons treated like henchman from a John Wick movie. No character build. Killed so easily. Just a number. Do you know what I mean? Shockwave and Soundwave are perfect examples of this. These two are powerhouses in the world of the Transformers G1 continuity. But not in these movies. Only Megatron and Starscream have had any kind of character build. But nothing new here either! They are archetypal bad guys.

The Bumblebee movie is a last chance to save this movie franchise, at least critically speaking. No one can argue that these films don't make the money. They clearly do. Especially in the Chinese market. But can we please have a Transformers movie that is critically well received as well? The guys behind the latest Mission Impossible film have just released they're best most well received movie as far as critics are concerned. It has a great story and great action scenes. My dream is that a Transformers movie can do the same. Might be dreaming, but that is the dream.

 

I love things like this. I know lots of people hate how complex and disjointed these designs look but I love it. I love how all the small pieces shift and move around each other perfectly. It reminds me of how complex the human body is yet every bone and muscle and organ works together in perfect harmony. It really gives a sense that these guys really are living beings. I know Bee is going for a slightly simpler design in the new movie but I hope they don't just completely abandon little details like the pistons moving in his abdomen or the gear spinning in his shoulder in this gif. It's part of what made these guys really believable for me back when I was a little bit younger and these movies first started coming out. It's part of the magic.

Sorry for the long unrelated comment. Wow Bee is sitting on a couch. Such cute, very wow. Wonder how the couch isnt breaking?

 

It also had that suicide squad intro for all the decepticons that was ridiculous awkward and horribly out of place.