At least he was never named on screen as Blitzwing, that helped!

Charlie is the best actor (so far) to be in a Transformers movie, period!

Spielberg is the one who basically posed the entire concept played out in Bumblebee, he's also a producer for all the TF films, so I'm pretty sure all these elements were on purpose and done with his blessing!

 

I saw it for the early screening. I cried.

Man tears.

Of joy.

After 10 years of taking disrespect from other fandoms for their franchises getting good adaptations (They even managed to make Power Rangers relatively legit)....I felt it disappear. We finally have a respectable live-action adaptation!

As a fan, I loved it. My trying-to-understand-my-passion girlfriend and spoiled-by-Marvel best friends all thoroughly enjoyed it. There was deep G1 fanservice, yes...but it didn't overshadow the film. The G1 moments were almost like Knight saying, "Here's a reward for hanging in there."

The moment that really stood out to me was how they handled cannon fodder for Prime to beat up on. They didn't go the route of creating dynamic characters just to off them like in the Bay movies. They used the pale pastel grey-and-purple seekers like from the early days of the G1 cartoon. And despite the purple, when Skywarp was on-screen, you could see the difference between he and the generics.

It did a good job of toeing the line between reboot and prequel for me throughout the movie. But as it was winding down, and I began to realize just how game-changing this movie was, I began to worry. "Please be a reboot. Please be a reboot." Then Bee adopted his Camaro mode and I thought, "Well that makes sense, since his VW mode was now compromised...a good callback I guess." Then he crosses the Golden Gate bridge and pulls alongside a familiar red rig. "OMG. Please talk. TALK. LET ME HEAR CULLEN'S VOICE." Silence. I slumped. "Damn. Ah well. At least it's a bright spot in the Bay timeline." Then the scene of two old comrades strolling through the forest. Return of the man-tears. "PRIME'S ON EARTH! REINFORCEMENTS! YES!"

I have been advocating for people to see this movie since the second I left the theater.
"Go see Bumblebee!"
"Meh. I've gotten tired of the Transformers movies. Too loud and obnoxious."
"This is SO different. [insert fanboy ramble here]"
"Okay I'll give it a shot."

Even accounting for my fanboy bias, I loved this movie.

 

I agree with all that, I watched it today and this film gave what we wanted, but also what we deserved. I really hope it is a reboot aswell and I loved it when Bee and Prime were watching the other Autobots come to Earth. It must be a reboot!

 

Just seen Bumblebee and I think it is a great film.
I liked Transformers the movie, hated ROTF & DOTM and didn’t even bother watching AOE or TLK.
Re Bumblebee even if it didn’t star Transformers, it was well acted with a good story and brilliant direction.
9 out of 10 from me.

 

Saw it tonight! Not gonna write a massive essay just going to say I loved it.

I’m still a huge Bay fan, and this delivered on everything, it was like a love letter to not just Bayverse, and G1, but I got a very Transformers Prime feel from it as well.

Do I think it’s a reboot? Not sure, it all remains to be seen. You can certainly make it fit with the first trilogy, but if it’s a success I could see them using it as a starting point. I’m ok with either!

It was a magical movie, and Knight is a fantastic director with his own unique style.

 

Just curious - those who saw the movie today/yesterday - where are you from?

 

Ok, so I didn't dislike the movie, but I wasn't blown away either. Even as someone who's enjoyed the Bay movies for what they are, albeit with an acute awareness of their shortcomings, I know the movies need something fresh and new. I'm just not sure that Bumblebee was it.

It doesn't feel feel like one thing or the other; it has elements that point to it being a prequel to the Bay movies, but then other things that clearly made it not fit exactly into that timeline or visual style.

People have always complained about the amount of human screentime and sub plots, and honestly, I can't say that it's a lot different in this one. It felt more like Charlie's story than Bumblebee's, despite his presence throughout the movie. There were a lot of parallels, with TF2007, the obvious one being the lead human acquiring Bumblebee as their car, though under different circumstances. Then there's the confrontation with the cool kids at a large gathering. I found it notable that there were three scenes of guys taking off their shirts ; perhaps they were a tongue in cheek response to the treatment of women as sex objects in the previous movies (though I have to say I actually found a lot of the female characters stronger than the males despite the way they were presented visually), but they still felt unnecessary other than the diving scene.

The two main Decepticons, while they had many scenes and lines, just didn't do it for me. I was really open for them to be the best villains so far, but they were still pretty one-dimensional. The triple-changer thing wasn't really worth it. They both worked pretty well just as car-formers and there was no mention of whether triple changing is special ability they have or why nd how they're able to take on two alt modes simultaneously while Bumblebee can only have one at a time.

Then there's the clash of aesthetics. The Decepticons, for the most part, looked like decent movieverse updates of G1, but apart from Optimus and Bumblebee, the Autobots looked way too cartoonish, especially the non-mechanical movement of the mouths when talking. Cliffjumper definitely looked out of place with Shatter and Dropkick.

It's not a bad film, and though it's different from what's come before, I don't know that it's really better. It certainly didn't feel more like a Transformers movie than 1-5 do. Will it do ok? Probably. Will it be a turning point in the franchise? I don't know that it will.

 

I nearly cried too! Many times! It was just a really well done movie overall. Thank you for sharing this!!! I'm glad someone else got the same reaction as me

 

"conservative and coherent" was probably the smartest thing to do, and is very "fresh and new" compared to the utter mess left behind after the "5 bayses of darkness"

That was made very clear in all promotional material... also, for once, the human plots and sub plots are coherent and actually come to a resolution at the end of the movie... every character resembles an actual human being that exists in reality... unfathomable!!! Hurrah!

it was very refreshing that this was actually a family movie and free of perverted and inappropriate subtext, and even though there was a tiny degree of "girl power" it wasn't as nauseating and agenda driven as a lot of crap out these days

they actually had clear motivations, clear definable personality traits that they stuck to... what else were they supposed to do to become more 3-dimensional? was this achieved in another TF live action movie that i'm unaware of?

it would have been nice to explain that, but then again, there is about 1000 things in the bayverse that would have been nice to explain, that never have been...

i thought the scene with cliffjumper was one of the most beautiful. that ringed planet in the background was awesome in context with that brutal interrogation scene. as for clashing aesthetics, why is there suddenly a rule on how robots should look, when bay has been hellbent on breaking them for the past 10 years? i think this on-screen compromise was actually a very fair decision, and showed us that some aspects of the bay aesthetic can actually work with a bit more care put into a script and characterization

 

Ok, yeah, reading that back it comes across way more negatively than I meant. Probably doesn't help writing it at the end of a long day. Like I say, it's not a bad film, but it's not one I'll be in a great hurry to watch again either.

 

Oh okay, fair enough! I hope I wasn't too catty in my response either, I just really liked it!

 

My friend who i went with, who doesn't really care for TF, said this is definitely the best film out of the bunch, even he got giddy at the Cybertron scenes, Soundwave ejecting Ravage was a thing of beauty, i only wish we saw Lazerbeak also.

My one and only complaint, i wish the cons got named onscreen. I had to tell my friend who each con was (the ones on earth) Even if Bee had just shouted "It's Blitzwing"! when he was coming in on him would of been fine. Plenty of moments for Shatter and Dropkick to throw in there names and they just didn't. Minor annoyance i know but come on -.-

Nearly cried at seeing Bee driving by the red truck at the end, it was a thing of beauty.

Really hope this kicks off a reboot. Paramount and Hasbro would be wise to try their damn hardest getting Travis back. I know he said this was his one and only TF film but damn, for his first LA film he nailed it.

Also, forgot to add, did i hear Corey Burton as Shockwave or did they just happen to find a very good imitation?

 

Jon Bailey (Honest Trailer guy) did Soundwave & Shockwave voice.

 

In that case Spielberg is 100% allowed.

I hear what your saying but this is "inspired" by ET to the point of being too slavish to it. Anyways they already did the whole teenager gets a car that happens to be BB/the military is dumb thing back in 2007. Something half way original would be nice.

 

People have found silver-human-faces used in CGI characters creepy for far longer than 10 years. Cliffjump's face is creepier and reads worse than any other face because it's too human. He honestly looked as creepy as Drift does in AOE.

 

It’s not even a rip off or inspired by or any of that.

It’s a genre. Any movie where a kid gets a secret friend & they have an adventure fits this genre. Toss in “Flight of the Navigator,” “DARYL,” “The Cat From Outer Space,” Cloak & Dagger, ECHO (for a more recent example) & so on.

I don’t know what this particular genre is called. It’s usually shuffled into the sci-fi or family categories. But it has enough movies & enough similarities among those movies to be its own little subset within the genre.

 

Yeah. So Knight did a family friendly movie using a family friendly trope/genre about a family friendly character.

Oh the shock, oh the outrage!

 

Without a doubt , my new favourite movie ever .

The cybertron scenes looked incredible ( with the highlight being the Soundwave launching Ravage scene ) .

Bee ( who has never really been my favourite character ) was completely adorable and his relationship with Charlie was genuinely moving at times .... i was actually quite choked up at the end .

The fights and action scenes were well done and i could always tell who was who and what was happening .

Optimus Prime has never looked so good .

10/10 or higher .

... nearly forgot . Even the end credits look fantastic . The art work of the characters looks fresh and bright , also Hailee's song fits it perfectly as both her and Travis have brought Transformers movies back to life .

 

I’m sorry but you are seriously ******ed for thinking a movie titled BUMBLEBEE would be about the other transformers or the war on cybertron.

 

It's time...


I'll update this post in 2 hours with my thoughts on the film!

Edit: I liked it! A lot!

Not gonna lie though, I think I had my expectations a little too high. Seeing all the G1 fanservice in the trailers and the first 15 minutes gave me a giddy high. I mean, I knew going in that it would only be a small part of the movie, but still, as a fan it was hard not to get hyped. I mean, this movie had Transformers that look like Transformers! Watching that Cybertron scene in the theatre was downright cathartic. I felt like I had been waiting my entire life for this. Part of me still finds it hard to believe that was real. I feel like I hallucinated it.

I joke a lot, but I'm being serious when I say that Transformers is significant to me in a way no other fictional franchise is. I've been a fan of this franchise for as long as I can remember (something which I admittedly owe to Micheal Bay) and in a weird way I feel like everything I've ever done has lead up to this. I don't think anything ever will ever match the sheer joy I had during the first 15 minutes.

And that's honestly the biggest problem with this movie: that the opening scene is so good that the rest of the movie simply couldn't live up to. Yeah, everything about the movie was solid, the performances, effects, and all that were all great, and I have virtually nothing bad to say about them... but at the same time I can't really bring myself to talk about the rest of the movie because of how amazing those Cybertron scenes were. It's just like with Rogue One and how everyone was jerking off to the Darth Vader scenes. Were they amazing? Yes. Were they pandering fanservice that served to distract from the rest of the movie? Also yes.

Maybe someone who wasn't as big a TF fan as I am would have more to comment about the actual movie. I think I'll need to see it again to decide how I feel, and not when I'm going full fanboy.

All that said it's still a great movie, and definitely what this series needed after TLK. I'll gladly see it again.

Also, kudos for finding a way to have The Touch in there without it being cringy... and kudos to everyone in the audience who actually recognised the song!