There's absolutely no need to get personal like that. Disagree with his review, by all means, but c'mon. That's crappy, dude.

 

Some of my thoughts on the movie, trying to give it a fair, honest assessment.

TL;DR; 7/10. Knight made the best movie he could, given the circumstances of it's production and conceptual problems. It succeeds at what it attempts, but the parts that I truly love are a small part of the overall film, and I can't shake the feeling that with a clean slate, it could have been greater.

*I'll start with the most positive. Every scene with Transformer interaction is pure gold. The Last Stand on Cybertron is a beautiful glimpse at what the movies should have been like to begin with. I love the music, the emotional tone, the robot design aesthetic, the voice acting, the fight choreography, it all blends together wonderfully. I could gush over it for several more paragraphs. I hope that Bumblebee is a success so that we can get more of this in future movies, and I hope Knight remains involved to help that along.

*Shatter and Dropkick were a really cool villain team, their presence helped mitigate the movie's biggest flaws (I'll get to it) and every scene with them was entertaining to watch. It seemed like whenever I was beginning to lose my patience with a Charlie scene, the focus would switch over to the Decepticons, which I appreciated a lot. Their involvement goes a long way in earning the movie a solid 7.

*Charlie is....okay. She's the best Live Action TF protagonist by a mile, but this isn't high praise because the previous two were lunatics. I'd say her character is very average. There's no element of her that strikes me as distasteful or irritating, but at the same time she's not very unique or engaging. Charlie's story arc is something that you've seen in every other "kid loses a parent and goes on adventure with alien/robot/magical animal thing". It comes off as feeling "stock" and insincere, unlike the pain and loss felt by Kubo in another Knight film.

But I realize that I'm critiquing this movie as a grown man while the intended audience is 8-10, so I'm not going to give it too much shit for that. However I do think the "been there, done that" feeling will hurt this movie's rewatch value and

Spoiler

Bumblebee leaving her behind to join Optimus, without any indication we'll ever see her again gives the movie an unpleasant "anime filler episode" vibe.

You can't help but wonder what the benefit was to spending so much time with her character, if it's ultimately irrelevant to the larger conflict.

*So now we get to Bumblebee, the title character, and I have to get into my biggest issue with the film. All the stuff with him on Cybertron, then landing on Earth and having to contend with angry army guys and then a Decepticon Seeker, I loved all that. The voice was perfect and his witty, yet natural one liners gave me a big smile. For once, a battle sequence involving movie Bumblebee is truly engaging because his opponent is formidable and not easily defeated. Bumblebee suffers some serious pain and the threat of death feels genuine. Knight takes some aspects of the Bayformers and improves on them, for example

Spoiler

Bumblebee still performs fatalities on Decepticons, but note that every single one of these requires some outside element that he takes advantage of. His greatest asset in battle is his resourcefulness, not tearing enemies apart with overwhelming firepower and brute force, as if he were the Doomguy.

The problem comes after the Blitzwing fight. He loses both his voice and his memory, and so this great character that's built up in the first 15 minutes is effectively gone. The Bumblebee that we spend the majority of the film with, makes me think of a big metal baby that just reacts to things going on around him, and Charlie is attempting to keep him out of trouble (or getting him into trouble.) He is more expressive than previous films and feels more consistent in his personality, but we still only get a vague notion of what he's thinking or feeling most of the time.

The thing that makes Transformers truly interesting is the conflict between good and evil robots. This movie puts that to the back-burner, with the exception of Shatter/Dropkick's scenes. The majority of Bumblebee feels more like an attempt at re-making the Iron Giant rather than a full-fledged Transformers movie, and I suspect this was the main idea for the production before Knight was even involved, and he just had to work with it.

I'm not saying that the movie is bad for not having robots punching each other every 5 minutes, but the loss of memory/speech takes away most of Bumblebee's character and I felt robbed the movie of a lot of potential to distinguish itself from Iron Giant. For instance, if Bee was able to tell Charlie about Cybertron and who he really was, I think it would have helped a lot. Like when the topic of her dead father brought up, he could have mentioned that he had lost of dozens of close friends in the war. It would reveal to Charlie there is a gigantic world outside of her own personal conflicts,

Spoiler

and inspire her to have courage in disabling the Decepticon transmitter at the end.

As it is, the Charlie/Bee scenes feels disconnected from the larger story, and lacking in a purpose driving them forward. When Charlie's brother is saying something stupid, I couldn't help but think "I wonder what Wheeljack is up to right now."

Though I would say that the movie overall has good pacing and satisfying progression of events, But I have concerns about Paramount taking the wrong lessons from this movie. Like attributing the small scale and lone Autobot/human shenanigans to a "successful formula" and trying to replicate that over and over, instead of progressing with the story the way Knight clearly intended. I really want to see an ensemble film following this and not "Bumblebee 2: Because Money."

Spoiler

Nitpick: Reformatting into the Camaro in the ending scene kinda ruins the effect, it would have been a lot more meaningful and gratifying to see the VW drive off with Prime. It reminds me of Hayden Christensen's face being transplanted on the end scene in Return of the Jedi. Again, I don't really blame Knight as I suspect this aspect of the movie was decided early in production.

Though I must admit, Optimus Prime driving through the Golden Gate Bridge while "Don't You Forget About Me" plays, is a strange combination that works way better on-screen than you would assume.

 

8/10 for me.

I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Loved Bee's portrayal and evolution along with Charlie.

Only thing that ruined it for me were the G1 designs. They just didn't look believable and detracted from the show.

Had they gone with a Bayverse/Knightverse hybrid ala Bumblebee or Blitzwing for the Cybertron scenes, it would have been an almost perfect Transformers movie for me.

 

Not been on here for a little while. After The Last Knight, I almost lost all hope with these films. After being burned so many times, I decided to stop hyping myself up. Bay never seemed to learn and the films continued to be poor.

With that out of the way, I'm glad I can finally say that Bumblebee is fantastic! The action, characters, and story are all wonderful! Those Cybertron scenes in particular are just phenomenal, they almost brought a tear to my eye.

I really hope this does well at the box office so Paramount can move forward with more films like this!

8/10

 

This is a great article!

 

Glad to hear that critics finally like a Transformer movie. Now I hope that the movie will do well too financially, not only critically

 

"Bumblebee was a great time, no alcohol required"

 

Well, this one was better than the previous six movies combined.

It's better than 86.

I can't believe I just wrote that.

I also agree with the poster that those few scenes set on cybertron are what we should have had from the get-go. The way they handled Optimus was downright fantastic.

That scene at the end was pretty good too. HE'S FINALLY A FREIGHTLINER.

This movie can kind of serve as a springboard to an entirely new direction or as a piece of Bay's movies. It really works either way. On the other hand, It does have come stuff contradicting previous films (namely TLK), but I think it still fits in with that universe pretty seamlessly.

 

Saw this movie today. A Sneak Preview showing so I am not sure if anything was cut for time.

I easily give this movie 8/10. Its unfortunately 11 years too late but its better late than never. Now, while I loved the movie, I can't give it a 10 because I am pretending to be a hard-ass reviewer who has to be hard to impress, comparing a movie like Bumblebee to something along the lines of Amistad, Moonlight or The Ten Commandments because of reasons. Also my burgeoning Youtube channel needs a clickbaity negative review to get views and subs.

But in all seriousness, here is what I loved about the movie:

- Its a love letter to people who grew up in the 80s. This movie was 80s as heck and I loved it.
- The opening was actually a decent prologue to set the tone of a series of movies down the pipeline. Admitted the CGI looks a bit cartoony probably because there is very little real world background to contrast against but hey, I liked it.
- Hailee Steinfeld. She is a very very good young actress. She brings a lot of emotion to the role of Charlie.
- The fight scenes are pretty epic and actually well drawn out. Ok, maybe Bumblebee comes off a little too OP but I like the whole cunning vs power match up he has with most of the villains.
- The Villains. Shatter in particular. Angela Basset has a heck of a voice. I loved her as Superwoman in Crisis on 2 Earths (which reminds me...James Woods as Shockwave?). Its pretty black and white hero vs villain but its STILL a step up from whatever we had previously. Well, Lockdown was good but alas.
- The Humans. Yes, I know, usually this is a very sore point of contention. But because the script is decent and Steinfeld's delivery is so remarkable, I actually enjoyed the short snippets of Charlie's family.
- John F***king Cena. I'm a wrestling mark. Sue me.

Here is what I hated about the movie. Okay, hate is a strong word. But what I think cut have been done a little better:
- The Saga of Charlie does feel like something more akin to teenage tribulations I'd see on a show like Degrassi. Its not terrible, it gives more background to her character. But did I really need to see so much? Dunno. I think I'm more on the fence on this issue.
- The Villains. See above. I loved the villains, specifically Shatter. Unfortunately...they have a case of Marvel Movie Syndrome...if you get the reference.
- Otis. Well...Yeah. Otis. But hey, that's why he was cast.
- The ending was a bit too tidy. But I think with the cluster that was the ending of TLK, maybe that's a good thing.

I loved the Simmons cameo. That's at least one soft connection to the original movies.

Like I said, maybe its 11 years too late. Maybe its TOO GEEWUN for a generation of fans whom enjoyed the Bay era, and rightfully so because while those movies weren't much in terms of substance, they had FLASH. And then some.

 

Bumblebee is surprisingly serviceable

 

I read this in Shockwave’s G1 voice. Lmao.

 

On this board it's going to cost you dearly...

 

Ugh. This one hurt my soul. Not because it's ultimately a negative review, which is fine, but that the reviewer is an absolute moron asking for the impossible.

The entire review is summed up as thus:

No joke, that's how the review ends. That's absolute stupidity. The majority of the review was "Hey, this is not too bad! I really, really love Hailee Steinfeld in this, she's amazing talking to a tennis ball! Oh, Bumblebee's okay, I guess. This was a pretty alright flick, shame it's about the Transformer Bumblebee in his own titled film. I mean, f*!@ that guy and the franchise. I wish it was another film even though it's this one. THREE STARS!"

What a friggin' moron. That's like saying "I want to hold my breath but be able to breathe at the same time." FFS, people are driving me nuts with this movie. Some of the reviews have been TOO gushy, and let's face it, it's not a perfect movie, but these negative reviews (such as Angry Joe) and this backhanded compliment giving moron above are just the absolute worst because they're nonsensical garbage. *smh*

And don't think I didn't notice how the reviewer is throwing shade while being incapable of proofreading their own work before publishing it. What a toolbag.

 

FWIW, it is now officially "Fresh" on RT.

 

It’s not “certified fresh”. It is fresh, the certified fresh is just an extra criteria. It becomes certified fresh once 80 critics have reviewed it and at least 10 of them are top critics.

EDIT: It actually just crossed certified fresh today! It is certified fresh.

 

That was why I posted, yes.

 

My bad, I read it as "not," instead of "now" hehe sorry

 

No worries mate