Is “Bumblebee” a reboot or sequel? SPOILER warning!

Discussion in 'Transformers Movie Discussion' started by Prime135, Dec 10, 2018.

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Reboot or prequel

  1. Reboot

    171 vote(s)
    85.9%
  2. Prequel

    28 vote(s)
    14.1%
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  1. WarLordFoxxy

    WarLordFoxxy Banned

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    They just in denial and want their head canon to be reality. Its laughable how desperate they are. It can go either way they're just so close minded .
     
  2. RazorX3000

    RazorX3000 Cybertronian Monkey

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    One question I always had was what do Paramount & co. have to gain from it being a prequel? Like what’s the point if they never actually do a sequel to The Last Knight and properly end Bayverse’s story? Even if they do that, wouldn’t it be franchise suicide to continuously remind people of the Bay films? If the next big transformers movie is a continuation of the Bayverse or even if it takes place before TF1 but has a ton of things connecting it (like if they actually show Megatron frozen or if the villains are barricade and blackout or something) then a lot of people will be disappointed and may not even see the movie solely because they think it’s more of “Bay’s crap”. Sorry for the long post but I just don’t see what they have to gain from making bumblebee a prequel.
     
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  3. RazorX3000

    RazorX3000 Cybertronian Monkey

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    I agree. Some people are oblivious to how they set it up to go either way. Clearly they put in some connections to the bayverse but also added things (like optimus and the bots’ arrival decades early) if they want to reboot.
     
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  4. WarLordFoxxy

    WarLordFoxxy Banned

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    Well, if you look at the BO numbers of TF1 - 5, they will be far better than that of Bumblebee. If Bumblebee can't make enough money, it'd be ideal to do back to the old style of Bay's films because that is clearly what the general audience wants (I'm not referring to you geewunners on here I mean real movie goers who aren't just G1 fans). TLK is an outlier to the other four films. It was also so different from the first four. That explains the TLK BO disappointment. But, if they go back to the style of TF 1 and TF3 (at the least) then they'd see better BO numbers. Critic reviews don't mean squat.
     
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  5. Rumblestorm

    Rumblestorm Well-Known Member

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    Oh I saw it.
    They were just very poor minor points to back up the prequel claim. 3 or 4 minor call-backs don't stand a chance against the major points that back up the reboot claim.
     
  6. Rumblestorm

    Rumblestorm Well-Known Member

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    Well, sorry we can't ignore the massive continuity reboot that practically makes up the whole film. Sorry that the blatantly obvious evidence points to "reboot", its not like we ourselves wrote it.
     
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  7. WarLordFoxxy

    WarLordFoxxy Banned

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    Awww how adorable. Look at this one
     
  8. Rumblestorm

    Rumblestorm Well-Known Member

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    2ps54m.jpg
     
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  9. RazorX3000

    RazorX3000 Cybertronian Monkey

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    Unfortunately I don’t think the box office numbers will improve if they go back to the Bay style. The general audience actually would rather not have that. The Last Knight didn’t perform as well as Paramount would have wanted, and the box office numbers would have continued to decrease if they continued to push out Transformers movies directed by Bay, or at least, with the same story and characters. And also very unfortunately, critic reviews do mean a lot today. A lot of people, believe it or not, rely on Rotten Tomatoes or certain critic (Chris stuckmann or Jeremy Johns) reviews to decide if they want to see a movie. It sounds stupid but it’s very true sadly.
     
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  10. Sablebot

    Sablebot #thinkitaintillegalyet

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    Amen-and all of Paramount's arbitrary verbal corporatespeak shenanigans do not, cannot, and will not negate the obvious reboot evidence in the slightest. . .
     
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  11. DarkRed401

    DarkRed401 Well-Known Member

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    i hate to be like this but...

    in tf2 they establish transformers arrived on earth before searching for the allspark despite them only going their because it randomly crashed their, therefore tf2 is a reboot. in tf5 they revive barricade, redesign all of the characters, and megatron drops his molecular transformation, therefore tf5 is a reboot
     
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  12. Rumblestorm

    Rumblestorm Well-Known Member

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    In ROTF only a select group had been on Earth for other purposes than the Allspark, and its no like the Autobots would know since that was kind of the point. It was kind of a lost group, its not like Optimus and his team=All transformers. Besides, the film follows Sam’s story and how the Autobots work with the military now after the battle of Mission City. ROTF picks up directly after 2007, specifically 2 years after.

    Barricade dying was never confirmed in DOTM, so he just came back in TLK to help out. I agree TLK ruined the franchise’s established lore, but it carried over Cade’s arc as well as Optimus. The continuity amongst the films is confusing, but they each have big anchors that tie them all together. Bumblebee, on the other hand, does not.
     
  13. Galvatross

    Galvatross Dom Dom, Yes Yes Veteran

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    You mean like every other piece of Transformers fiction after G1? The Bay movies are not unique in this regard, and many, although not all, characters in the movies are closer to their namesakes than given credit. Nor is Transformers unique in this regard. There are instances in other film franchises...DC, MCU, X-Men, Peter Jackson's LotR/Hobbit films, etc.,...where equal, and often times greater, liberties are taken with the source material.

    And despite some of the differences in the execution of specific characters and the Bayverse designs, there is one area where the Bay live action movies are closer to the source material than ANY other continuity or generation in existence: The timeline of the movies. The first movie is like "More Than Meets the Eye" with Autobots and Decepticons bringing their war to Earth and the former befriending a young Witwicky. The second and third movies are like later Season 1 and Season 2 episodes. The Chicago battle and deaths of Autobots at the beginning of Age of Extinction is like the Autobot City battle and following events in The Transformers: The Movie, where many earlier robots meet their end as a result of the war and its effects. Age of Extinction is like "Five Faces of Darkness," where the Decepticons are at a low point and their leader has secretly survived, and Autobots are hunted by alien bounty hunters for their alien creators. The Last Knight has a lot in common with Season 3 episodes like "Madman's Paradise," with a Quintesson sorcer(ess?) being enemies with a powerful dragon. No other continuity has a timeline that more closely parallels Sunbow than the Bay Transformers movies.

    Also, "Fidelity to the source material is no virtue unto itself." Witney Seibold. Sometimes adapting material for a new medium or a larger audience requires making some changes here and there, even if that means hardcore fans get pissed off.

    Transformation slapping? Now we're really grasping at straws. In the finished film, in full robot mode, Blitzwing looked less like Starscream than people say. The face was totally different. The body not as similar as it looked in that one angle from the trailer.

    More importantly, nothing about BW's character resembled Starscream. Besides being a Decepticon who didn't like the Autobots, nothing about Blitzwing's character screamed "Starscream."

    You mean like in G1 and the Texas couple in Bumblebee in addition to the Bay movies?

    Here's the thing: Everything you mention is a preference. In the end, you are still talking about silly, over-the-top fiction meant to sell toys for corporate profit. It's okay to have preferences in toy-inspired fiction. It's another to act as if you have "standards" and people who have different preferences don't because of what you want in Transformers fiction. Especially given my previous comment was about what fictional universe fiction took place in, as if that alone has anything to do with "standards."

    So if you liked Bumblebee, why are you complaining about Bay and Lorenzo then? Obviously Bay and Lorenzo were unable to keep you from enjoying it. I think it's silly to turn anyone or anything into your Transformers scapegoats. Bay and Lorenzo's involvement is the last thing you should care about if you enjoyed Bumblebee.

    I think there's more going on with things than that. A crowded Christmas season. Poor advertising in some markets perhaps.

    Not to mention that Bumblebee, whatever one thinks of it, is so safe and derivative of G1 and the 2007 movie that if you were introduced to Transformers via the latter, Bumblebee wouldn't look like it brought anything new to the table other than the designs and tone and a few other minor things. Sector 7, a "Girl and her car," equivalent scenes to the 2007 "Autobots hiding in Sam's yard" scene with an Autobot trying to hide around humans, a crazy mom who has a weird sense of humor, etc. As a Transformers fan, it didn't bring much new to the table. I enjoyed it fair enough. It was a fine, cutesy, Iron Giant-esque family film, but I didn't think it was any more Transformer-y than the Bay films.

    Nor do I think the general audience is going to care as much about G1-like designs anywhere as much as fans like to think.

    I don't think the ideal next step would be to make another The Last Knight, but I don't think the answer is to automatically reboot, or make more safe, fan-pleasing movies like Bumblebee. I think there are third and fourth directions different from either that would result in general audiences being more interested.....

    Eff yeah!
     
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  14. jasonsmith

    jasonsmith Well-Known Member

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  15. The Mad Demobot

    The Mad Demobot Well-Known Member

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    Late to quote as I 100% agree to this being a reboot (but given some of the choices in question it could to a degree be a prequel but only of Paramount says otherwise) but I wanted to add that "Brawl" in the '07 movie was given the name "Devastator" but it was kind of an error at some point in development or a hype thing to say to everyone "We got Devastator!". Now TF2 had Devastator appear properly(?), methinks it'll happen again in the Knightverse sequel where the REAL Sli-I mean Blitzwing will appear.
     
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  16. Ash from Carolina

    Ash from Carolina Junior Smeghead

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    It's like the Alfred thing. We've had Alfred in a lot of the Batman movies and TV shows but we can't well they are all the same continuity because they have a butler named Alfred.
     
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  17. jasonsmith

    jasonsmith Well-Known Member

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    This Bumblebee movie is set in the past compared to the 2007 movie. This isn't a Bumblebee movie set in the year 2007 or even in present day. Which would be a clear reboot if this was set in present day or something. This is the biggest evidence that this is a prequel. Also, if this was a clear "reboot", then they'd have announced this already like is always done when they do reboots.

    Bumblebee has a similar face to his 2007 movie version. They have Peter Cullin doing Optimus Primes voice like in Bayformers. In the 2007 movie, Bumblebee had been on Earth already for a while, which help line up with the Bumblebee movie. Bumblebee losing his voice which is consistent with him having no voice in Bayformers. At the end, Bumblebee changes into the same Camaro like we see him in the 2007 movie. I'm sure there are other examples.

    Every single time a franchise does a "reboot", we all know about it and it's clear from the movie that it's a reboot.
     
  18. Rumblestorm

    Rumblestorm Well-Known Member

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    Holy shit that has got to be the poorest and laziest excuse I have heard so far from pro-prequel people on here!
     
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  19. Miyaren

    Miyaren Well-Known Member

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    ‼️Sorry I don’t agree. Tlk failure to people on this board is 100% Of bay storyline, bay characters, bay style etc
    But there are lots of factors to ga...for better or worse bayformers including it’s look, style, is what they consider as transformers. That is an undeniable fact
    If they somehow made a bay continuation but emphasis a new director, but similar style and add in a good hook (tlk history lesson was opposite of a good hook) it’s not impossible to bring back the audience
     
  20. DarkRed401

    DarkRed401 Well-Known Member

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    I agree, though the continuity would be icky. I kinda feel liked that's what they(paramount, not Travis ) wanted to do that with bumblebee.
     
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