Interestingly about the imdb score, US users give it a 7.6 (only 32 scores), but non-US users give it a 5.8 (132 scores). Many, many more people have actually seen the movie in the US and Canada than anywhere else. So, take that as you will.

 

That could be a concern, since the bulk of the total revenue is made worldwide and IIRC one of the crippling aspects of TLK with regards to China was its lack of Optimus Prime. Which, of course, will happen again in Bumblebee for obvious reasons.

It also makes sense that of the few US voters, there would be a greater appeal of the more G1 style look, while outside the US where G1 wasn't that big (except maybe for Europe, seeing as how they got those delicious rare G1 figures like Ironfist, and Japan for obvious reasons) the sudden style change could actually hurt the film more than help - as well as why the main villains Shatter and Dropkick are more traditionally movie styled than rendered more 'solid' I.E. Bumblebee and Seeker Guy, to try and maintain that appeal for the bay aesthetic.

I guess it will come down to how well BB does in the western market, which AoE and TLK did so abysmally in and the gamble Paramount/Hasbro made on China ultimately struck out in trying to make up for. And that will be a problem because the three main contenders BB has to deal with Christmas Weekend are all pulling very high RT scores - not as high as BB except for Spiderverse, but it's not a question of how good Bumblebee actually is - it's a question of if enough people will actually go see it instead of three other high-profile releases at that same time. Movie tickets are not cheap so it can't be assumed everybody will just see all the films.

 

I never understand this, why Optimus Prime is the only one they search for in the movies

 

Lack of Optimus Prime in a 2 hr + movie compared to a movie that's under 2 hours. 

I'm going devil's advocate that Prime will be in the movie enough as a Mufasa-type of figure. At least he'd be more relevant in this movie compared to the last.

 

Aquaman certified fresh.
I'm sure BB will be too, eventually.

 

Imdb is notorious for this, so I never take their ratings seriously--good or bad.

 

Oh man we need to dig up those old posts where people were saying that a Transformers movie will never get good reviews because critics just hate Transformers in general and will never ever give a Transformers movie a good review. So far the reviews of Bumblebee are more than vindicating the people who said it's not the subject matter but finding the right production team.

Should be interesting to see when they start putting the Rotten Tomatoes score into the TV ads. If Paramount wanted something big and bold to say this isn't like the previous films then a Rotten Tomatoes score in the high 90's just about screams hey hey hey hey this is actually different come back guys and gals.

Now box office who knows. With no direct correlation between reviews and box office it's way too early to predict that Bumblebee will be out of the woods when there are so many movies dropping this month. But it just took the excitement of an unexpectedly well reviewed Fast and the Furious to turn that franchise around so it should be interesting.

Just wish they would call it a reboot already so I could feel better about throwing my ticket money behind it. Part of me still worries they could pull a DC of a film people could like only to go back to what wasn't working.

 

It's up to 98% now, 39 reviews overall, just that one jackass' review

 

It's not looking good for Bumblebee since all its main rivals that weekend are getting about the same, if not better, ratings. It's not a question of Bumblebee making money, it's how much money it's going to lose to Aquaman, Poppins, and Spiderverse in its second week.

Plus, Bumblebee only has 40 total reviews for it, despite all but one being positive. The other three films have substantially more total critical reviews and are holding similar numbers despite a greater range to derive the average from. As we get closer to release date next week, we might see more reviews and to that I would say don't count your unhatched chickens just yet.

 

Doesn't Aquaman have a 70 on RT, and Mary Poppins..will Mary poppins on 78 is pretty good.

 

Honeslty i can see Bee still maybe holding 97, or 90 or 85 which is still good.

 

The only one that I see as genuinely beating out Bumblebee in terms of ratings is Spiderverse.

2018 is a big year for Spider-Man.
-One big video game
-One big crossover movie
-One of his villains has his own movie
-The first animated Spider-Man movie ever (not kidding)

Lots and lots of Spidey stuff

Fixed. That right there is a definite.

I'm not really seeing how the total of reviews means anything.

Aquaman had its big full release on China in Dec 7 with places like the UK coming up, so obviously a ton of reviews given the number of countries it's being released to before Dec 21.

Mary Poppins is also near its Dec 19 date which obviously means it's gonna have more reviews popping in too. I see this movie as a huge hit with Western audiences than with Asian audiences.

Bumblebee at the time of this post has only been officially released in mother Russia according to IMDB. So it will catch up soon.

 

Don't forget there is also a big Spider event going on in the comic books. I feel the pain going to the comic book shop with how many Spider titles they are pumping out for this new Spider-verse event.

Marvel Legends has put out some good Spider-Man related figures this year if you can find on the shelves.

Plus there is the kids line of toys in stores so the toys can help sell the movie and the movie can help sell the toys.

It feels like it's the best year because my goodness so much stuff. But also the worst year since we lost two of the big creators behind Spider-Man.

 

50 reviews so far, 49 positive

 

Back down to 96% with its second rotten review.

I can understand a couple of the guy’s criticisms, but he lost me when he said the movie was pro-military (which I guess is a bad thing?  ) like the others, when it clearly isn’t.

 

Not seeing the rotten review? Just refreshed and it’s still at 98? Maybe it’s just slow for me lol

 

I’ve noticed the new reviews don’t always appear because of the cache storage. Deleting cache or opening in incognito solve the problem. This is the review:
Review: ‘Bumblebee’ Brings Newfound Emotion, But Similar Beats to the ‘Transformers’ Franchise

 

pretentious critics tend to fall into the "le hollywood propaganda" everytime in blockbuster film and pass it as a valid criticism, unless it's from Quentin Tarantino or Chirtopher Nolan (yuck).

 

"While Bay’s Transformers films revel in crass CG imagery and volatile noise, Knight keeps the action somewhat restrained, which is superficially admirable, or at the very least A Choice. Yet, that same moderation only highlights the flimsy Hasbro-sourced mythology and the cheap good-vs.-evil mechanics; Bay’s punishing brand of visual and aural excess at least distracts from the silliness of the conceit."

The "flimsy Hasbro-sourced mythology" part gave me a good laugh.

It's interesting to see both of the rotten reviews seem to prefer Bay's style. Well, it makes sense why they wouldn't like the film at least.