Just back home from Bumblebee. THAT WAS SOOOO AWESOME   Finally a really good Transformers live action movie! They really cared this time, characters are recognizable, fight scenes are cool and you actually see what they are exactly doing. The face of the female, red Decepticon reminded me a bit of Bludgeon. This movie feels like a love letter and I really cared for Bumblebee and humans. Still a bit much focus in the humans, but muuuch better and if you pretend this were the first live action movie, it's actually fine.

I wish we would have gotten this instead of the 2007 movie and it's sequels.

Now I'm gonna pre-order the blu-ray  

 

I really wish people would stop saying this - just because the robot designs took care to reference recognizable/iconic elements of the original characters does not mean that this is a GEEWUN movie.

Also, that's a LOT of speculation in regards to "tanking" the franchise. I mean, unless "Bayverse" can be considered an end-all-be-all franchise, which it is not - it is merely a portion of the Transformers franchise.

Did the Bayverse hurt the franchise? Maybe not financially, but in regards to its reputation, yes it did IMO - but this movie showed that the damage can be undone.

 

I didnt watch the movie in cinema, for me the whole movie was like 3,5 or 4/10
because of the shatter dropkick and blitzwing designs
the cool things for me there was the cybertron look a bit, the idea how shatter and dropkick was try to be the "good ones" to work with humans and find bbb

But why that low? Because its like prequel but its like reboot and how they wanted to make almost everything G1-ish than realistic, in comics they dont look like this,
Shatter and Dropkick was in s7? Yes they seen the Cube? No, why? Weird
Megatron was cut from movie because he could look g1-ish and didnt look a like his real form, They really need to decide its that prequel reboot or spin off ahghh

even if people will like it more than previous, I'll always think the movie should be really diffrent, Overrated for me

First trilogy was best even if people hate rotf.

 

Just came back from YouTube comments. That made me mad. Michael Bay really ruined Transformers because now people think this movie is not what transformers should be, when really it's the other way around.

I would really love to purge the memory of Bayformers from the collective consciousness.

 

Could you provide the link of the video? Because most people support the movie in review videos

 

Yes, but it was the German trailer, so I don't know if that helps. There were a handful of people correcting the others, but the majority seemed off put and the other half expected this movie to be a cash in and they same trash we got before. I had to leave. It would make me really sad if this mo ie does not get the reputation that it deserves.

I was so happy during the movie, there were scenes where I felt I could nearly shed a tear because everything was just so right and well done and the story and characters so compelling. Even the action scenes were better.

Many people were off put because this movie did not look like it would give the big explosions and fights of the Bayformers and that's what I always feared, that many people were just in it because of the effects and not because of Transformers  

I hope these people will give the movie a chance.

 

Watch the other videos about the movie. The comments are full of praising and supports instead

 

Caught a viewing of Bumblebee today as well. Impressions on the audience since I've already seen the movie

• None of the other TF movie showings I attended were this filled even days/weeks after release. Audience was plentiful, want to say about 80% of the seats were filled
• Different scatter of demographics, people of different ages all around
• Strong audience reactions. Bunch of little kids, and even they were kept quiet by the movie itself. A kid clapped when Dropkick was ended lol
• My dad knew next to nothing about the actual movie going in, and he seemed like he enjoyed it as well

 

YouTube comments are almost never productive. I wouldn't be too concerned about those.

 

Couldnt have been happier with it. I mean actually I could have if they showed more battle footage from Cybertron.

Other then that, great movie for sure. I liked it better then the other movies that Bay had done.

 

It's been several weeks since I saw this movie, and I'm still so torn about it. I don't think I've ever been more divided about a movie.
I recognize it as a good movie. But I don't think it was necessarily a good Transformers movie. Especially when the title robot character is overshadowed by the human protagonist.
Bee had no satisfying character development, and it being a Transformers film, I really didn't care about Charlie at all. I found myself bored during the scenes where Charlie and Bee hung out. The most interesting and entertaining parts were with Shatter and Dropkick, probably because they were actively doing something. They had a goal and were working toward it, and their interaction with the humans was entertaining. Bee... Had memory loss and was goofing off.
I'd be fine with the focus on Charlie if it affected Bee in some meaningful capacity even after he regained his memories. But... Nothing happened. Once he got his memory back, he was essentially the same character from the beginning of the film, which left all that interaction with Charlie feeling empty.

Which leaves me in a weird position. As a movie, sure it was good. Characters were good. Story was simple, but that's alright. Action was fun when it happened. It had all the pieces. But viewed as a Transformers movie, I don't think it holds up. Not when the title character is as boring as he was.
However, I do feel like this is a step in the right direction. If they can have more focus on the Transformers as characters, and keep everything this movie did right, we could have perfection. But as-is, I can't say Bumblebee is the Transformers film we've been waiting for. If anything, it's a taste of something great we could get in the future.

 

Just saw the movie last night. Very disappointed. I expected this to be an improvement over the Bay directed movies, but it hardly was.
Eliminating the Bay gutter humour and adding the G1 design Transformers on Cybertron was awesome. But awesome eye candy visuals alone does not make a good movie or story.

Instead, they made Bumblebee a buffoon for half the film; eliminating the integrity of a Transformer by making him brainlessly clumsy. I found this was 1 of the worst aspects of the Bayformers films, and unfortunately this movie had it in spades.

It also focused most of the movie on humans. More than Michael directed. Ouch.
I found the story itself was basic at best. I liked Memo, in a Bob Ross sort of way  , and Hailee did a decent job; her hair even gave an 80’s Valerie Bertinelli vibe!   But with Bumblebee the only Transformer around her, and not able to talk, she couldn't carry the movie dialogue on her own.

Shia at least had Optimus Prime around, so Sam could have an intelligent conversation with a Transformer. Also, Sam's journey in ROTF was epic. Neither Hailee nor Bumblebee had any epic journey vibe.

At the end, this seemed like a non-Transformers film, with Transformers in buffoonery cameos, with little plot or character development. While most of the Transformers had good characterization, the main 1, Bumblebee, did not.

Despite the director change, this is a Typical Bay movie, yet again.  

 

THIS. I could have cared for Charlie way more, IF it had been a better film. Bumblebee himself was overshadowed and boring for enough of the movie.

Very yes. They were actually doing something, while Bumble was rather goal-less.

They could have easily had him in fun scenes and kept his integrity. He could have had some goal he needed to do (like setup a communication to Prime), but he gets averted by the Decepticons. Then when Hailee finds him, he discovers a haven away from the war, for the 1st time in his life. He could choose to have fun, and even have a "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight" dance scene. Choosing to have some silly fun is 1 thing, but being a brainless goof is quite another.
Later in the film, when the Decepticons attack, he would realize he can't escape the war, for the sake of his Autobot comrades, and even his new human 1's. then he could get serious again and go have his battle scenes.

Yups!

The problem is, we could say that about all the BayFormers films.

M.Bay gave us an epic story in ROTF, but the negatives were:
-the 2 idiot Autobot brothers
-the rest of the Autobots losing screen time to focus on the 2 idiots
-gutter humour
-too much focus on the Army fools
-too much focus on humans in general, except for Sam's journey/main scenes

ROTF would have been a great film without those negatives, too.

 

It was and it wasn't. Scale and scope are where it really failed. Too small, even the robots. (Though, smaller robots makes them more humanized and accessible and I like that. They don't need to be the size of a building, all the time.) It more or less exceeded my expectations, everywhere else, especially when you compare it to the Bayverse.

I disagree wholeheartedly. Bumblebee's always been a buffoon in these movies, from day one. A competent fighter, yes, but a buffoon. He danced, talked crap and was silly in each and every film. To blame this one for doing what the other films did seems rather unfair. Plus, this film gave a reason why he was a goofus, because his memory core was damaged, it certainly doesn't explain his character in the other ones, though. (We know why, however. They turned him into a pissing, crying, dancing joke.)

Honestly, him finding himself again and showing his silliness shows he's just like us, even if he's made of different material.

No. No way. Bay's films were very human-centric and didn't even give the titular characters their actual screentime until 58 minutes into the first film. And Bumblebee and Barricade's fight doesn't count because it's a bunch of blurs on a shaky cam. Utter nonsense directing by Michael Bay.
Sam had entire sequences of going to college, discovering a conspiracy, etc. This film is 1 hour, 59 minutes and Bumblebee is in at least 75% of it. If you're expecting the human element to not be in it at all, you're asking for the impossible. Unless they do a film that's solely on Cybertron, you're going to have humans in it.

Sam NEVER had an intelligent conversation with Optimus. "Are you Samuel James Witwicky, descendant of Archibald Witwicky?", "Fate rarely calls upon us at a time or our choosing." He had a few canned lines and about 30 seconds to maybe 2 minutes of dialogue together. Charlie has full-on conversations with Bumblebee. Yes, she did all the talking for the most part, but when Bumblebee did respond, whether it was emoting or actually speaking, it all had an impact. That's the difference, there was an actual dialogue between them, even if words weren't uttered. You feel nothing between Optimus and Sam. Nothing. Well, you might, but the rest of the world doesn't. I have a feeling you're a Bayverse fan. So, this movie clearly isn't for you. I was a Bayverse fan, staunch supporter, until this film. TLK ruined the franchise for me, Bumblebee totally obliterated it by showing me what a TF film was capable of.

I agree it didn't feel like a Transformers film, it felt like a Bumblebee film. That's the problem, it focused on one character and not the most important one. I feel it could've been a lot better if it had been Optimus and they had really fleshed him out and allowed him to be his G1 self, the John Wayne homage hero he always was. That said, there was a story, even though it was stolen from other sources at Spielberg's request, but all of the Transformers had good characterization, including Bumblebee. It just wasn't your cup of tea.

This was not a typical Bay movie. That right there tells me this movie isn't for you, and that's fine, but don't label it something it's not. Bay wishes he could be as good as the bad gag reel footage they can't use that was left on the cutting room floor.

 

Perhaps I explained this clearer only in my 2nd post, dancing and silliness is 1 thing (nothing necessarily wrong with it); but mindless clumsiness is another.
And I did blame all 6 Bayfilms for this.

Maybe you didn't understand, where did I ask for that?
my point is there was little Transformers dialogue in the film.

Wait, are you actually making this into an "us" and "you" thing??
Wow.

Nope. Just comparing apples and apples.

 

Since the whole Starscream/Blitzwing fiasco happened in social media I slightly lost faith in the movie, thank the matrix that I eventually watched it. The movie is different from what we've been served with our old pal Mikey Bay, but it wasn't bad quite the oposite. The change of directors worked in my opinion, Travis brought much change to the series he did what we thought we would never see a Fall of Cybertron in the big screen for at least like 3 minutes. The changes he brought to the designs of the Transformers were also different with Cliffjumper looking a lot like his G1 counterpart and bumblebee being a mix of his G1 and Bay counterparts. The way they setup this movie with the one underdog vs the decepticons was interesting and I liked it with the final reunion of Bumblebee and Optimus making it that much special.

Also, word on the street is that there was a lot cut and added from the early screenings and that it was going to be even more connected to Mikeys universe. If the Bumblebee movie becomes its own thing as a reboot then that wouldn't really bother me, I'd actually like that I just hope we end the cliffhanger in Mikeys Universe in a comic series or something.

 

Yeah. I wouldn't even consider him a buffoon in this movie. Unfamiliar with earthen vandalism? Absolutely - and the results are hilarious. The house sequence was cute and enjoyable, and I really took it less as him being a clumsy idiot and more like he was not used to the smaller spaces the humans occupy.

Yep. While there was barely any speaking on BB's part, his body language made up for it in spades. I'm still trying to remember what exactly Sam and BB's friendship was like...there was nothing there to be invested in, and they had not one, not two, but THREE movies to convey that relationship - and they really never delivered. However, in the SHORTEST live action installment, it was clear that Charlie and Bumblebee had a strong bond, and by the end of the movie, it actually meant something when they went their separate ways.

Maybe had they devoted more time to the Sam/BB relationship instead of crude masturbation jokes and goofball parents, it would have been different.

And thank god for that. Travis Knight is what this franchise needs right now after 10 years of in your face Bayhem.

 

Finally got to see the movie after months of waiting, and I gotta say, how tf can you call this flick a prequel. I can forgive the opening scene arriving in 1987, but the fact that you have Optimus already here defeats the entire premise of a prequel.

That aside, I liked the movie. For me, any Transformers movie is a good movie. It gave off a similar vibe with the 07 movie, although it didn’t really make me feel the same thing I felt with the Bayverse movies, and that’s where I think it was lacking, for me at least. It was kind of slow, unlike the likes of ROTF, DOTM, AOE and TLK, in which I greatly missed the big action sequences and pacing. I also kinda wished Shatter and Dropkick (and even Blitzwing) was used more, even though I still like them while they still had their sparks. Then again, I can’t ask much to focus on the other characters as the movie is about Bee afterall.

Speaking of Bee, can I just say again that this movie cements Bee as a badass? Taking down three Decepticons all by himself all in great violent fashion is a feat to behold. And his mask! Damn that thing is indestructible! It can withstand Shatter’s repeated punches and Optimus’ longsword. The Cyberton scenes were awesome, and just like what others say, it felt like WFC/FOC. Just wish they were longer. As for the designs, long have I been doubting the ability of G1-esque designs to be translated into the big screen without looking too cartoony, but this movie made them look awesome and cool onscreen afterall. I still prefer the Bayverse designs, but these are a good look for them, so kudos to Knight to proving me wrong.

Overall, pretty satisfied, even though it didn’t really live up completely to my expectations of a Transformers movie. Looking forward to see more though. I know my opinion won’t matter to most people out here, but eh. It’s my opinion and nobody can change it. I won’t put any rankings among the five other movies here as I will treat this a separate entry in the franchise (mainly I don’t consider this as a prequel). However, I will compare this to my favorite Bayverse movie.

DOTM>BB

 

I am no fan of the bayverse TF movies, now as a TF fan I tried really hard to love them but the more they made the less enjoyed them. The big reasons why I did not enjoy the bay TF movies was just due to how shallow the movies were from the story to the characters held to together by a flimsy "story". The draw was big robots, girls in skimpy outfits, guns and explosions....to me this was not TF, I also personally did not enjoy the character design.

I was cautious about going to watch Bumblebee due to feeling burned before, but I went with my 8 year old son and both he and I loved it. Was it a "perfect" movie no, was it "perfect" when compared to bayverse? Absolutely

I loved it for the opposite reasons that I hated bayverse, it was more faithful to the original G1 design's, it was a movie with "heart" it did not feel hollow, it was engaging and kept things interesting. I enjoyed Charlie as a character, she was not a prop used to move the story along and the comedic scenes felt genuine and not over done.

My favorite part of course was the opening battle, not just because of how well it was done, but hearing my son identify and rattle off the characters in delight was great, "Shockwave, Soundwave, Optimus, etc"