Michael Bay made the BEST, movies! The cartoon was ******ed, bumblebee G1 fans got their ******ed failure.

 

...Okay?

 

Bumblebee was actually profitable. TLK was the one that didn't make enough money.

 

Remind use which director's movie almost killed the Transformers movie franchise and which director's movie practically saved it?

 

i feel like i make a post like this every now and then but i really wish i still enjoyed the bumblebee movie, im a tf fan like everyone else and not like i want to hate tf media but so little of it is actually good, bumblebee is praised even though i feel most people feel its just average, i feel like it's really troubling that hasbro/paramount has set the bar for tf media so low that an average film is worthy of mass praise

while travis knight showed his knowledge of animation with bumblebee, especially with things like character design and color choice, everything else is bad, the music, the cinematography, the story, the characters/dialogue. every 3-4 months or so i try to rewatch it to find something new to like but i only find new things to hate, i usually dont even make it half way through the film before i turn it off and do something else and honestly not many movies make me do that. one really annoying thing is that it feels like writers would come up with a simple joke but had to drag it out into an entire scene such as the paintball scene, tp scene, and pretty much anytime Charlie's family is on screen. most of the vocal synths used are really obnoxious and hurt the the va's performance in my opinion, of course vocal synths can be used right with characters like soundwave and to be fair this is a big issue with modern tf media and not just this movie.

to be fair it's clear this film had a very chaotic developement which seems to suggest they reworked a bayverse prequel into a reboot film at the last minute and hired a director that didn't seem to have any interest in bayverse so there where was probably some back in forth between the travis wanting a g1 ish film and the studio needing it to be a bayverse prequel. the forest scene with charlie and bee for example is a scene exists to develope the 2 characters but with the addition of cybertron scene they had to shoehorn in the optimus fight which while cool does however distract from the point of that forest scene.

with all that said im eager to see what steven caple jr can do for the next film especially since they wound be limited by bayverse continuity and the studio should have a much clearer vision for the next film

 

I actually liked it, these movies are supposed to be popcorn movies and I don't know why people expect some cinematic masterpiece. It hit all the right high notes, had a pretty good B-story, but if there's one thing that these movies need is more humans and transformers interacting in mundane circumstances.

 

i do have to say, michael bay did make my personal favorite movies, but in no way was bumblebee, as you like to put it, ******ed

 

Guess im back now
so p much all the bay movies are done, plus I did a thread on the 86 movie a while before the bay ones, so figured I might as well make one for bumblebee (just hope this shit doesn’t end up in the review thread

EDIT: goddamnit)

I was gonna do like a plot breakdown here, but most of the shit worth talkin about is already covered in other places, so figured it was kinda pointless. Plots p simple anyway

Scenes

Cybertron battle

Yeah, ngl the start of this movie is prolly the best thing weve ever seen in these movies. Holy shit this whole thing is awesome

The cyberton designs actually look like transformers for once and you can tell them apart, cybertron actually looks like a city, prime isnt tearing apart everyone he sees, the decepticons actually got the upper hand for once and fucking soundwave.

Guess the only issue I have with it is that is feels p rushed plot wise, prolly cause this scene was added in late in the production cause of the whole reboot thing. It aint terrible, gets the job done, but I think with how fast paced this scene is its prolly gonna cause some issues if this universe gets expanded more

Decepticons and humans meeting

I got my issues with this scene, mainly cause its too short. But for the most part I like this scene a lot. Shatter makes a plan and manipulation tactic that makes sense and it works. Sure some shit is holding it back like how the decepticons look obviously evil and how the humans def should’ve gone more back and forth with em, but it still gets the job done. Plus we got that scene later where one of the guys brings up Russia, which actually makes a lot of sense for them to take a risk like this. Sure as hell is one of the best decepticon scenes weve gotten


There aint much to say about a lot of the other scenes, still I just wanna list some I thought were cool:
-cliffs death
-egging the house
-bee home alone
-police chase
-the final battle

Tbh any scene with bumblebee or other transformers is worth mentioning

Characters

Charlie: I don’t really have much to say about Charlie. Shes a better protag than sam or cade were, though she does have that whole “teenage girl with dead dad” thing. Guess she is relatable though, kinda. and I dunno how to talk about characters that are relatable
Guess she aint bad, gets the job done. Just wouldve preferred smth else instead of the usual “teen with family issues” shit. Maybe smth more like that one girl from the idw comics

Memo: memos fine, dumbass name but whatever. Hes what sam shoulda been tbh

Charlies family: Theres also the whole family shit with Charlie that’s p much unavoidable with movies like this. Compared to the sam family shit it happens a lot more in this movie but it aint as annoying so I don’t really care. Plus they feel more real than sams shitty annoying ass parents ever did. That fucking smile book part was cringey as hell though

Minor human chars: feel like I should prolly mention these cause the bay movies had some dogshit minor human chars. Guess these aint as bad as the bay ones but theyre still there. Here theyre just more goofy and cheesy than weird and annoying like the bay ones, though.

Bumblebee: this is prolly my favourite bee ever. I never really had issues with him not talking, it sure as hell is better than his generic kid appeal personality. Plus they just took the route that made the most sense and made him p much just a robot puppy

Blitzwing: blitzwing only had one issue and that’s his name. hes p much just a basic seeker, but for some reason they named him after a triple changer that looks nothing like that. Fact that this movie has two other triple changers only makes it weirder. It just reminds me a lot of what the bayverse did with just slapping random names on random designs. Why not just make him green and call him acid storm or any other disposable seeker? Or make it starscream and have him survive the encounter, then let shatter and dropkick take over cause he either cant be bothered to do it himself or he got badly wounded or some shit
Anyway besides that hes just a mini boss basically and he gets the job done

Shatter and Dropkick: im just gonna do these both at once cause you never see one without the other anyway, but in short these two are by far the best movie villains, not like they got much competition though

Theyre basically just your standard henchman duo. Shatter being the planner and more intelligent one, while dropkick is the guy who just listens, follows and then gets the job done. The main thing I like about them is the more subtle stuff like dropkick getting annoyed at having to kneel or just the tone in his voice when he goes “prime is coming here?”

Guess my biggest issue with them is the opposite with blitzwing, its that theyre nobodies. Dropkick is a throwaway name and shatter is a new one as far as I know. I don’t get why for the main villains youd just make new chars instead of just adapting existing ones. You know who they should’ve been instead? Knockout/barricade and vortex. Then again if they picked those guys then they shouldn’t have killed them off at the end either, which im cool with.

theyre simple villains for a simple movie, they do what they gotta do and they do it p well

Other stuff

-guess it doesn’t make that much sense, but I like that the transformers all speak English now instead of cybertronian, makes the decepticons stand out more

-the constant 80s music got annoying real fucking quick

-bees memory loss thing really doesn’t make any sense, the way he lost it and the way he got it back

-movie sure has a lot of marvel/disney humor, which is prolly the best humor these movies can have. better than bay humor at least

-sons of bitches really had to play the touch huh

What does it do better than the bay movies

Figured I might as well add a section like this too. Gonna keep most of it short cause I don’t feel like getting into it, also a lot of this shit is already talked about in other parts of this post. Anyway:

-the designs of the bots and cybertron are much better and have way more personality
-fights are way more even and easier to follow, also bots aren’t tearing each other apart
-humans characters are less annoying
-the transformers aren’t treated like background noise
-color grading and cgi is way better
-humor is way more fitting for a transformer movie


Conclusion

Alright, time to go reviewer mode

Bumblebee sure as hell isn’t an amazing movie, nor does it do anything we haven’t seen before. Is that a bad thing though? Hell no. because it’s exactly what these movies needed. We spent 4/5 movies all doing weird shit and p much just going down the shitter because of it. I’m not saying the Bay movies didn’t have their moments or ideas, but with movies this long and this bad that doesn’t matter. The problem is that the Bay movies never set up it’s foundations properly. It’s like, look at the MCU. Iron Man 1 isn’t anything special for a superhero movie, it’s fine. But would we have gotten Infinity War or the other crazier MCU stuff if it wasn’t? Probably not. The Bay movies never had this foundation. I mean I guess the first movie wasn’t terrible as a starter, but ROTF and any of the other movies never built on it or the characters. Because of that we don’t care about the characters, the world they live in or anything. Its just good/bad ideas with terrible execution.

Bumblebee is a pretty good foundation to a larger Transformer universe. It isn’t perfect at it, but it gets the job done, it just needs other movies to fill in the gaps or address some of the stuff that was off. Biggest problem with it is that there aint much to say about it. For a lotta it it’s just “it does a thing, it does it good enough and that’s it.” Plus its cheesy as hell. Still, it’s also just a fun movie that let’s you know what you’re in for from the start, then gives you that and there’s nothing wrong with that. To me this movie just has this weird feel, but its sure as hell isn’t a bad feel. It feels more innocent, I guess? Compared to the previous movies at least. It’s a simple movie that doesn’t try to be something its not or cant handle, and there ‘aint anything wrong with that.

i like a transformers movie, aint it about fucking time

 

Bumblebee is both my favourite and the greatest Transformers movie we've ever gotten.

And that's the most disappointing thing about it.


Plus they did give use some of the best live action Transformers design (even if some of them (Shockwave and most of the Cybertron Autobots) could use a bit more work on them).

 

It isn't perfect but there was a lot I really liked about it. I think it nailed the tone that Transformers films should strive for and I was invested in most of the characters. Bumblebee himself was very well handled and Dropkick and Shatter were cool antagonists. The action was also better than in the Bay films (controversial opinion, I know) because of the creativity that went into them. The designs were perfect IMO, and not just because they were more "G1 inspired". I'm definitely excited to see where they take the story next. As a side note, I went all in on the merchandise side of things when the film came out and I have a fair amount of Bumblebee memorabilia now (t-shirts, pillows, posters, figures, etc.).

 

Bumblebee is the best Transformers movie, and yes that is damning with faint praise, but it is still good.

If Bumblebee suffers at all it's that it is, for Transformers and sci-fi, somewhat generic. But that really is what we needed as a pallet cleanser after the headache-inducing nightmare that was TLK. It's safe, unambitious, but at the same time feels cozier. It's just one little Autobot, two main Decepticons, a bit of fan service, and a family dynamic that I actually wish was more the focus of the human scenes. I think Charlie's mother re-marrying and having a half-brother whilst still dealing with the death of her own father is a compelling story in itself, and I actually think it should've been a bit meatier. Not longer, but I feel like Ron should've gotten "you're not my real dad"ed once, because it's a touchy subject and not something you see often. I would've cut out all the "my what a plain girl/sad life" scenes and the dumb bully girls (though I do love the pranking scene) to focus a bit more on this delicate topic where there's not really a wrong or right side, just humans with emotions coping with loss. Maybe replace the "smile more" bit with an actual, y'know, argument. Teenage girls argue like other people draw breath, I know this too well.   I do also like that Charlie's inability to move on was given physical form in her being unable to fix the Corvette, by fixing her life she managed to fix the car.

I think my real criticisms are that the Cybertron scenes felt bland. The dialogue is just... nothing, random combat jargon, Optimus' first line is "WHERE'S B-127? THE MAIN CHARACTER GUYS, WHERE'S THAT GUY YOU ALL KNOW?" and it feels exactly as rushed to screen as it was. I also genuinely dislike the "Iron Giant goes bad" moment. Why do Bumblebee's eyes go red when he gets his memories back? They weren't red before, they never go red again. In Transformers, and especially the movies, that usually means he's a Decepticon. But he wasn't. It's just silly and nonsensical.

I also wish the Transformers didn't actually speak English before coming to Earth, and call Earth by name. There's many subtle, simple ways to explain when they're speaking English for audience benefit and when they're speaking it to the humans in the movie. I also wish Shatter and Dropkick were named, and that at least Shatter survived. They were great villains and a fun pair, and I would've loved to see them return if only as minor antagonists/rivals to Bumblebee in any potential sequel. They were all business and guile, and that's unique not just among movie Decepticons, but Decepticons in general who are usually just thugs. (I suppose Dropkick is more thuggish, but still, he played along)

But honestly this was the movie we should've gotten long ago. It's arguably a better representation of Transformers than 2007's film, despite lacking an ensemble cast. It captures the spirit of the brand almost perfectly, marred by leftover bits from its past life as a prequel and some bland Optimus Prime dialogue that in hindsight aligns perfectly with the sterile, formulaic depiction of the brand nowadays.

 

Eh, it's fine... but incredibly overrated. It reaches higher highs than the the other movies I suppose but its aiming to be an irongiant/ e.t. kinda movie and I think both of those handled the story better than bumblebee. In fact, I find this movie quite forgettable, I think paramount is pushing it by expecting general audiences to still care about a sequel 5 whole years later.

People like to praise the character work and how great Charlie's arc is but I find it lacking. I mean her arc is about overcoming her grief over her dads death, and this is visualized with the diving thing, which they heavily built up... but her diving dosent serve the story whatsoever. Like, if she dives into the water and then saved bumblebee it would work, but she just dives and looks at him for a sec... what's the point?

I also dont appreciate how this movie continues just treating bumblebee like a dog. Hes the title character, yet hes treated as though hes not even a character. We dont see him dealing with his memory loss, or having his own wants and desires outside of Charlie, or see him grow as a character. Hes just a passive bystander that pushes Charlie's arc forward while having a cute moment every now and then of destroying a car or destroying a house or something.
The way he comes back to life also makes no sense, or how his eyes turn red for some weird reason, and him losing his voice was really annoying.

Another thing people praise are the villians, and that's cool and all but shatter and dropkick are really as run of the mill as you can get. Their motivations to build a satellite in the middle of a dock is really stupid and unnecessary imo. And their characterization is really just the smart one and the one that likes punching things, which is perfectly serviceable in the movie... but definitely isnt worth all the praise they get.

On the bright side, the action is great along with optimus primes and Charlie is pretty good most of the time I suppose. They nailed the designs, which is nice (with a few exceptions like wheeljack, arcee, and most of the head designs). Overall, I'd give it like a 6/10.

 

Just Mid imo, hate the cybertron scene. like the earth scenes.

 

I skipped the movies on theatre for fear of TLK quality movies, decided to go on the last week but cancelled due to being sick.
Finally watched it on TV, and my only regret is I didn't watch it earlier.
And now I crave Bumblebee's MP movie

 

Yup, I believe it's the closest to being a proper adaption of Transformers that's also a decent family flick.

It has its flaws for sure, but it gets points for definitely being a step in the right direction.

 

Bumblebee was the best experience I ever had in a theater ever. I was smiling throughout the whole movie. It’s not perfect but it’s still a damn good movie, but some of my complaints are that the decepticons weren’t named in the movie, I really would’ve loved to see that scene of dropkick geeking over the weapons and megatron in the cybertron scene. Other than that, this is probably my favorite movie ever.

 

Yes, I really enjoyed Bumblebee and it is definitely the best Transformers film so far in my eyes.

Also, can we that a moment to appreciate the Cybertronian designs? Yes, they were super rushed they don't look the best they could, however, the fact that they even made unique designs is amazing for a film like that. DOTM, a film with a much larger budget, couldn't even give Sentinel Prime a proper Cybertronian form. Here, they actually took time to make different Cybertronian forms Bumblebee, Prime, Shatter, etc. There were just a few different parts here and there but we didn't even get that with DOTM. It really shows what a good director can do to get the most out of the budget.

Speaking of modern depictions, I'll take the bland dialogue over the cringy crap that comes out of WFC Prime's mouth: "TELL ME YOU FORGIVE ME". Ugh.

 

I still love Bumblebee, and it's still among my favorite movies (not saying it's one of the greatest movies of all time, just a personal favorite of mine). I think it was a really good step in the right direction for the Transformers series. It focused more on likable characters instead of excessive action or a MacGuffin-driven plot. It does a good job blending the Transformers brand with an Amblin-esque movie. I also think it does a good job incorporating aspects of G1, but retaining some of the freshness of the Bayverse (with the new Decepticons and all). Plus, I just love the whole '80s vibe, with the pop/rock soundtrack, the carnival, the old cars, and the warm color palate. When I think of a fun carefree summer adventure movie, Bumblebee is the sort of thing that comes to mind. Except...it came out in winter. That was my least favorite thing about the movie. But if that's my biggest complaint, that's pretty high praise.

One thing I adore about Bumblebee is that it feels super relaxed for a franchise blockbuster. As much as I enjoy a lot of the Marvel movies, a lot of them feel like they're afraid to go too long without an action scene. Hence why we get scenes like Spider-Man saving a school bus from a drone he summoned by accident. It's like busywork, it's almost surely part of some studio-mandated checklist. I like that Bumblebee is able to just use the entire middle act to show us what "life with a Transformer" is like. Building the bond between everyone before they all get separated and things start going wrong. Building anticipation for the inevitable final fight. Then when the fight finally happens, it feels cathartic because we hadn't seen a fight since the beginning of the movie (aside from the brief flashback, which serves as a great appetizer). But in the meantime, they manage to make toilet-papering a bully's house just as fun as any action scene. I don't think every franchise blockbuster needs to be this light on action, but I think Bumblebee should serve as proof that it can be done, and that it can be engaging. It's amazing that this was able to happen in a series (and a brand) that's become so synonymous with action. Even though Bumblebee is generally a safe movie, aspects like that do feel innovative and risky.

One problem I have with Bumblebee is that the stretch between Bumblebee going unconscious and awakening in Charlie's garage feels a bit too long. It's a bit weird that the co-protagonist is essentially absent for so long (it's especially jarring because the whole portion before that had a great robot-focused momentum). There might be a bit too much stuff with Charlie and her family. It doesn't ruin the movie by any means, but it is something that feels a bit clunky to me. Maybe they could have intercut more scenes of Shatter and Dropkick investigating Bumblebee's whereabouts during that portion? That would have helped build tension. Maybe they could have even added a ticking clock aspect. Like, if Bumblebee doesn't awaken soon and mask his signal, Shatter and Dropkick will be able to find him while he's helpless. I dunno, just spitballing ideas.

About the only other complaint I have is that I wish the Decepticons' plan at the end was a bit more...creative. I kind of like the scrapped early idea better, where the Decepticons were going to use Energon to create an army of appliance robots. Sure it's silly and raises logistical questions, but I like a bit of silliness. I also liked that deleted scene of Charlie and Memo fighting the appliance robots. That was a nice way to have a bit of action during the middle half, but silly and mostly non-threatening action (almost like another appetizer for the real fight). I kind of wish they kept that. The finale we got (trying to summon their army from space) feels a bit like a generic superhero villain plot. But their plan probably would have failed either way, so maybe it's good they went with the more generic one. And the movie wasn't really about that anyway.

Overall I think Bumblebee is a great movie. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece by any means, but I think it does what it sets out to do exceptionally well. I personally think it's one of the more refreshing franchise blockbusters in recent years. It reminds me of when I first saw Guardians of the Galaxy (another of my favorite movies). The overall plot has been done to death, but the execution elevates it above what you'd expect. It's amazing how much better Bumblebee is than something like Abominable (which is the exact same story, but done is a terribly boring way...I couldn't wait for that movie to be over).

The complaints I have about Bumblebee are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. I think most aspects of the movie are very successful. The story, the characters, the visual style, the art design, the direction, the action, the soundtrack, etc. If anyone is still on the fence, I definitely recommend checking it out. Just go in expecting a good time, and you shouldn't be disappointed. It's probably not the definitive Transformers story a lot of us imagine, but it is a good story about a Transformer. Here's hoping the next movie builds on the best aspects of Bumblebee.

 

Bumblebee actually grasped the concept of utilizing the kind of fun you can have with a species who were primarily shapeshifting robots, instead of simply them being space aliens.

Sure it wasn't perfect, but for a film that went from being a full on prequel to firmly in that middle ground (and even past that to 'stand alone'), it's a fine film indeed. I like it way better than even the first film in 2007.

 

Basically an E.T-meets-The Iron Giant pastiche, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some charms of its own. Good bot designs, good score, some fun action; it’s a perfectly decent crowdpleaser and a solid foundation for the movie franchise going forward.