Bumblebee (Transformers... 6?)

[Dobber]

Yeah very nice....though the A-10 (forget his name) is definitely using animation magic to transform....hence the closeup roll to hide what’s happening. Certain aircraft lend themselves to transformation....the A-10 ain’t one of them.

Chris

[Xigfrid]

When I go to see TF movies, my main reason is to have a lot of CG actions, robots transforming into real cars and fighters. But Michael Bay made an habit to revisit in each movie come concepts such as real reason of race to space in the "Dark side of the Moon", the origin of modern computers/electronic in "TF 2007", the pyramides in "The Revenge", etc.

That's what this movie was lacking. Some strong historical/geographic references ala Bay movies. Bumblebee felt like a teenage movie with small romance, very small action/fights and mostly CGI. If you did saw all the trailers, you pretty much had all the action scenes.

Same for Optimus Prime who was a main character, and in fact it never appeared more than what we saw in the trailers.

[M'Kyuun]

That vid with the Ark, Prime, Powerglide, Wheeljack, and Grimlock all prove that Bay's argument that these things couldn't adhere to their G1 look and still look realistic was inherently flawed. Moreover, Travis Knight was able to pull off some decent looking G1 bots, too, although I have to agree that the posted vid does it better. I continually hold out hope that more movies are made using the G1 aesthetic, and that, with good storytelling and CG work, they'll prove far more successful than the terrible Bay films.

Although I detest the Bay films, I must grudgingly concede Xigfrid's observation of historical points forming a basis for some of the plots to Bay's films. It was the only worthwhile thing in any of his TF films. 

 

[Knight26]

Bay's Argument was always flawed, that video and the new Bumblebee move proves that.  Tying TF into human history, sorry, no thanks.  I would rather see see all thing Bayformers go away.  As fir Powerglide's transformation, you have a lot of mass coming out of nowhere there, the A-10 is simply too "skinny" to fit all those bits.  You'd have to double the fuselage width in order to make it work.  That being said, it is probably the best/most "realistic" Powerglide transformation I've ever seen.

[Thom]

Too much stuff happened on Earth in the past. There were too many tie ins with Earth history, and some of it conflicting as well. These movies lacked an overall arc to keep a sequel from stepping on the previous movie's 'toe.'

[kajnrig]

"Bumblebee is leggiest Transformers ever"

Sounds dirty.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/01/09/box-office-bumblebee-tops-100m-and-its-the-leggiest-transformers-ever/amp/

[Kelsain]

Are you sure?

[Thom]

Something is wrong with that image. I can't zoom in any closer.

[kajnrig]

https://screenrant.com/bumblebee-movie-profit-sequel/

"[Paramount parent company] Viacom CEO Bob Bakish hailed the success of Paramount's Bumblebee ... According to Bakish, Bumblebee has been "solidly profitable" in light of what happened with the last film in the series, 2017's Transformers: The Last Knight, which lost $100 million."

A sequel now seems more likely than not. Y'know what? I'd be down. I don't want or particularly need one the way some of you might, but I wouldn't mind paying to see it.

[Thom]

I would love to see another, specially if Knight is behind the camera. But if I see Bay's name as director I wouldn't consider paying a cent to see it.

[peter]

I want to see Jazz as a Martini Porsche with a voice similar to Scatman.

 

Never tired of watching this:

Just hope Jazz doesn't die.

[Mazinger]

Watched this.  Thought it was pretty good.  Wish it had more Cybertron of course.

[mark-1s]

3 hours ago, Mazinger said:

Watched this.  Thought it was pretty good.  Wish it had more Cybertron of course.

The Cybertron scenes are worth the price of admission. The rest of the movie - while better than any of the previous - is just meh IMO. Once again too much focus on the humans.

I really hope Travis Knight breaks free form Bays' grip as he himself has said he'd like to do a movie primarily on Cybertron. I can't stress how good those scenes were. And all the characters were recognizable! Even Soudwave had his trademark voice, 

[Old_Nash]

https://heroichollywood.com/bumblebee-officially-transformers-reboot/?fbclid=IwAR0WCSxgsyImslI35M1Vm4FLdrJjDcObGFDRF3aszoY6zV5J6tilG7Hs8RM

At last Hasbro give up to demnd of fans..

Or BBB gained a HUGE money in tickets.

[Dobber]

13 hours ago, Old_Nash said:

https://heroichollywood.com/bumblebee-officially-transformers-reboot/?fbclid=IwAR0WCSxgsyImslI35M1Vm4FLdrJjDcObGFDRF3aszoY6zV5J6tilG7Hs8RM

At last Hasbro give up to demnd of fans..

Or BBB gained a HUGE money in tickets.

That’s good news indeed! I was happy about the the rumors and semi confirmations that it was a reboot and then had my hopes dashed when, what’s his name producer, said that this movie is 100% still part of the Bay-verse.

Chris

Edited February 17, 2019 by Dobber

[Kelsain]

Yes! The movie had its times of corniness and predictability, but the story &  characters were so much more likeable and relatable. These felt like the same characters I watched when I was young, and the movie had a lot of heart. I’m excited that they’re moving forward with the soft reboot.

[Valkyrie23]

Praise the ghosts of Cybertron!

[captain america]

17 hours ago, Old_Nash said:

https://heroichollywood.com/bumblebee-officially-transformers-reboot/?fbclid=IwAR0WCSxgsyImslI35M1Vm4FLdrJjDcObGFDRF3aszoY6zV5J6tilG7Hs8RM

At last Hasbro give up to demnd of fans..

Or BBB gained a HUGE money in tickets.

I suspect that Bumblebee was so written that they could either consider it a prequel or a reboot depending on how it would be received and how they could exploit it. As far as box office receipts are concerned, BB pulled in even less than TLK, which was the worst performing film in the franchise; the only thing that saved BB was its much lower production budget (almost half of TLK) but to call it a success is something of a stretch.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=transformers.htm

 

[David Hingtgen]

Paramount was stupid and opened BB up against a ton of other movies.  A few weeks either direction, and it would have had all the buzz/word of mouth there was.  "Way better than the last one" won't do, when it's not "the only thing to see".  

[kajnrig]

 

[Thom]

Starscream - 'I thought you were frozen and looking for the Alls-!"

Megatron shoots Starscream - 'No! We're not doing that. Ever!'

All praise the Allspark!

[Bolt]

Hilarious

[sh9000]

The DVD and Blu-ray is currently on sale with 5% off and a 20% off cartwheel at Target.

[mark-1s]

Limited edition VHS version (not sure if April fools joke)

https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/bumblebee-movie-now-available-on-limited-edition-vhs/43168/

 

[JB0]

Looks fake to me. Someone who never had a VCR trying to simulate the look of one. Most tellingly, the heavy "shooting star" glitches are a LASERDISC artifact, not a VHS one.

 

Also the trailer has a footnote saying "for promotional use only, not for sale"

Edited April 4, 2019 by JB0

[jenius]

I saw John Wick 3, Bumblebee, and Terminator DF this break and I gotta say, Bumblebee was my favorite of the three. Granted, none were high cinema. John Wick 3 was the most disappointing.. I couldn't even stay awake. Terminator DF is Terminator 2 on steroids so... I guess that's fitting. Bumblebee probably benefitted from having the lowest expectation going in. I couldn't stand the Bayformers, never even watched the knight one...

Edit: said T4 originally but meant Dark Fate

Edited January 6, 2021 by jenius

[M'Kyuun]

I absolutely detest the Bay films for the cinematic travesties that they are as both films, and more importantly, films about Transformers. What Spielberg was thinking when he handed the reigns over to Bay, who obviously never had any connection to Transformers whatsoever, is beyond me. That's the big difference between Travis Knight's film and the Bay films. There's at least a sense that Knight has a an idea who these characters are, and indeed he has been a fan since childhood. Plus one for fans if he ever decides to make another Transformers film.

However, Bumblebee is far from perfect. The thing that bugs be most is how Bee, who we see as a competent warrior in the beginning of the film, is reduced to a puerile pet for Charlie, mostly for laughs and forced sentimentality. Regardless of memory loss, which itself is a convenient, if annoying, McGuffin to drive the plot, one doesn't necessarily lose their maturity in the face of amnesia. Bee ostensibly has centuries of age over Charlie, and should be a mentor instead of the equivalent of a mechanical dog. Too, the lack of a speaking voice for Bee has been a yoke about his neck since the first Bay film in '07, and I think it was an absolutely terrible idea. Keeping him mute disallows for him to make any sort of intelligent remarks or conversation, reducing him to an odd-noise making character who has to pantomime every thought, which is often played clownishly for an attempt at humor. I'm not laughing. It's a huge disservice to the character. I loved the way Bee interacted with Spike in the original show; Spike was our perspective on these characters, especially in the first three eps, and it was written on an intelligent level without condescension or clownish behavior. 

John Cena is, well, John Cena, and his military character is pure stereotypical rubbish. As a military retiree, the straight-backed stick-up-your-ass military stereotype gets old, but it has become such a staple in films and tv that I doubt it'll ever go away. Believe it or not, there are a lot of chill people serving. just saying..

On to the good- the movie did have a lot of heart; there was real emotion in the film, a palpable connection between Charlie and Bee. The overall story was simple and made sense, and wasn't the giant convoluted mess that the majority of Bay's films dissolved into. It was a movie about friendship, and in that regard, I think Knight did a good job showing that. The opening Cybertronian scene was a nice treat; if anything, it showed us what we could have gotten from the beginning so far as the designs go.  It's a fun film, and the only film within the Bay-verse that I can actually sit down and enjoy.

 

[Black Valkyrie]

22 hours ago, jenius said:

I saw John Wick 3, Bumblebee, and Terminator DF this break and I gotta say, Bumblebee was my favorite of the three. Granted, none were high cinema. John Wick 3 was the most disappointing.. I couldn't even stay awake. Terminator DF is Terminator 2 on steroids so... I guess that's fitting. Bumblebee probably benefitted from having the lowest expectation going in. I couldn't stand the Bayformers, never even watched the knight one...

Edit: said T4 originally but meant Dark Fate

 

I agreed for Bumblebee.  before I entered the theater, I had the least expectation but after that I was wrong, it turned out to be a good movie, especially with Prime in it. 

 

[tekering]

22 hours ago, tekering said:

and Bumblebee was a well-made film.

20 hours ago, Slave IV said:

I've always had a lot of respect for you but if this statement was not a joke, I really need to reconsider that.

Other than a few moments where they showed G1 designs that we mostly already saw in trailers, the rest of the movie was a big heaping, stinking pile of (explicative deleted).

It's a Transformers movie, with all the expectations that come along with that (including ties to the Michael Bay films that proceeded it)... and given that framework, I absolutely stand by my statement.  It's a well-made film.  

The visual effects are as convincing as those in The Last Knight (despite costing only HALF as much), the story has a logical structure and a well-paced plot (unlike any of the previous films), the film is consistent in tone, and the performances are grounded in a rational context absent from pretty much ANY Michael Bay film.

I'm not saying it's Citizen Kane, but it's the best we could ever hope to expect from a movie "based on Hasbro's Transformers action figures."

[M'Kyuun]

50 minutes ago, tekering said:

It's a Transformers movie, with all the expectations that come along with that (including ties to the Michael Bay films that proceeded it)... and given that framework, I absolutely stand by my statement.  It's a well-made film.  

The visual effects are as convincing as those in The Last Knight (despite costing only HALF as much), the story has a logical structure and a well-paced plot (unlike any of the previous films), the film is consistent in tone, and the performances are grounded in a rational context absent from pretty much ANY Michael Bay film.

I'm not saying it's Citizen Kane, but it's the best we could ever hope to expect from a movie "based on Hasbro's Transformers action figures."

I agree. I don't think it helped Travis Knight that Hasbro waffled about Bumblebee's connection to the Bay films; there's definitely a shared visual aesthetic there, even if it was tempered and improved somewhat from the shardy Bay versions. But the story, the dialog, and the interactions between the characters were a marked improvement over the rapid-fire and often lewd, rude, or groan-inducing rubbish that more often than not spewed forth from the characters in Bay's films. The story was straightforward, simple, easy to follow, and it made sense. The majority of characters were likeable, which is the most outstanding remark I can make about Bumblebee, as I couldn't really stand any of the characters in Bay's films, not even Prime, who preached goodness, but acted like a psychopath. The first Bay film was an enormous disappointment for me, and it was clear that the director had no connection whatsoever to Transformers. Turns out, it was true.  Even after Hasbro gave him a Transformers 101, it's pretty clear that the charm and coolness that endeared the show and the toys to millions was completely lost on Bay. It's also what sets Knight's movie apart from Bay's, as Knight grew up watching and loving Transformers, and it comes through, at least in the opening. I still don't care for the childlike and goofy personification of Bee; it made him feel more like a pet than a friend on at least equal standing with Charlie.  But, it was still a far more enjoyable Transformers film than any of Bay's in this fan's opinion.

[Slave IV]

3 hours ago, tekering said:

It's a Transformers movie, with all the expectations that come along with that (including ties to the Michael Bay films that proceeded it)... and given that framework, I absolutely stand by my statement.  It's a well-made film.  

The visual effects are as convincing as those in The Last Knight (despite costing only HALF as much), the story has a logical structure and a well-paced plot (unlike any of the previous films), the film is consistent in tone, and the performances are grounded in a rational context absent from pretty much ANY Michael Bay film.

I'm not saying it's Citizen Kane, but it's the best we could ever hope to expect from a movie "based on Hasbro's Transformers action figures."

All good and all I can say is it's highly subjective. I get that in context of other live action TF movies, it may be perceived as better by some. It's better to me just for those G1 style scenes but the rest was on par with the previous movies to me. Maybe it was a different kind of bad but bad either way. I usually have decent tolerance and take things in context but even my kids didn't seem very impressed with this one. I can't go into much detail because usually when I see something that bad, I try to wipe it from memory. Glad it served its purpose for some people though.

[Convectuoso]

Bumblebee is the only TF film I've enjoyed, for many reasons, most of them already listed by @tekering

I would only add that Charlie was a far better lead than..... Witwicky (was that his name?)

I haven't watched the one with Mark Walbergh, but It must be more Bay disappointment

[kalvasflam]

bumblebee was the only decent Transformers movie cause Starscream looked like Starscream, not some kind of weird ape looking thing, Soundwave looked like Soundwave, not whatever transformers 3 was, and so on....

the original transformers must have been a Michael Bay wet dream when he said: “ oh really, the robots can look like whatever I want them to look like... great low budget CGI it is, different color CGI junk going across the screen where you can’t tell a head from an ass, perfect, low budget, explosions, and cheap no name Megan Fox...  easiest movie ever.”

[Thom]

The second Bayformer film was the last one I saw in theaters, until Bumblebee. I saw the Last Knight on TV and was glad I didn't pay anything for seeing that hot mess. I don't even consider it in the same universe as the previous ones. I think Bay makes a better producer than a director.