Bumblebee The Bumblebee Spin-Off Official Thread

[samsnee]

This is how he should have always looked. No one needed the flames.

 

[Flash525]

I've seen all of the trailers to this, and I still haven't seen a scene with John Cena in.

You're asking the wrong person here, mate. I love the Bayformers (I love the first 4, didn't really like TLK).

I also think a lot of people actually like TF1. It shouldn't be put in the same bracket as that of the sequels. The latter bunch does have an almost universal bad rep.

Oh, well I thought they were all a bit of a mess, especially on rewatch. I (mostly) enjoyed them all the first time around, but the more I've watched them, the more you can tell just how terribly put together they really are. I suppose (of the five) Dark of the Moon is probably my prefered film, but even that's stretching.

The 4th and 5th installments simply had too many continuity issues for me to fully enjoy; this is why I am hoping that Bumblebee is a complete reboot, and any sequels that follow will erase the Bay films.

 

[StarLord]

I've seen all of the trailers to this, and I still haven't seen a scene with John Cena in.

 

[Flash525]

I've seen all of the trailers to this, and I still haven't seen a scene with John Cena in.

It's John Cena man, you can't see him.

 

[StarLord]

Ah a wrestling joke. Okay.

 

[TheVileOne]

I think Optimus Prime looked good in Age of Extinction and Last Knight. But I also like the back to basics G1 approach in this film. It's nice to change it up.

The approach by Michael Bay was to make the robots look like they were made up of the parts and innards of the car or vehicle, and it made them look like twisted up vomited metal.

 

[Abudefduf]

So apparently Bumblebee will talk in this movie. Dylan O'Brien has been hired to voice him.

 

[TheVileOne]

Sort of a random casting choice, but whatever.

Wish they kept Will Friedle. He did a great job as Bumblebee.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

 

[terry78]

I figured they were finally gonna reveal what his actual voice sounds like before it got damaged.


I may try and catch that early screening this Saturday if I can make it.

 

[StarLord]

TV spots containing more and more spoilers. Be careful out there folks!

 

[terry78]

The junior novel is already out.

 

[Abudefduf]

Robert Schwentke in Talks to Direct ‘G.I. Joe’ Movie ‘Snake Eyes’ (EXCLUSIVE)

The the studio is currently rebooting “Transformers” by spinning off the popular character Bumblebee.

 

[StarLord]

 

[terry78]

I like Dropkick already.

 

[BaelaTargaryen]

 

[Kuwolski]

I can't wait. This film has given me hope for the franchise moving forward.

 

[Abudefduf]

Cool. I guess this bodes well for Batgirl.

 

[mclay18]

Cool. I guess this bodes well for Batgirl.

Ditto for Birds of Prey.

WB should put Hodson on retainer for their franchises in case Paramount greenlights Bumblebee 2 or something.

 

[galmorzu]

Just saw a special screening of this tonight. I went in super excited, but dear lord, it was awful (IMO). Not Bayformers awful, with the crude humor and annoying characters. But just...I don't know. I like most any movie I go see (most of the time, to various degrees), but the writing was sloppy and weird and felt really amateur with really, painfully cringe-worthy moments. Actual scenes that were so badly written they made physically cringe hard. It felt like seeing something you wrote back in high school again and you thought you were doing something cool but was just all cliche after cliche and character moments that are like, I get it, you're supposed to be this kind of character, or supposed to represent that kind of obstacle. And Charlie's inner problems that she has to overcome by the end of the movie are only there when they feel like hitting you over the head with a 2x4 to show they're hitting those story beats.

However, with that said, the girl that played Charlie seemed to be working hard in the role she had and was actually really enjoyable. Bee was a bumbling klutz who seemed more like an infant than a seasoned soldier (I think maybe I actually missed a story point here, though, so maybe there was a reason for it) until he suddenly wasn't. There's a lot of retcons, some that worked and some that didn't. But the absolute best part of the movie were the Decepticons. For the first time, I feel like we got really cool, well spoken, capable spec-op types that were fantastic to watch. The fight scenes were fantastic, and the special effects were great. The G1 stuff was perfect, but don't go in expecting a lot of that. It felt a bit inserted after the fact, but what we got was just pure gold.

Cena was fine. He didn't have a lot to do, as most of the movie felt rushed like it was written in a hurry, but for his part he was okay. With the exception of a moment that got a lot of laughs which probably shouldn't have.

I don't think this is the movie that's going to save the franchise, but if you want to see some fun transformer action, with mercifully updated/simplified designs (the triple changer action was awesome), and some great Decepticons, and you're willing to sit through everything in between, you'll probably have a good enough time with this. I would say the action is the best I've seen because it was used sparingly, was easy to see, and felt important when it happened. When the Cons were fought at the end, I was actually invested in seeing how the battle played out because I enjoyed them far more than the disposable ones we got previously.

 

[terry78]

hmmm.

 

[StarLord]

Bumblebee

EMPIRE gave it 4/5 stars.

 

[galmorzu]

To each their own. There was certainly some good things in this, but yowch, maybe some stuff just stands out to me more than it used to.

 

[Another_Fool]

So I actually caught Bumblebee as well tonight.

It is without a doubt the best Transformers movie. However, I would recommend having measured expectations and recognize you are watching a film targeting a family audience versus teenage boys, which is whom the Bay films were targeting.

Let's get it out of the way, Bumblebee can have unsubtle dialogue and also contains tropes we've seen before particularly with the human characters, which can seem generic at times. That said, unlike @galmorzu I didn't think it made it awful (though I can understand why it turned them off). This movie is dripping with so much 80s nostalgia, midway through it became apparent to me that Travis Knight was echoing the tropes from Spielberg and coming of age sci fi movies of the 80s, or paying homage rather. I admit I too cringed at times, but for what it's worth I also cringed at times with ET, Neverending Story, and Last Starfighter as much as I appreciate those films.

What did matter was that most of the actors, particularly Hailee Steinfeld gave heartfelt performances and elevated it above its tropes. This movie has a lot of heart and puts emphasis on the character relationships.

The designs too were fantastic, which makes me resent Bay and his art department more for thinking that the audience would've actually preferred the busy organic mess of their robot designs for so long versus the more simple ones like in Bumblebee. With Travis Knight, not only are action scenes coherent, I can tell very easily what the robots are doing. Its a revelation we should've discovered in 2007, not 11 years later. I guess better late than never.

The only negatives for me was the pacing at times and John Cena. I'm sorry but save for a few well timed lines Cena overacted quite a bit. Dave Bautista clearly is more natural than Cena is at this acting gig.

I had a very good time and being a G1 TF fan I'm happy we finally have a movie for us fans. bad place, its just great to see Bumblebee being VW beetle. I just worry this won't make enough money for a sequel because damnit, I want this continuity to move forward and I want Travis Knight back. He gets it. bad place he gets it more than even the writers of the original cartoons who were really only writing 30 minute commercials to sell toys. I recommend supporting this film.

 

[HBarnill]

Kind a have to go with Galmorzu on this one. As someone who’s never liked any of the previous films, it’s certainly a step up but not by much. Let me put it this way: they traded the Chuck Lorre-esque humor for 90s sitcom humor. I guess that’s an improvement. The effects are noticeably weaker, given its lower budget, and at least the action is tolerable to see. Steinfeld is an improvement from LaBeouf and Walhberg but that’s not a high bar since she’s still a cliché sullen teen who needs to open herself and the film gets a lot from E.T. and Iron Giant, especially one certain moment in the third act. The villains are forgettable but at least have a bit more personality than the previous villains. As I said, at least to me, the humor fell mostly flat, except for Cena, who had the best line in the film. I’ll give the film credit for being more streamlined than the previous films, with a less complex plot and a shorter running time. And by the way: this film is set in the 80s, in case you forget.

I’m sure it’s a crowd pleaser, but for me, it’s more of a rental.

4/10