Bumblebee

pixelburp · 24-09-2018 2:12pm

The scenes of other transformers leaves no doubt they're going for a more faithful recreation of the robots; presumably fans are happy based on what they've seen so far.

Still looks like it might be a good one; the story beats seem very familiar - Herbie meets Pete's Dragon - but told with enough panache and that won't matter.

brianregan09 · 24-09-2018 3:20pm

Can we just abandon the old films and start from here

pixelburp · 26-11-2018 3:29pm

Just in case anyone was wondering how "Bay'ified" this was going to be, based on these clips it looks like the answer is "not even slightly". The action scene didn't immediately make me want to vomit from motion sickness, and the character moment was kinda sweet.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but (assuming the reviews are positive) I think I might go to a Transformers movie in the cinema. :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59iBrQHb7s

constitutionus · 15-12-2018 11:17pm

just back from seeing this tonight.

LOVED it.

gotta lay my cards on the table though, im an old school transformers fan, ive enjoyed the Bay ones for what they were but i never considered them to portray what the heart and soul of the original series and comics embodied.

this one is DRIPPING in it.

but fair warning this is a SMALL film. the focus being on a quite small cast of characters. TBH thats my only real complaint as any G1ner going in will be squeeing like an idiot at the first 4 mins of this film, and i DO mean FIRST. its starts off right on cybertron with cameo after cameo for the diehards to enjoy.

which bascially means you find yourself getting 4 min of a film you really WANT this one to be, but then having to settle for the main - much smaller scale -bumblebee story instead.

which is a shame as its a damn good story. ya've seen it before in iron giant and E.T , but TBH it works so well i never really cared. knights direction means you can actually SEE WTF is going on for once and the tweeked designs work well.
its BLINDINGLY obvious he loves the G1 lore , and it shows what having a respect for the core material can do in terms of film making. some of the stuff beats play out in pretty much the same way they did in the marvel comics. his version of bumblebee being far more the "little brother" plucky scout/spy than bays warrior class.

TBH im still kinda amazed what they managed to do with 80mil. it certainly doesnt LOOK like the cheapest transformers movie yet.

as its only a weekend showing and it doesnt go on general release for a while yet i wont give any spoilers. but its a hell of alot of fun, my best mate is brining his 5yr old kid to see it and i cant help thinking thats exactly the audience thatll love it the most- families.

8.5 out of 10 from me

if this is the reboot they want to go with im FINE with that. i hope travis get to do the optimus prime film theyve mooted. i really want to see more of the stuff he hinted at (which by the way continues during the film- theres a bit of flashing back and forward between earth based and space based scenes, not much but enough to sate those worried about the film being too earth focused)

JP Liz V1 · 15-12-2018 11:39pm

Is Bay still involved in the franchise?

constitutionus · 15-12-2018 11:44pm

producer.

but he seems to be as hands off in this as Spielberg was in his films.

razorblunt · 16-12-2018 6:17pm

Saw it last night. The first 20 minutes alone are probably better than all 4 previous films.
Really feels like a movie of the cartoon, the fights are clear and easy to see what's happening. I love the way they change form during the fights too.

Great 80s feel, well judged comedy, the impact of the humans is slight (no Josh Duhamel killing a Decepticon during a baseball slide) in this one.

santana75 · 27-12-2018 1:43am

Let me preface this by saying that I think the previous transformers movies were all massive big balls of sh1t. But when I saw the trailer for this one I noticed the little girl from True Grit was in it. I remember seeing that film and thinking she is gonna be a star. I lost track of her career and havent seen her in anything since true grit, but then this trailer comes along and the only reason i was willing to even give it a chance was to see if she grew up to be as good as her potential. Im delighted to say that not only is Hailee steinfeld brilliant in this but the movie itself is ridiculously entertaining. A christmas miracle......a transformers movie thats not a ball of sh1t. Its actually happened.

Optimalprimerib · 27-12-2018 8:35am

Herbie goes to the edge of seventeen.

Way way way more enjoyable than a transformers movie has a right to be. Perfect post Christmas movie.

mr_edge_to_you · 27-12-2018 8:33pm

A brilliant and really enjoyable movie. My wife and I loved it, the kids loved it. Got a lump in my throat with the scene at the end and the appetite for an Optimus Prime movie is well and truly whetted!

TerrorFirmer · 28-12-2018 11:57am

Solid film, as good as the first Transformers, or possibly better, if I took the time to rewatch the Shia LeBouf version.

Still fairly predictable and full of cheese but in a decent, wholesome and fun way.

I didn't outright hate Age of Extinction, but Last Knight was so god-awful I turned it off after 30 minutes. So Bumblebee is a seriously welcome and much-needed reboot.....if it even is a reboot? Bit confused about that, whether it's a hard reset or simply just set in that universe.

Either way, good film.

pixelburp · 28-12-2018 12:19pm

At the 6th time of asking, they finally made a good Transformers movie. By all accounts, this was exactly the kind of film all previous five should have been, but were continuously sullied by Michael Bay's grubby, sleazy, hyperactive footprint. Bumblebee was sweet, funny, had good characters and stakes immediate enough to buy into the threats presented. The CGI was thought out and never the kind of dizzying, vomit inducing mess of those previous features (indeed, fans of the original cartoon should delight in the more faithful recreations)

The plot itself was a mishmash of other adventure movies, cribbed so blatantly you could easily describe this film as ET meets Herbie meets Pete's Dragon (the 2016 remake). And that's not a criticism! Far from it: the inspirations were clearly taken with a sense of reverence and love for the original material - the Transformers franchise included. There was a lot of obvious nods towards 80s culture that made things come off a little bit too nostalgic at times, but again there wasn't a cynical bone in this film's body so it was easier to forgive.

The script itself also heavily leaned into every (80s) teenage narrative cliché going, but again, did so with a confidence and genuine affection for those tropes that the end result just worked. Our blockbusters have forgotten the simple mechanics of emotional arcs, or indeed likeable, relatable human beings you might root for. Bumblebee remembered this depressingly rare quality, and should serve as a good example as to the value of solid writing - especially in obviously fantastical storylines.

Any fans burned by the Bayformers, or indeed anyone who just wants a stripped down, fun, exciting Blockbuster, should go see this; finally getting the formula right should be rewarded. One of best blockbusters of the year IMO.

Bonzo Delaney · 28-12-2018 12:55pm

Seen it yesterday with the 3 kids 10 - 6
They loved it. My self as a 42 yr old man who grew up playing with transformers enjoyed it immensely not only was it set in the 80s it feels like it was made in the 80s.
The cgi is obviously there in spades but is hidden well by the fact the robots have a real mechanical look to them as opposed to digital and laser effects.
Very well acted with a small cast simple story line and all round fun movie with the same feel as an 80s Spielberg movie. Defo 8 out of 10 family movie

OwaynOTT · 28-12-2018 11:01pm

Who would have thought a film with; a coherent story, easy to follow action scenes, no ogling of young women and subtle humour instead of transformer genitals posing as humour, would be a good film?

Hard to believe it took them almost a billion dollars in production costs(even more if you add in marketing), 875 minutes of screen time and over a decade to get here.

It's a good solid film and it's easily the best in the series and that's a sad indictment of the previous movies.

johnny_ultimate · 29-12-2018 1:06pm

All Bumblebee needed to do was show up and not feel like a male teenage Tea Partier's wet dream and it would be a significant improvement over the previous Transformers films. It achieves that, which is progress.

Whether it has much more going for it I'm not entirely convinced. Bumblebee is perfectly fine - it's enjoyable, silly, old-fashioned fun. But it doesn't really do anything particular well. It's all coherent, but that's the bare minimum one would expect - it has little flair of its own. Perhaps that's asking for too much, but we are talking about the director of Kubo and the Two Strings here - Travis Knight knows how to put together some imaginatively staged setpieces.

Its small town, minor key approach is a welcome change from the city-level destruction that was oh-so-boring in the Bay films (I should stress I've only seen the first two, because that was more than ****ing enough). It's definitely the schmaltziest major blockbuster I've seen in many years, although its emotional stakes are clear enough that it's mostly satisfying. Hailee Steinfeld remains charismatic enough that it's a shame she's not getting or taking meatier roles than this.

Approached as an old-school piece of family entertainment this delivers but doesn't excel. In a year that gave us at least two exceptional blockbusters - Mission Impossible Fallout and Spiderverse - being merely 'serviceable' isn't quite good enough. It's a major step forward for the franchise (a fart in the face would be a step up from Revenge of the Fallen to be fair) but could well have used a bit more of its own identity.

Josey Wales · 29-12-2018 2:23pm

Anyone any opinions on whether this is suitable for a 6 year old?

He recently watched Into the Spiderverse and loved it.

Bonzo Delaney · 29-12-2018 4:25pm

Brought my 6yr old daughter she followed it grand.
Nothing overly unsuitable for a 6yr old maybe some of the robot fight scenes could be classed as violent if two people other thsn that its sll good

Also Starring LeVar Burton · 30-12-2018 1:22am

Friend: "Wanna go see Bumblebee?"
Me: "Nah, the Transformers movies are awful!"
Friend: "This one's set in the '80s..."
Me: "Okay, I'm listening..."
Friend: "And Hailee Stenfield from The Edge of Seventeen is the lead..."
Me: "I did really like her in that movie... Yeah, alright I'm in! Next time open with Hailee Stenfield movie set in the '80s!"

Can't say that I've been a fan of the Transformers film franchise, although I really did enjoy the first one. Bumblebee, however, breathes life back in to the series - it's thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish and the cast are amazing, particularly Hailee Stenfield as Charlie. Even if you hated all the other Transformers movies, this one will probably win you around... It's very endearing...

pixelburp · 30-12-2018 1:31pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Approached as an old-school piece of family entertainment this delivers but doesn't excel. In a year that gave us at least two exceptional blockbusters - Mission Impossible Fallout and Spiderverse - being merely 'serviceable' isn't quite good enough. It's a major step forward for the franchise (a fart in the face would be a step up from Revenge of the Fallen to be fair) but could well have used a bit more of its own identity.

Agree to disagree, but I think there's an element of damning with faint praise here

I loved MI:Fallout and it's easily the best action blockbuster of the year, but both it and Bumblebee are totally different animals and not worth comparing in terms of what both are trying to deliver.

The comparison feels a little unfair here: Fallout was a visceral beast, continuing Tom Cruise's attempts to die on screen for our entertainment, but Bumblebee came off like it wasn't trying to be anything beyond an intentional homage/ripoff/nostalgic re-badging of every teenage-adventure trope from 80s cinema. No, it's not groundbreaking, but I don't think that should be held against a film when it wasn't really trying to be in the first place. A low bar hurdled is still a success, not a failure IMO

And like I said, that's coming from someone who loved Fallout, and considers Fury Road to be one of the best (action) films of the last 20 years. Indeed, as someone who really enjoyed Kubo... (BTW, anyone reading - go watch Kubo if you haven't!).

titan18 · 30-12-2018 6:42pm

Considering the state of the franchise, this was a hugely welcome reimagining of it. It's not original sure but its actually a good film which is a relief. I feel this had to be a smaller scale film due to the wasteful excess of Bays style.

I'll imagine the inevitable sequel will up the action sequences but based off the first 20 minutes, I think Knight will handle that well (if he's directing it).

Mitch Connor · 30-12-2018 10:36pm

Would love to see this as a reboot of the entire franchise. Start from here and go again.

brianregan09 · 31-12-2018 12:34am

Well I'm a massive G1 fan and that certainly tickled that itch

more like this please

Wailin · 31-12-2018 5:33pm

Really surprised at the praise it's getting here. I thought with the 80's vibe it might bring back some mushy nostalgia but no. Great soundtrack alright.

It had no real 'moments' at all. Little humour, predictable fight scenes and very little tugging at the heart strings. So dull overall for me.

6/10

Shred · 02-01-2019 11:00am

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Still fairly predictable and full of cheese but in a decent, wholesome and fun way.

Agreed.

I saw this last Friday and enjoyed it. I don't think they managed to capture the 80s vibe they were going for other than crowbarring approximately 100 songs from the decade into it, I also thought John Cena was completely bland. Overall it was a pretty entertaining flick though and thankfully a far more respectful treatment of the material than any of the horrible Bay ones (you can actually see what's happening in the fights here:eek:), I'm definitely interested to see where they go from here. 7/10.

GavRedKing · 02-01-2019 3:20pm

I didnt bother with any trailers before hand and looking for a film to just go to break up the monotony of Christmas, it was either this or Aquaman, I was dreading the idea of Aquaman and went to Bumblebee as it was on earlier so suited better.

Went in with no expectations and enjoyed it.

Yes it was crammed full of 80s cliched moments to the max but it was down in an innocent enough way that it got away with it, without being eye rollingly stupid.

I seen the first 4 Transformer films, didnt bother finishing 4 fully and avoided the 5th so this was a welcome change to the usual Bay-plosion, fast panning, CGI fest films that came before it.

If they do a sequel and use this as a re-boot of the franchise of sorts, it would be on good stable ground and anything that re-writes history to absolve us of Bays films is a good thing IMO.

Guy:Incognito · 02-01-2019 5:04pm

Went to see it with the kids the other day and enjoyed it. I assume you're supposed to ignore timelines and other stuff out if whack with the other films and assume it's a reboot rather than a prequel?

pixelburp · 02-01-2019 5:08pm

It doesn't really commit to showing its hand on whether it's a reboot or prequel. There's an aesthetic nod to the Bayformers films (

at the end of the film, Bumblebee swaps the VW beetle disguise for the vehicle at the start of Transformers 1

), but it feels more like its own beast - particularly as the robots themselves look like their cartoon versions instead of the chaotic mess from the Bayformers films.

brianregan09 · 02-01-2019 6:06pm

It's different though isn't it

Because at the end of Bumblebee Prime is already on earth in his classic form where as they all land on earth in the 1st transformers including Optimus who scans that truck with the flames as opposed to the GI in bumblebee he appears as

nix · 02-01-2019 9:34pm

Its much better than any previous transformers movie by far, but that doesnt mean its a good movie, and IMO it is not, the effects were great, but everything else was crap.

I was disappointed walking out, and i originally had no intention of going, but went based on the good reports it was getting here... you bastards! :pac:

Tazzimus · 03-01-2019 9:51am

nix wrote: »

Its much better than any previous transformers movie by far, but that doesnt mean its a good movie, and IMO it is not, the effects were great, but everything else was crap.

I was disappointed walking out, and i originally had no intention of going, but went based on the good reports it was getting here... you bastards! :pac:

There's always one :P

Seen it at the weekend and thought it was good. Miles ahead of the Bay movies, although they admittedly set a fairly low bar.

It felt like a soft reboot of sorts, given that

Optimus appears at the end

, hopefully there's a sequel.

To be honest, I got excited when Soundwave looked and sounded like Soundwave

Bumblebee

Comments