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Bumblebee!

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:37 pm
by inflatable dalek
Mainly non spoiler thoughts as it's mainly a copy of a Facebook post whilst I have a good think about my final thoughts...

Am actually slightly taken aback by how awful Bumblebee was. Worst experience I've had with a film series where I normally get a kick out of even the bad ones since Quantum of Solace. Turns out the advertising campaign wasn't underwhelming but accurately sold the film as what it was:

A soulless and cynical near beat for beat remake of the 2007 film on a very obviously lower budget (I think this is the first time a TF film has done its final setpiece at CGI flaw covering night?) but with RAMMED DOWN YOUR THROAT ALL CAPS LOCK 1980'S REFERENCES and none of the pace, energy and complete batshit inventiveness even the worst of Bay had.

The direction was basic but competent, but the editing was just as bad as Last Knight, though in a different way. Here rather that too hyper it was languid. You could feel the pauses for laughter after each joke, and there was one terrible bit during the finale where the villain said something smug, it cut to something happening behind them very slowly and then it cut to the villain who then very slowly reacted to it.

It's the shortest one yet, but didn't feel it.

It also has exactly the same structural problem as the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie: Both involve a women meeting an amnesiac alien and the plot is then treated as a mystery about them unravelling where he came from and who is after him. And both **** it up by having a lengthy prologue explaining who he is, why he's come to Earth and who his enemies are. Both sequences would have been better as flashbacks later in the film (where they have to recap those events so the characters can catch up with the audience anyway).

I mean, you could argue that trying to make a film of the mystery of Bumblebee as the sixth movie with him in would be pointless, but then don't make that the bulk of your film.

Hailee Steinfeld is by far the standout here as the Sam/Mikaela mish mash, going above and beyond with a performance from a completely different film that is presumably is what tricked people into thinking this film had soul. But she's up against John Cena showing he's a graduate of the Hulk Hogan school of wrestler acting rather than Dwayne Johnson and a supporting cast of one dimensional comedy characters right out of...

...well, a Michael Bay film. But when the film they're in is flat, so are they.

It's frustrating that this is actually doing the box office it deserves, it's a rouge knock off straight to DVD film that somehow sneaked into getting branded and released in cinema. In a crowded season I'd say you're better off paying to go see Aquaman and waiting for this to fill a Bank Holiday on ITV, where it will feel more at home.

Or just watch the 2007 film and occasionally pause it to put on a Peter Kay "Alf? Remember Alf? What was that all about then?" style routine.

For a not we perspective, my mother (who's enjoyed some of the previous ones) was barely concealing her contempt during the film (JUST SHOOT HER! GET A MOVE ON!) and only liked there being a female villain.

The couple of kids in the audience did seem to like it, Which is the important thing. But you could tell the theatre was mainly middle aged G1 fans who think that was the be all and end all of the franchise because every slight G1 reference induced as mass ejaculation.

And as it's (rightly) irrelevant to the film's quality, the continuity issues are no worse that the average X-Men film and I don't think audiences really care. You can tell though that the decision to try and make it a reboot was made in post as most of the contradictions are in the CGI sections and the human stuff has some (Really cute, I fist pumped at one) direct links.

It taking so much effort and time to go see this on Christmas Eve has completely killed my Christmas spirit. Phhhhhhh.

Oh, did like the proper authentic Dick In A 1980's Film beard on the step dad and one moment clearly only there to wind James Roberts up.

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 1:53 pm
by Clay
Copied from same fb thread...

I thought it was delightful, but I understand (and even agree with) a lot of your points. I still ended up liking the film, though. Points of agreement:

1, I dislike the idea of transformers having any necessary tie to the 1980s. Nothing in the franchise has ever been a period piece outside of hearts of steel (?), so the idea that this needed to be 1987 to work or be 'true' is silly. They could've set it in 1977 and still have bee turn into the right model camero at the end, but of course the use of the period setting would have been the same "hey, remember THIS pop culture reference?" style, which gets old quickly.

2, the batshit, over-the-top bombast and total disregard for continuity of the bay films is a far more honest incarnation of the g1 cartoon than I think any of the fans of the original series want to admit. The move away from dissonance to coherence actually makes the bee movie a bit too conventional to really nail the flavor like the bay films did.

3, it's basically the 2007 movie again, but smaller. I don't think this is a bad thing, though, as it is good starting point and as bay seems done with the things, they did need to rewind back to the beginning and start over.

4, the more g1-style designs as seen on cybertron don't look better in a live action setting at all to me. Part of the reason for the bay designs I think was to make them look like they're made of enough parts to move around fluidly instead of being comprised of big, inflexible parts.

5, the bay movies, for all their visual noise, have shots that are memorable in a visceral and kinetic sense. bee didn't seem to have these, or really aspire to them.

So, yeah. I liked the movie quite a bit, but it is far more conventional and less weird than any of the bay movies. Ultimately, it may be for the best, though. These live action features needed at least one small, character-driven picture that gets some critical praise just to show that they can <shrugs>

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 5:49 pm
by Shrapnel
I just got back from watching it and i enjoyed it more than i have any of the Bay films. I'm going to need at least 24 hours to collate all my thoughts as to why.

I shall be back in due course...

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 6:03 pm
by HeavyArms
Saw it a couple of days ago, mostly enjoyed it but I did have a little difficulty understanding what was happening during one part of the final fight regarding angle cuts.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:32 am
by Hot Rod Here
Saw it and love it.

Re: Bumblebee!

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 8:14 am
by Hot Rod Here
inflatable dalek wrote: Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:37 pm Mainly non spoiler thoughts as it's mainly a copy of a Facebook post whilst I have a good think about my final thoughts...

Am actually slightly taken aback by how awful Bumblebee was. Worst experience I've had with a film series where I normally get a kick out of even the bad ones since Quantum of Solace. Turns out the advertising campaign wasn't underwhelming but accurately sold the film as what it was:

A soulless and cynical near beat for beat remake of the 2007 film on a very obviously lower budget (I think this is the first time a TF film has done its final setpiece at CGI flaw covering night?) but with RAMMED DOWN YOUR THROAT ALL CAPS LOCK 1980'S REFERENCES and none of the pace, energy and complete batshit inventiveness even the worst of Bay had.

The direction was basic but competent, but the editing was just as bad as Last Knight, though in a different way. Here rather that too hyper it was languid. You could feel the pauses for laughter after each joke, and there was one terrible bit during the finale where the villain said something smug, it cut to something happening behind them very slowly and then it cut to the villain who then very slowly reacted to it.

It's the shortest one yet, but didn't feel it.

It also has exactly the same structural problem as the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie: Both involve a women meeting an amnesiac alien and the plot is then treated as a mystery about them unravelling where he came from and who is after him. And both **** it up by having a lengthy prologue explaining who he is, why he's come to Earth and who his enemies are. Both sequences would have been better as flashbacks later in the film (where they have to recap those events so the characters can catch up with the audience anyway).

I mean, you could argue that trying to make a film of the mystery of Bumblebee as the sixth movie with him in would be pointless, but then don't make that the bulk of your film.

Hailee Steinfeld is by far the standout here as the Sam/Mikaela mish mash, going above and beyond with a performance from a completely different film that is presumably is what tricked people into thinking this film had soul. But she's up against John Cena showing he's a graduate of the Hulk Hogan school of wrestler acting rather than Dwayne Johnson and a supporting cast of one dimensional comedy characters right out of...

...well, a Michael Bay film. But when the film they're in is flat, so are they.

It's frustrating that this is actually doing the box office it deserves, it's a rouge knock off straight to DVD film that somehow sneaked into getting branded and released in cinema. In a crowded season I'd say you're better off paying to go see Aquaman and waiting for this to fill a Bank Holiday on ITV, where it will feel more at home.

Or just watch the 2007 film and occasionally pause it to put on a Peter Kay "Alf? Remember Alf? What was that all about then?" style routine.

For a not we perspective, my mother (who's enjoyed some of the previous ones) was barely concealing her contempt during the film (JUST SHOOT HER! GET A MOVE ON!) and only liked there being a female villain.

The couple of kids in the audience did seem to like it, Which is the important thing. But you could tell the theatre was mainly middle aged G1 fans who think that was the be all and end all of the franchise because every slight G1 reference induced as mass ejaculation.

And as it's (rightly) irrelevant to the film's quality, the continuity issues are no worse that the average X-Men film and I don't think audiences really care. You can tell though that the decision to try and make it a reboot was made in post as most of the contradictions are in the CGI sections and the human stuff has some (Really cute, I fist pumped at one) direct links.

It taking so much effort and time to go see this on Christmas Eve has completely killed my Christmas spirit. Phhhhhhh.

Oh, did like the proper authentic Dick In A 1980's Film beard on the step dad and one moment clearly only there to wind James Roberts up.
First I read that someone hates the BB movie.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:44 pm
by Denyer
The initial character-sketching of the family was as horrible and hamfisted as most films but they got to be a little bit more than pastiches by the end and I enjoyed the rest more than I was expecting. Even the radio-as-voice thing wasn't too annoying, and overall it felt a lot less throwaway than Aquaman (where the stupidity of the plot points kept racking up until the bit where things depended on a statue not having moved in a ridiculous amount of time, then kept going).

Soundtrack was period-based and fun without going overboard with obvious choices (helps that I like The Breakfast Club too, I suppose). Plus being a period piece helped visually -- by comparison, even simple shots in Aquaman like panning past the lighthouse felt incredibly fake, even allowing for a certain amount of deliberate comicbook feel.

I'm in the camp that'd happily take an entire film in the intro format without anything happening off-Cybertron, because Earth bits are invariably predictable run-throughs of the same boring reactions from authorities. I don't like the effortless "instant scan-and-reformat" changes to alt-modes. But I did enjoy Bumblebee and would concur with people who've said it's a shame this couldn't have been the first movie. There probably isn't appetite or wiggle room for follow up slot-in films, unless it's taken to be a total reboot and production costs have come down enough.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 10:59 am
by Skyquake87
Went to see this last night and left it feeling...happy, which was great. Too often with Transformers films, I've had that creeping feeling of being almost embarrassed with what I've seen. I felt the film was made by people who didn't hate Transformers. It was a slower and simpler story for sure, and basically did the 2007 movie. Crucially though, there was none of the teeth-grindingly awful frat-boy toilet humour and the human cast were all thoroughly likable. Charly was a great character and felt like she mattered and was part of what was going on, whereas Sam and Kade (is that even a real name?) could have been bloody anyone. The relationship with 'Bee was cute and touching. I really enjoyed seeing them interact and help each other along, which was a joy to see. Charly's family leant good support and I liked that they cared about each other, and weren't sniping or making terrible leaden innuendos. Memo felt a bit redundant, which was a shame, as he seemed a good kid and could have done with a bit more to do, but I liked that he was there, all the same. John Sena was fine as the straight laced military fella, and I enjoyed him more than all other irritating bad guy human buffoons the last 5 films gave us (sorry, I still don't like Simmons or any of them, with only Kelsey Grammar being any good. And that's just 'cos he's Kelsey Grammar). I liked that Sector 7 and the military were played straight, with only Powell being a bit of a prick - but that was appropriate, he was a scientist whose enthusiasm ran away with itself and that was fair enough.

Look!All this writing and this is just about the human cast!The principle robots we got were good and mainly Decepticons - Blitzwing made for a good fan trolling 'hi-then-die' villain, and both Shatter and Dropkick were good fun. I liked that they got on and had some level of friendship - the bit where Shatter pals up with military seeing the potential in the assets and Dropkick grumbling about it was great. Villains that work together. Nice. Elsehwere, yeah there was the proper toy porn of the Cybertron bits. They did feel a little bit video game, and were clearly put in to shut up the endless whining of geewun purists, but I liked that, overall, they struck a nice balance between what the Bay films gave us and the original designs.

Most of all, I liked thatyou could see what was going on during the robot punch ups and that actual Transforming was used as part of the fights. That was really great to see, rather than feeling that with Bay, things were happening just outside of what you were seeing.

I left feeling very positive about Bumblebee and its easily the one Transformers film that will have the most rewatch value to me personally (mainly because with a short run time of just under 2 hours, you don't have to set aside a good chunk of your day to watch it). It wasn't over long, didn't outstay its welcome and just did it's job well. It felt very much in the vein of things like Super 8 or actual '80s films like Flight Of The Navigator and Short Circuit. A good, solid fun film.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:23 pm
by Warcry
I saw this over the weekend! It's easily the best of the Transformers movies. That's not to say it's particularly good by Proper Cinema standards, but I mean...it's not like the previous movies set an especially high bar.

I mean, it had a plot! Just one! And it made sense! After DOTM, AoE and TLK all turned out to have, like, six plots crammed into one movie, this was a refreshing change.

It had characters! Not just a bunch of one-note joke humans and CGIed monster robots, but actual characters! Charlie felt like a real person with relatable problems and feelings. Memo did too. Charlie's family felt a bit like they'd fallen out of a bad 80s sitcom, but still managed to be at least a little likeable even when the plot called for them to be morons. And John Cena...well, no one other than maybe Vince McMahon will ever mistake John Cena for having The Rock's level of talent or charisma, but he did fine. His role was nice and ambiguous, and I think he brought that across pretty well. He's a jackass, but in spite of being the movie's main human antagonist, at no point did he do anything particularly villainous. That was a nice change of pace from the moustache-twirling of the previous movies' enemies.

We were restricted to just six robots with substantial roles this time around (Bee, Prime, Cliffjumper, Blitzwing, Shatter and Dropkick), but they also all felt like characters and not just CGI whiz-bangery. The 'Cons in particular were a really nice surprise, and probably the most-developed antagonists in any of the TF films to date.

The low budget definitely hurt it a lot -- a few of the scenes in the final battle where Charlie was on-screen with a robot battle going on behind her seriously looked like something from the green-screen games on Who's Line is it Anyway or like she was just running around in front of a TV with a robot battle playing on it. And the Cybertron scenes for sure felt low-budget, though I honestly felt that was more due to the background designs than the characters. But either way, it's a pretty big strike against a movie starring Transformers when the Transformers themselves look fake.

And it was definitely very derivative of the 2007 movie. That's definitely another strike, but it also forces me to look at them side-by-side...and honestly that just goes to underscore how much better it was done this time around. The smaller scale really helps to ground it, and means that the central relationship of the movie (between Bee and his human) doesn't get drowned out by a zillion other things going on in the last act -- no big climactic battle between Prime and Megatron, no army showboating, no random hackers, no John Voight with a shotgun...just Bee and Charlie saving the day. And the action scenes, while again being smaller, were so, so much easier to follow and thus had way more impact on me than the fast-paced whorls of random metal in Bay's efforts. It also, (IMO obviously) comes across that the director has a genuine affection for the Transformers, and not the thinly-veiled contempt for the property that drips from all of Bay's efforts.

I think this thread made the over-the-top 80s-ness come across as way, way worse than it actually was. I was expecting to be constantly cringing but honestly it was only a little heavy-handed.

The continuity of the franchise is totally shot to hell, but it already was and this doesn't make any more of a mess of things than the last couple movies did. At this point I'm pretty much conditioned to just ignore it, like with the X-Men movies.

Overall, it was a fun way to waste a couple hours. Which, again, isn't a very high bar at all. But I don't think I even made it to the half-way point on either of the previous movies without thinking "I have no absolutely idea what's going on and don't give a **** about any of the people it's happening to", so, you know...baby steps. I wouldn't say that I loved it, but I definitely liked it, and I don't think I've really been able to say that about any of them past the first one.
Clay wrote: Sat Dec 29, 2018 1:53 pm1, I dislike the idea of transformers having any necessary tie to the 1980s. Nothing in the franchise has ever been a period piece outside of hearts of steel (?), so the idea that this needed to be 1987 to work or be 'true' is silly.
You know...yes and no. Transformers as a whole certainly isn't a period piece, or necessarily rooted in a particular decade. But I also don't think you can separate the 80s from what people think of when they think "Transformers". The franchise was a big part of the culture of that decade, and the culture of the decade played a big part in establishing the baselines of the franchise. So I think it's only fitting that a movie that bills itself as something of a "back to the beginning" piece is set in that decade. It certainly didn't need to be, but it helped the movie feel like a joint love letter to both the 80s Transformers and the first Bay movie, easily the two most influential parts of the franchise.

I think you could also make an argument that some characters' alt-modes are an essential part of who they are due to how iconic they've become, and that an 80s setting makes it a lot easier to feature those characters as they "should be". Who knows if they intend to roll forward with a G1-heavy cast in future movies, but I for one would love to see 80s Lancias and Datsuns and Porsches and a whole bunch of Decepticon F-15s in a live action movie one day. Mostly because I think modern cars and planes are boring, admittedly, but also because every time I see an old 280ZX on the road I think "holy shit, Bluestreak!" in a way that I just don't with most of the modern movie alt-modes. And I definitely enjoyed seeing a VW Bumblebee and a flatnose 80s semi truck Optimus.

(I do think they hit a home run with Bee's modern Camaro alt-mode though...one of the few 2000s vehicles with any personality, and IMO it's become just as iconic as the old Beetle because they actually stuck with it for five movies.)

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:47 pm
by Denyer
Warcry wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:23 pmit's a pretty big strike against a movie starring Transformers when the Transformers themselves look fake
Given actual good writing I don't think it'd be particularly noticeable after a few minutes, any more than people focused excessively on it with BW or ReBoot. Just don't splice it with live action cinema.

Also not the sort of thing as many would watch in a movie theatre, I'd grant, but these days a lot of cartoons are animated using 3D models and there's plenty of interest in animated films. It'd just be a somewhat higher quality output than the recent RID show. Also, with the number of quite effectively rebooted series out there now (some of the Turtles stuff, for example) if you wanted Earth bits you could keep a lot of semi-80s elements just by virtue of America still running a lot of very old gas-guzzling vehicles. Update the tech level so that it can be related to -- in the way Bumblebee does, or new classic era Trek does -- and the job's a good 'un.

Re:

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 2:40 pm
by Shrapnel
Shrapnel wrote: Sat Dec 29, 2018 5:49 pm I shall be back in due course...
I wasn't back in really any course. I tend to agree with just about everyone. Whilst it was far from a defining moment in cinema history, I think it was the best TF movie so far.

It being a reboot of the 2007 film wasn't so bad for me as I felt it was more enjoyable than the 2007 one and set a better tone for potential future films. I would have preferred, it being set in the '80's, for it to be something of a reboot of the original G1 openings (Us comic anyway, with the drive in cinema gag!), but hey ho.
Warcry wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:23 pm ...also because every time I see an old 280ZX on the road I think "holy shit, Bluestreak!"
Don't see them so often now, but crikey when i saw this i almost got on the phone right away! https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C860087

Re: Re:

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:46 pm
by Warcry
Shrapnel wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 2:40 pm Don't see them so often now, but crikey when i saw this i almost got on the phone right away! https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C860087
That car in those colours is probably still the nicest-looking vehicle I've ever seen. There was a nigh-identical one for sale just down the road from me for sale in the fall and I was so tempted to buy it. But I just don't have anywhere to store a classic car on my property, especially for five or six months out of the year during our awful winters. :(

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 3:42 pm
by inflatable dalek
I'm surprised you didn't find the 80's references totally over done tbh Warcry, I think the "At least my reel to reel tape is fine!" *Looks to camera for about five minutes* moment may be the single worst scene in a Transformers movie that doesn't involve statutory rape laws.

And every single song (all of which were the sort of songs people pretend they liked when they were teens in the 80's. Even the pop music is either acceptable to Real Music Fans stuff or ironic. Stan Bush slipping is was probably the closest moment to actual 80's crap but popular that slipped in) played for about twice as long as it needed to as well.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 4:15 pm
by Warcry
inflatable dalek wrote: Fri Jan 11, 2019 3:42 pm I'm surprised you didn't find the 80's references totally over done tbh Warcry, I think the "At least my reel to reel tape is fine!" *Looks to camera for about five minutes* moment may be the single worst scene in a Transformers movie that doesn't involve statutory rape laws.
I'd imagine there are a lot of jokes/references that will make me groan if/when I've seen the movie a couple more times, for sure, but they didn't bother me the first time around. The only "funny" scene that really got under my skin was the extended Bumblebee-trashes-the-house-for-no-good-reason bit.

For what may be the first time in history, I like something and you're the cranky old man yelling at clouds! Weird, isn't it? :)
inflatable dalek wrote: Fri Jan 11, 2019 3:42 pm And every single song (all of which were the sort of songs people pretend they liked when they were teens in the 80's. Even the pop music is either acceptable to Real Music Fans stuff or ironic. Stan Bush slipping is was probably the closest moment to actual 80's crap but popular that slipped in) played for about twice as long as it needed to as well.
One of the benefits of being born in the mid-80s (and I suppose of having a dad who hated music and a mom who only listened to country) is that I only actually recognized about three of the songs in the whole movie. The rest was just generic background noise to me.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 9:07 pm
by Skyquake87
I didn't find the '80s references in your face, unless I'm missing something. I got Mr T breakfast cereal, tapes, VCRs, Hot Dogs on sticks and The Breakfast Club. All of which felt like legitimate things that added background colour and weren't slammed in your face like a lazy stand-up routine. The tapes thing was fine for me as Charly was clearly into music and I had a bedroom like hers that was wall to ceiling with posters when I was a teen, so none of that got in the way for me. Didn't mind the '80s tunes on the soundtrack either, which I thought were fun (although were Americans aware of Rick Astley in '87?).

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:11 am
by Mr_Hi_n_Mitey
My Opinion: As a longtime TF fan and viewer of this TF-B film, I have to say I enjoyed it - as usual. I'm just glad that Michael Bay wasn't the (chief) director of this movie this time, even though I noticed how the crew tried to reconcile the ending of this film with Bay's AllSpark TF movies - like with Bumblebee transforming into that Chevrolet Camaro. The Decepticons in this movie - namely Blitzwing, Dropkick and Shatter were pretty hardcore; as the latter two were able to transform into some awesome, old-school GTO rides. The scenes that amused me the most were when Bumblebee and Charlie were 'chatting' in the garage right before Memo walks in on them - and as soon as they noticed Memo, Bee converts back to his alternate mode, that famous VW Beetle. (Too late! :eek: He's been discovered! :noevil: ) Also, I like when after Bee had torn up the living room and the kitchen, Charlie takes a few minutes to scold him and yell at him. ("You should be ashamed of yourself, Bumblebee!" :nonono: :rant: ) That's my two cents right now for this movie; seeing this film in the theaters was a good way for me to start the Year 2019! Also, I heard that there's a sequel on the way, so that's going to be interesting as well.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 9:04 am
by Ultra GodMagnus
I figure i might as well post after almost 20 years LOL. This movie was the best live action one to date. Much better then the last several disappointments IMO.

Re: Bumblebee movie discussion!

Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 6:47 am
by Hot Rod Here
Can't wait for the sequel. I wonder if they would add Unicorn eating Lithone? Will Lithones be in it ( with kids being a choice)?