The Energon Pub

[Kyleor]

Just got home from an early access showing. If you hated or dislike the Bayverse movies, you should at the very least like Bumblebee, it's 9001% better than *any* of the Bayverse. The story is completely coherent and well told from beginning to end. The human characters are actually all likeable too.

[Deadput]

Yup I can say right now that the Bee film was excellent, definitely the best live action film so far

It wasn't just a good Transformers film, it was a good film in general and I will say that all of you guys must at least see this film once even if it's on Dvd/rent or something.

I've never really liked Bee that much prior, never hated him but he wasn't a favorite, this film changes that the character is so good in this film and probably one of his best portrayals yet.

The Humans were more then just tolerable they were good characters as well, and by god the Decepticons were awesome, they weren't particularly deep but they had clear personalities and weren't really annoying.


That Cybertron scene? By Primus I just want to watch that over and over, it was beautiful.

[william-james88]

With the Screenings out and such do we have a spoiler thread?

Here you go

transformers-bumblebee-movie-spoiler-discussion-thread-p1997710.php#p1997710

[Deadput]

With the Screenings out and such do we have a spoiler thread?

Here you go

transformers-bumblebee-movie-spoiler-discussion-thread-p1997710.php#p1997710

Whoo thanks man!

[william-james88]

The early showings for the Bumblebee movie happened tonight and fans are back from their screening with their thoughts. We wanted to share a few with you below from our community and other fans online. We will keep it spoiler free as best we can. If you want to discuss spoilers (or read spoilers), we now have a spoiler discussion thread on the site.

Those who attended this special early screening got some goodies. Fellow Seibertronian xRotorstormX got a Bumblebee themed bucket and a Tiny Turbo Changer from the latest series. You can see images at the end of the article.

Now for some thoughts and impressions on the film:

Just got home from an early access showing. If you hated or dislike the Bayverse movies, you should at the very least like Bumblebee, it's 9001% better than *any* of the Bayverse. The story is completely coherent and well told from beginning to end. The human characters are actually all likable too.

Yup I can say right now that the Bee film was excellent, definitely the best live action film so far

It wasn't just a good Transformers film, it was a good film in general and I will say that all of you guys must at least see this film once even if it's on Dvd/rent or something.

I've never really liked Bee that much prior, never hated him but he wasn't a favorite, this film changes that the character is so good in this film and probably one of his best portrayals yet.

The Humans were more then just tolerable they were good characters as well, and by god the Decepticons were awesome, they weren't particularly deep but they had clear personalities and weren't really annoying.


That Cybertron scene? By Primus I just want to watch that over and over, it was beautiful.

If you are curious about just how much screentime that Cybertron scene took, here is a quote from kary who wrote on the TFW forums.

It's about 5 mins at the beginning, and it's a lot more polished than what we see in the trailers. Some folks criticized the Cybertron scenes for looking like WFC, but they looked really awesome in the final version.

A big question people had was whether or not it was a reboot. Well, as it turns out, the film does not make it clear. There are callbacks to the Bayverse (with appearances from Bayverse human characters) but certain details don't line up. Then again, certain details from The Last Knight didn't line up with the previous films either so that is nothing new. The point is, nothing is explicit but it doesn't seem like the movie cares to make a stance since it just wants to be good on its own.

Tony_Bacala writes as such on the TFW forums:

Just got back. Really great flick. Tons of nostalgia points, well done story on it's own. Good action, but not crazy. Things were slower, less shaky, I could actually see the bots and cons for more than 2 seconds at a time. Good characterization for the cons. Backstory on Cybertron and it's talk throughout movie is pretty much WFC / FOC / Siege, which is more depth than we've had up to now.

There are connection points to the Bayverse, but so many things that contradict what happened before that it falls more in reboot territory. Just not 100% clear cut, creative writing could send it either way. That is the only thing that half bothers me, no clear cut reboot line.

That however, is minimal. I'd pay 15 bucks to just see the 7 minutes of Cybertron stuff again.

So there you go. We would rather not say more than that for now, especially since the film's full release date is still two weeks away.

[SlyTF1]

Just saw Bumblebee. Eh, it was alright.

[Burn]

What's this? The biggest fan of the movies is not spewing praise like always?

[15ngcs1]

probs a Michael Bay fan?

[whip_it]

just got back from toronto viewing

movie def isn't for hardcore fans even with 5 mins of G1 scenes, more geared towards families and kids just want a 'nice story'

im def disappointed, even tho this was a one off anthology movie and i knew that going in, but still, as a TF fan, im disappoited, this movie is more so about human more than ever

[15ngcs1]

you mean more about humanity? cause that's what's been missing from the past films.

[Deadput]

just got back from toronto viewing

movie def isn't for hardcore fans even with 5 mins of G1 scenes, more geared towards families and kids just want a 'nice story'

im def disappointed, even tho this was a one off anthology movie and i knew that going in, but still, as a TF fan, im disappoited, this movie is more so about human more than ever

About that last part are you kidding? Bee and the Decepticons were in this film much more then many of the Transformers from the Bay films together, this was as much Bee's film as it was Charlie's film

I liked Charlie more then many of the actual Transformers in the whole franchise I'll say that.

[15ngcs1]

Hailee Steinfeld is an exceptional actor. Bumblebee and Charlie are really the heart and soul of this movie.

[Supreme Convoy]

I really enjoyed it! Probably the best live action Transformers movie since the 2007 one.

[SlyTF1]

What's this? The biggest fan of the movies is not spewing praise like always?

Bay's absence was definitely felt. The movie lacked the sense of scale and "epicness" he brought to the table. There were a handful of scenes I thought were going to build up to an awesome payoff, but then they'd just cut back to an overly goofy joke or something. And the music was terrible. Completely laughable, especially the military theme. It made them feel like cartoon characters instead of a real threat.

But I will say the fight scenes were probably the best in the series. Too bad they were just so few and far between. I definitely liked the movie better than The Last Knight, and it wasn't a bad movie. Just didn't blow me away like I wanted it to.

[Giant Purple Griffin]

This movie had no real problems, but there also wasn't really anything to blow you away, whereas the Bay movies were more of a mix of very high highs but also low lows. It seemed like a pretty "safe" effort. The story was pretty predictable and kinda cliche and there wasn't much super memorable, except maybe the brief Cybertron fan service at the beginning. I think the critics will consistently consider it good, but not amazing, so it will probably get the highest tomato meter score of the series.

I think the 2007 movie is still the best, but this was definitely better than the last two efforts. I'm not sure where I'd rank it further from there as far as my personal enjoyment. It's kind of tough to compare it to the Bay films because it was such a different approach, for better or worse (sometimes for better, sometimes for worse).

To use baseball analogy, the Bay movies are like the power hitter that hits a lot of homers, but also strikes out a ton--you take the good with the bad. This movie felt like a solid contact hitter with no power.

[Sabrblade]

I'm just glad to hear that it sounds like they finally made a movie after the first one whose primary target demographic isn't idiots, stoners, and psychopaths.

[RodimalToyota]

I went to the advanced screening last night. I will summarize my thoughts, with no Spoilers.
This was just a solid good movie. It felt very warm and kind, with that feel of the G1 messages we all remembered from the cartoon.

The siege on Cybertron is about 4-5 minutes, it shows a absolute ton of characters in G1 form.
Every bot in the movie is completely recognizable during every scene, no confusing bay verse camera work and shoddy action scenes.

Human characters: Charlie is very relatable and has flaws, making her great character to grow with Bee.
Cena’s character does a great job at portraying the military aspect without being over the top.

Humor: Great Humor! Lots of fun pokes at bad story writing, and obvious flaws with past movies. Bee conveys a lot of emotion with his body language and ends up being very silly at the right times.

EasterEggs: Lots of Easter eggs from the G1, and the original animated movie.



Reboot / Soft or Hard? While there is a few characters and a human character which are Bayverse. Those movie completely restarted the Transformers history...AGAIN. There is nothing in BumbleBee which allows it to give any of the other movies credibility story wise. (Not that they had a good story) There is only two things that point to the 2007 movie, and the rest pointed to a whole new story. So my opinion is that this is a medium reboot, they took S7, Simmons, and Bee’s Camaro mode (Although it was a modified 70’s Camaro and not the one we saw in the 2007 movie) The rest of the film follows it’s own narrative. I hope this fully starts a new continuity. Travis Knight really put his heart into this movie and it shows.

Even if you don’t, or never liked BumbleBee before, you will love this movie.

[notsoalex]

Our very own Jon Bailey (known as jON3.0 here on Seibertron) was able to land a role in the Bumblebee film as Shockwave and Soundwave! Jon has voiced Optimus Prime in Ask Vector Prime, Combiner Wars, as well as numerous Bumblebee movie trailers, Siren and Shockwave in Botcon 2015's script reading, AND the Crossovers Anakin toy (as well as many, MANY, non-Transformers projects, i.e. Honest Trailers). Today, we have a word from him on his experience on working on the film:

I am beyond thrilled to be the voices of Shockwave AND Soundwave in the Bumblebee movie. It’s been a childhood dream of mine to voice a Transformer(s) in an animated series and/or movie since I was 5 years old. You may already know that I voice Optimus Prime for various Hasbro things if Peter Cullen is busy, doesn’t want to do it, or for budget reasons. It was a great honor being Optimus for Combiner Wars. Shockwave has always been my favorite character and Soundwave is just barely second and to voice such an iconic moment in the film is insane!

My agent submitted my character demo (which features Prime from CW) to Paramount and they hired me to fill in as Optimus Prime for the Bumblebee movie which I was STOKED for! I knew up front that once everything was finalized, they would bring Cullen in. Working with Travis Knight was really cool. He told me if he could talk like Optimus the way I could, he would use that voice all the time. Before you record for a job like this, they always show the scene first. I’m watching the unfinished animation of the opening scene of the movie on this awesome mini-theater in sound stage at Paramount which is totally surreal and I’m seeing the Cybertronian seekers and Shockwave, Soundwave, Ironhide, Arcee and the other classic characters I’ve loved since 1984. Even as unfinished animation, I was totally blown away. I literally fanboyed on Travis Knight about how amazing it was and how it’s what I’ve always wanted to see in the Transformers movies (he’s a true Transformers fan by the way).

I recorded 4 sessions at Paramount, most of them to voice Prime. In the waiting room for different sessions, David Sobolov, Steve Blum, Grey Griffin and I talked shop while I’m trying to keep my cool. Here I am, sitting at the GROWNUP table. Before the fourth session, I received an audition for all the characters in Bumblebee and I had my heart set on booking it. We were asked to pick 4 or 5 but I did them all. I ended up auditioning 3 different times but never found out why. Never heard back from the auditions so I assumed I didn’t book anything, but at least I gave them my best shot.

When I booked the last session, I was only booked to fill in for Optimus again, but I was told I would record scratch (temp voiceover) for other characters, so I figured I still had one more shot. That was the same day Steve Blum was there. Someone came out to ask us which characters we’d booked before and of course Steve is like “Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes...” so I’m thinking I don’t have a chance since I’ve only ever actually BOOKED Optimus. I was only given 2 or 3 characters to record. When I got into the session, I was determined to at least try to do the others because some of them were my favorites. After I asked Mr. Knight if he wouldn’t mind if I tried the other characters, he was kind enough to allow me to record them. After I recorded a few, he said “Dude! You’re blowing my mind here! You sound just like them!” Greatest compliment ever. They had a montage of clips from the G1 cartoon queued up before we recorded each one to make sure they were as accurate to the cartoon as possible which is so cool to see up on a big screen with great sound. We had a fan chat about how Soundwave’s vocoder effect was originally done (he had me record two versions of the voice in two different pitches to better recreate that effect). I also told him about Corey Burton’s David Warner impression was how he came up with the original Shockwave voice. By the end of the job, I had recorded Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Soundwave and Shockwave, with no idea whether or not anything would end up in the final movie, but I was confident that I had gave it my all.

A couple of months ago, my two youngest kids and I got to see an early version of the film and all the voices I had done, INCLUDING Optimus Prime, were in that version of the movie which blew my kids’ minds. It was definitely one of the most memorable moments of my entire life. We still didn’t know if that meant any of the voices I did were in the final film or not, but I took it as a good sign.

My agent finally gave me the great news at the end of October. I had joked with Travis Knight that if there were any other voices they needed at all, whatever they wanted, I had to get in the movie somehow and he chuckled, “Don’t worry, you will.” At the time, I took it as “one day it will happen.” It really did and I couldn’t be happier.

My goal has never been to voice Optimus Prime one day, even though it was Peter Cullen’s Optimus Prime voice that inspired me to become a voice actor. My goal was always to work with Peter Cullen on a Transformers project and I finally crossed that off my list, even though I never thought it could possibly happen. It was an incredible experience and the movie is really great. It’s got the G1 look & action I’ve always wanted to see with the charm, humor & heart of Iron Giant. My name is up there on the big screen between 2 of my favorite voice actor heroes, Steve Blum & Grey Griffin. I am eternally grateful to my agent, Paramount, the other actors & Travis Knight for their kindness and the opportunity to make a lifelong dream become reality.

Jon Bailey can be found here:
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
His website: epicvoiceguy

[whip_it]

This movie had no real problems, but there also wasn't really anything to blow you away, whereas the Bay movies were more of a mix of very high highs but also low lows. It seemed like a pretty "safe" effort. The story was pretty predictable and kinda cliche and there wasn't much super memorable, except maybe the brief Cybertron fan service at the beginning. I think the critics will consistently consider it good, but not amazing, so it will probably get the highest tomato meter score of the series.

I think the 2007 movie is still the best, but this was definitely better than the last two efforts. I'm not sure where I'd rank it further from there as far as my personal enjoyment. It's kind of tough to compare it to the Bay films because it was such a different approach, for better or worse (sometimes for better, sometimes for worse).

To use baseball analogy, the Bay movies are like the power hitter that hits a lot of homers, but also strikes out a ton--you take the good with the bad. This movie felt like a solid contact hitter with no power.

exactly

This movie had no real problems, but there also wasn't really anything to blow you away

[whip_it]

you mean more about humanity? cause that's what's been missing from the past films.

i want to see transformers movie with little to none human intervention

[SlyTF1]

you mean more about humanity? cause that's what's been missing from the past films.

i want to see transformers movie with little to none human intervention

Same. I thought the humans in this movie were way more annoying than in any of Bay's movies.

[Black Bumblebee]

Ha! Good on you, Jon! That cemented it for me that I will "have" to see this movie in the theaters.

[Giant Purple Griffin]

I geeked out at the Shockwave voice. I didn't know that was in Jon3.0's repertoire. Well done

[Nemesis Maximo]

Congratulations Jon! I think it’s awesome that I’ll be able to say “I’ve interacted second- or third-hand with the voice of Soundwave from the Bumblebee Movie!”

I’m glad that your dream is being fulfilled, you’re such a genuine person and you deserve it!

[dragons]

I will see this movie and judge for myself if I like movie or not I never take strangers and movie critics reviews on movies critics love movies that have high scores I did not like them what where they revevenant, blade runner 2, infinity war I am looking forward to avengers 4 end game