Deadput wrote:SlyTF1 wrote:
If their aim was to get me emotionally invested in those characters, they failed. I wanted them to hurry up and get out of the way so I could see giant robots rip each other to pieces.
Also what's the point of spending so much time establishing characters like the family if there are never any stakes involved with any of them? There was one scene where they were in danger, but it was played for laughs. No tension whatsoever.
Because people have families and it would be weird if they weren't around at all? They exist for the main character's life and her character arc, a family doesn't have to be in danger to be worth existing.
The problem isn't that they exist, it's that I felt they spent too much time on them for them to have no real payoff. For instance, in Age of Extinction, it was relevant to spend a bit of time on Tessa and Shane, because they were characters who were involved with the movie from beginning to end. They contributed in battles, their lives were put in danger. Cade's entire character arc revolves around those two.
In Bumblebee, they spend a lot of time on the family just so they can accumulate to a single joke near the end of the movie. The scene ends, and it feels like they were in the movie just so the could build up to that one joke. That's my problem with them. The movie spent so much time on them, yet they contributed virtually nothing. I feel the same way about the bullies and that whole arc.
If it were me, I would have made the majority of the human scenes about Charlie and that other guy, trying to figure out what they were going to do about Bumblebee. And have that guy involved in the final battle a little bit more too. Have him and Charlie have to work together to achieve a certain goal. Again, just like they did with the human characters in Age of Extinction. I forgot his name, but that guy was another character they spent a lot of time on, just so they could make a joke about him at the end.