The Energon Pub

[CircuitBreaker]

Oh I agree in the department that it didn’t need to be G1 and liked the new characters they were adding/creating. The wreckers were awesome, and barricade is a great new staple character. I’m all for an armada or rid reboot myself, that military rugged aesthetic was great and the designs were realistic enough. New Shanghai scene with rail racer instead of a unicycle?

[ZeroWolf]

Rail Racer would he awesome to see again.

[Sabrblade]

Rail Racer would he awesome to see again.

I'm still content with my original. It remains good enough and can't be beat.

[15ngcs1]

Saw it today! I can't believe I cried while watching a Transformers movie. Charlie's monologue felt so real and vulnerable. Hailee Steinfeld is an exceptional actor. The story is full of heart. The opening scene was epic and awesome. Travis Knight, Christina Hodson and Hailee Steinfeld did an amazing job!

[AllNewSuperRobot]

I saw this yesterday. Without a doubt it's the second best Transformers film after the '86 Movie. The opening five minutes alone does a better job of portraying The Transformers than Michael Bay did in over a decade. Cybertron has never been so vivid and the cast have never been so recognisable, especially not in Bayformers. There is also depth to the cast too. Angela Bassett in particular shines as "Shatter". Something else that is new to Movie Transformers...

I can only hope this is the start of an X-Men: First Class style soft reboot. Oh and there were humans in this too and they were fine, I guess. As I've noted before I couldn't care less if the humans were animated stick figures. They are not what I am going to a TRANSFORMERS film to see. 8/10

[Deadput]

I saw this yesterday. Without a doubt it's the second best Transformers film after the '86 Movie. The opening five minutes alone does a better job of portraying The Transformers than Michael Bay did in over a decade. Cybertron has never been so vivid and the cast have never been so recognisable, especially not in Bayformers. There is also depth to the cast too. Angela Bassett in particular shines as "Shatter". Something else that is new to Movie Transformers...

I can only hope this is the start of an X-Men: First Class style soft reboot. Oh and there were humans in this too and they were fine, I guess. As I've noted before I couldn't care less if the humans were animated stick figures. They are not what I am going to a TRANSFORMERS film to see. 8/10

Transformers takes place on Earth, humans live on Earth, the whole point of the franchise is their war (or conflict these days with the smaller casts in the shows) being brought to Earth and them disguising themselves as human vehicles.

Humans has always been part of the Transformers package.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Giant (Shape-shifting) Alien Robots. That is the only part I've ever cared about.

Plus, I got into G1 via The Movie and my favourite series is Beast Wars IE Futuristic Sci-Fi vehicles and Beast Alt-Modes. Humans aren't part of the Transformers package to everyone.

[excalibur1814]

Bumblebee review: There’s two ways I can review this film so here goes…

G1 fan: I’ve owned, at one point in time, nearly all of the original G1 Transformers, read all of the Uk comics (300+) as well as all of the new IDW releases. I am a fan. Other than Lego, Transformers were my main toy as a child so I’m thankful that there’s been films. But, saying that, I’m also majorly disappointed with ALL of the Transformer films. The robots are, basically, expendable. Imagine a film where Johnny 5 (Short Circuit) has his head blown off in the first ten minutes. Or E.T. calling home only to phone a McDonalds and have three Big Tasty meals delivered.

Of all the stories, of all the media that could have been used, we've, instead, just been shown the most basic and bland explosions known to man. It’s boring. Where’s the depth? How does Optimus go from being the most heroic leader to screaming, “I’ll kill you!” to a human? Or ripping an un-armed Megatron to bits? Or robot testicles and ‘Gangsta’ bots?

Unicron… a robot the size of a planet… reduced to broccoli! At least they had the main music track from the original animated movie! (The touch)

Bumblebee stands relatively grounded with far less explosions. Yes, as mentioned before, I’ve seen this film around 50 times and it’s nothing new. At all. It’s generic. I enjoyed the 1987 references, loved the original G1 forms at the start (Nearly wept with joy hearing Soundwave’s voice + Ravage), as well as seeing Optimus at the end. After all, as fans all know, Bumblebee is the weakest Autobot and could hardly take on the bland, generic, faceless red and blue Decepticons! His main aim is tracking and Surveillance. Not combat. As Goldbug, on the other hand, he gained x and y. Blah blah nerd alert.

Additionally, while I’m ranting, when you go to watch the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ you get a film about the turtles. When you watch a Transformers film you get 70% human scenes with 30% robot thrown in just so you don’t forget what you’re watching.

General public: You have seen this film before. Heck, please make Short Circuit 3 and I’d be happy. I’m glad that I watched the film, albeit at no point connecting to the main star (Bumblebee isn’t the main star, don’t be silly), as it’s reasonably close to how Buster Witwicky first met Bumblebee in the comics. For the first few minutes anyway. The Cybertron scenes, although limited in number, were fantastic and you could view the original forms of the Decepticons. Opps, slipped into G1 mode there.

It was okay but I honestly preferred Mary Poppins and that’s from someone that loves Sci-Fi. BB felt Generic in every single way but that doesn't make it a bad film. It’s safe. I wouldn't watch it again.

P.s. Who was the main bad guy in this film? The two Decepticons? The buff dude? That’s right… there wasn't really a main bad guy.

[Deadput]

Giant (Shape-shifting) Alien Robots. That is the only part I've ever cared about.

Plus, I got into G1 via The Movie and my favourite series is Beast Wars IE Futuristic Sci-Fi vehicles and Beast Alt-Modes. Humans aren't part of the Transformers package to everyone.

I found the weakest part of G1 to be the movie itself, the first part was decent until Prime died, and then the rest of the movie was a let down, not because I didn't like the new characters or the old characters dying but because the writing was weak and a not so good rip off of Star Wars.

I found season 3 of the G1 cartoon to be superior even with it's issues animation or otherwise.

Of course that's my opinion but I think some of the weaker Transformers stories so happen to be when it was away from Earth, not to say there has never been a weak story on Earth or bad human characters.

I just laugh at the idea that Transformers should stay away from humans forever, many Cybertronian forms look bad in alt mode.

Transformers might as well as never transform in a Cybertron/non earth only series, ah wait that was most of MTMTE.

[Deadput]

P.s. Who was the main bad guy in this film? The two Decepticons? The buff dude? That’s right… there wasn't really a main bad guy.

Obviously it was the two Decepticons, the whole damn climax at the end is dealing with their plan to call the rest of the Decepticons to Earth, their a constant presence in the whole movie.

I don't see how anyone could have trouble figuring that out.

The military and their distrust of aliens is there as an excuse for Bumblebee to not just go to the President and have the whole army blow up the Decepticons to bits, Burns was the face for that military.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Put simply, from an aesthetic point of view, I have never been interested in Earth-based vehicle alt-modes. Boring, generic, unimaginative. For example, the designs for G1 Cyclonus or BM Jetstorm (toy) are leaps and bounds beyond Starscream and his ilk to me.

As for people, I mean (the award-winning) Beast Wars showed you don't need humans to make a great Transformers series. Yet I'm not 100% against their inclusion, just that they shouldn't be a focal point.

While later IDWverse writers leaned hard into "Earth = Centre of The Universe" showing a general lack of creativity over anything else. Furman had it right in early IDWverse, Earth was just one of many battlefields. Nothing special.
That much is basically said here in Bumblebee.

[ZeroWolf]

But earth does allow them to make use of big star actors and real life locations to make a film cheaper I agree with what you're saying of course but the people in charge will always make different decisions to us

Regarding seeing this movie before in terms of what kind of story etc, etc. All story types have been done, what's new is the slant we give them. Bee is a coming of age tale of an 18 year old woman and a giant transforming car that's what makes it different and a story worth telling. Also I see it said a lot but TF the animated movie owes more to the archetype: "The Heroes Journey" then Star Wars... Or did I miss the part where Hot Rod rescued arcee from being captive, and learned he was Galvatrons son...

[AllNewSuperRobot]

What Bumblebee was, would be a "Palette Cleanser". It boiled down what came before and basically removed the hubris and stylistic choices of the former Director.

[Deadput]

Yeah we needed a simple film this time after the over convoluted mess of TLK

Baby steps, you don't slam in the whole week's meals into one sitting, to be honest this reason alone is why I think the Fallen was brought in as a villian to early, villian wise I think Sentinel and the Fallen should have been switched. (Not the "character" but which movie)

[ZeroWolf]

I think the Fallen was chosen because Bay thought he was a cool sounding villain. For me, the Fallen needs to tie into unicron, though on that subject, I did think it was brave that they seemed to be heading down Prime terrority with Unicron being earth. But I'm probably giving too much credit and the whole reason probably stems from them not wanting to do Unicron properly... Too afraid probably of running into the Galactus problem.

Anyhow, I think a prequel like Bee would have always been a smaller affair, even if Bay himself handled it

[Deadput]

I think the Fallen was chosen because Bay thought he was a cool sounding villain. For me, the Fallen needs to tie into unicron, though on that subject, I did think it was brave that they seemed to be heading down Prime terrority with Unicron being earth. But I'm probably giving too much credit and the whole reason probably stems from them not wanting to do Unicron properly... Too afraid probably of running into the Galactus problem.

Anyhow, I think a prequel like Bee would have always been a smaller affair, even if Bay himself handled it

To be honest the lack of drama and big ensemble casts was refreshing, Transformers movies have ran into the trouble of having to many characters. (I hate 5 man bands but casts like TLK were crazy)

My ideal cast would be 6-7 Autobots and 7-9 Decepticons (Not all the cons need to be "main" with deep backstories just have simple and clear personalities like Dropkick, so memorable henchmen type characters.)

As for humans, I think a good 2-3 main humans (not including any "villains") is good, this isn't including any minor side/supporting characters that establish the life of the main humans as long as they are actually relevant, I have no problem with human characters as long as their written well, play an actual story role and have good acting, would also like to see some adaptions of human characters from other parts of Transformers media like maybe an Agent Fowler or Raoul or something.


I would love to see a live action Chip Chase, maybe initially on his two feet before a Transformers conflict gets him crippled to better show the consequences of the Transformers conflict, we never have long lasting negative repercussions to the main humans for being involved in a war between giant robots which I think is part of why some fans don't like humans in Transformers.

[Nemesis Maximo]

Okay so, I finally got to see Bumblebee. And after all the praise from critics and fans, I’ve got to say...

I thought it was really dumb. I mean, I know the Live Action films are known for their continuity issues, but jeez...there is just no way this meshes with anything. If they do finally admit that it’s a reboot, then great. But since Travis Knight and Lorenzo do Bonaventura keep saying “it’s all part of the same thing” it’s all such a mess.

And I know I’m in the very very small minority when I say that I really didn’t like the Cybertron scene. I thought it was corny as hell.

But this is all just my opinion, I’m glad so many people did enjoy it. I’m just not one of them.

You know what I do actually take issue with though, is that Dropkick and Shatter are never actually referred to by name. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I hadn’t known who they are because of their toys, I wouldn’t have any idea who they were.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Okay so, I finally got to see Bumblebee. And after all the praise from critics and fans, I’ve got to say...

I thought it was really dumb. I mean, I know the Live Action films are known for their continuity issues, but jeez...there is just no way this meshes with anything. If they do finally admit that it’s a reboot, then great. But since Travis Knight and Lorenzo do Bonaventura keep saying “it’s all part of the same thing” it’s all such a mess.

No, I don't think it does mesh with anything. The comparison that kept coming to mind was X-Men: First Class. They both could be linked, but what is actually onscreen, as opposed to marketing hype, says no they are not.

You know what I do actually take issue with though, is that Dropkick and Shatter are never actually referred to by name. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I hadn’t known who they are because of their toys, I wouldn’t have any idea who they were.

I went with some friends to see this and I said the same thing when the film finished. Much like how Blitzwing went unnamed. In a way, I actually like it. You wouldn't introduce yourself to people who already know you. It's always been a clichéd trope to do so in print media and the like. So it was quite refreshing that they didn't settle for characterisation being solely dependent on name/visual familiarity.

EG "Oh look it's Starscream, we know what his deal is." Or "look it's Megatron, things are going to get real now."

[ZeroWolf]

Couldn't Dropkick and Shatter introduce themselves to S7 though? Introducing yourself to people who already know you is stupid but there's no harm to people who don't know you. How the 07 movie did it was pretty good, with the cons signing in to do some damage.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Yeah, but they also kept the idea that Decepticons view humans as beneath their notice. Would you introduce yourself to a bug, a pet or random wild animal?

[ZeroWolf]

Depends on if I was feigning interest or being...Deceptive

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Depends on if I was feigning interest or being...Deceptive

[Rogue-Primal]

All i can say it is a good movie. But it feels a lot like Bumblebee's behaviour is heavily inspired by the Iron Giant film.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Indeed. It is also a shame he reformatted into the ugly Camaro at the end.

[ZeroWolf]

Indeed. It is also a shame he reformatted into the ugly Camaro at the end.

The Movie is a prequel afterall (until we know the extent of box office sales) plus they already released toys of Camaro bee for this movie, so I'm not suprised that he reformatted. Out of all the toys released for the movie, the ones that feature characters not seen in the movie (hot rod, Barricade, rotf megs, tank blitz) that was the one I knew was going to be in it.