Movie Review - (TF6) Transformers Bumblebee

[Lord_Zed]

Someone told me that they weren't impressed with John Cena's acting and didn't expect much from him because he's a wrestler... but surely being a wrestler makes you an actor! Aah, wrestling... possibly the only sport where the professionals are fake but the amateurs are authentic.

Sure, but doesn't make him a good actor.

I found John Cena's acting pretty damn cheesy myself, though there's a lot of cheesy bits in the movie, so it wasn't a deal breaker. Also he is quite charismatic, although never quite that threatening as the human antagonist.

[GoktimusPrime]

John Cena's acting is incredibly cheesy, but I think it's deliberate as it gives the film an extra layer of 80s cheese. So many macho tough dudes in 80s action movies were over the top and cheesy. Either way I don't think his character holds back the movie... it wasn't as if Cena's character spent an entire scene explaining some creepy Romeo & Juliet law to the audience <shudder>


And I still find Charlie to be quite a refreshingly interesting human lead character. One interesting thing is that she's not some cosmically pre-ordained destiny's child. Her grandfather didn't discover Megatron. Her family isn't linked to a secret order. She wasn't destined to find a magical MacGuffin. She's isn't the last knight and Memo isn't the last living descendant of a wizard. She's just an ordinary kid who has incidentally become friends with Bumblebee.

Another cool thing is that she's under no real obligation to help Bumblebee or be with him. Sam was obligated because of his grandfather and his glasses. Cade became obligated because his family became targeted and they soon became fugitives from Cemetery Wind - then it turns out that he was a pre-ordained knight of Cybertron. Right. The one big difference with Charlie was that she did not have to help Bumblebee, and there were many opportunities for her to walk away. She could have kicked him out of her home. She could have reported him to the feds. When Sector 7 captured Bumblebee and safely brought her home, she could've just stayed home. She had to go out of her way to sneak out of home and go and save Bumblebee. When she freed Bumblebee she didn't have to follow him when he went after the Decepticons - Bumblebee didn't even want to bring her along but she insisted because Earth was also in danger. When they arrived, Bumblebee put her in a skip bin to keep her safe, and she could've stayed there. Even after the bin was blown up and she was thrown out, she could've run off for safety. But she chose to run into danger in order to climb the tower and disable the Decepticons' transmitter. There were so many moments where she could've just gone home, but she didn't. She reminds me of characters like Superman or Wonder Woman... characters who just want to help because it's the right thing to do. Acting out of altruism. It's different from characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman etc. who fight evil because they feel some sense of personal obligation; e.g. Stark Industries created weapons which were used against good people, thus Tony Stark feels directly responsible for fighting the evil that he's created.

Another difference between their relationship is that Charlie treats Bumblebee as a friend, not a pet or an accessory. She doesn't sit on his bonnet and make out with Memo. Just compare the reaction of Sam after Bumblebee blew up part of the Witwicky home and front yard. Bumblebee was essentially told to shut the hell up and get back into the garage right now -- you bad boy! When Bumblebee trashed the Watsons' home, Charlie was initially angry but she then said that it was her own fault because she should never have left him home alone. She came to empathise with Bumblebee in order to understand why he did what he did rather than just berating and banishing him. It is such a different character dynamic.

[Dan]

Actually, the bonnet chest thing did happen in the 1980s due to some artists being more creatively liberal and not sticking to the prescribed design as closely as others. I used to have a colouring in activity book that I got in 1985 that had this image on it:

Reminds me a bit of Bugbite from Machine Men. A lot of those supporting media were wonky.

Bumblebee's battle mask has always been a throwback to the G1 toy, but Travis Knight's Bumblebee mask is the most G1 accurate looking one in the movie continuity thus far.

And even without knowing the original toy, the current mask looks the best, and I think it will resonate with the whole ‘bee’ motif for a lot of casual viewers. Even the hexagonal pattern of his optics, a common design in SF, is reminiscent of a honeycomb.

She's isn't the last knight and Memo isn't the last living descendant of a wizard. She's just an ordinary kid who has incidentally become friends with Bumblebee.

You're reminding me of things that annoyed me in The Last Knight. I was never going to be a big fan, but I still noticed some lost opportunities that would have made that movie better. Surely, the English woman, supposedly an hereditary wizard, could have been more of a tech-facilitated spell-caster towards the end, but was kinda useless. Likewise, the scrappy girl who was close to Squeaks, who turns into a damned scooter, could have ridden that scooter as part of some crucial action scene.

Oh well, things are better now.

[TaZZerath]

I finally saw it for my birthday. I was not disappointed.

Movies which make me feel like this one did stay with me a long while after I’ve seen them. For me this is the best in the franchise by leagues and bounds. The small cast allowed for good plot movement and character development and the run time didn’t allow for any boring spots.

Thank you Travis Knight. You are truly the hero the fandom deserves.

I’m on Christmas holidays or I’d find the time to write more.

[Autocon]

I watched it and enjoyed it. Tie for 1st with 2007 movie. Slowed down in parts. Not quite sure how bb survived and shatter didnt. Or how chains blew up dropkick. They corrupted the continuity but if its a reboot..

6/10

[GoktimusPrime]

Not quite sure how Bumblebee survived and shatter didnt. Or how chains blew up dropkick.
6/10

Shatter fought Bumblebee at the end, and Bumblebee survived because he dropped beneath the ship's stern and sank to the bottom, thus avoiding being slammed by the ship. Charlie then dived after him.

They corrupted the continuity but if its a reboot..

Kinda hard to argue maintaining continuity with Bayformers when it hardly maintains continuity with itself.

e.g. showing the Autobots arriving on Earth in 1987 instead of 2007... okay, but remember that Bumblebee fought in World War II ... and Optimus Prime and the other Autobots fought alongside the Order of the Witwiccans throughout centuries of human history, only to "first arrive" in 2007. Not to mention that the Autobots in historical images are seen with 21st century vehicle kibble! Like the photo of Hot Rod taken in 1901 with Lamborghini Centenario parts. Despite the fact that he was a Citroen before scanning the Lambo in 2017. Hound is seen in an image from 1883 with vehicle parts from an Oshkosh Defence FMTV truck. There's a painting from 1562 showing Megatron in his TLK form and DOTM Shockwave together! There's a picture of Ironhide with his Topkick parts towing a tall sail ship, another one of Optimus Prime with his Peterbilt kibble fighting some musket era war (well, he's just standing there) etc etc.

Suffice to say that the Bayformer films have a LOT of continuity issues among themselves, as well as between each other. Bumblebee's not without errors or anomalies, but they're all honestly pretty minor stuff. One error that TFwiki has nitpicked is:
"Charlie starts playing the first track on Sam Cooke's album Sam's Songs, which ought to have been "Little Things You Do" rather than "Unchained Melody". The latter song doesn't even appear on the album, being the last track on side A of Cooke's earlier release Hits of the 50's."
That's it. Feel free to check the tfwiki pages on the other Bayformer films and read the long list of errors for each of those films.

[Defcon]

Bumblebee was a good, but not great movie for me. But my partner thought it was boring and not enough action. I agree, but maybe we don't exactly fit the target audience. There is a lot of potential going forward into future movies.

Things I liked,
- References to the eighties
- The G1 transformers Cybertron scenes were great, would like to see more of these in future movies.
- The first encounter scene was awesome.
- Characterization for main human character Charlie, was spot on. Other
human characters didn't bother me to much. John Cena's character balances this movie out with another perspective.
- Transformers villains were well done, and also have great characterization.
Decepticons actually been deceptive. well done.

I thought the marketing for this movie was to focused. It allows for a coherent story but it didn't really pull me in. I guess Bumblebee is the transformers mascot! The teenager and car story line, I was not sold on the idea, just seemed typically boring. But the trailers made it look ok and it works in the movie. The Decepticons were what sold me, and John Cena. Otherwise I was really worried this movie was going to be boring.

[Paulbot]

All of these continuity “errors” can be fixed up pretty easily if you use your imagination. This used to be part of the fun of being a fan coming up with such answers (in all sorts of sci-fi fandoms like TF, Star Wars, Star Trek etc). But these days all fans want to do is score points and prove they are smart by pointing out the errors or contradictions. Those CinemaSins videos are an example of that.

[reillyd]

When I heard about the ratings change I was worried we wouldn't see squelching of human flesh beings, but Dropkicks 'make a human exploding liquid' gun is frigging awesome

I hope there's more of it in the DVD release.

I loved Shatter, and do hope she can be revived for a future movie. Megs was ad infinitum. She's adorably psychopathic, and I want a studio series deluxe or Voyager toy of her in jet mode. I have the movie nitro series, but the articulation is pretty crap. I would have preferred the jet to the monster truck studio series.

John cena's acting deserved a blast from Dropkick

[Galvatran]

Ffs ten years after the first movie and you’re pulling out the BB is the character from Beast Wars II rubbish again? Thought you’d got over that.

Yes Yes. Let the hate flow through you.