07 isn’t a trash movie. It’s an okay movie, not great, but not terrible either
5 Likes
its become a guilty pleasure of mine ngl
jablonsky’s score makes it very bearable
3 Likes
It’s not a perfect movie, but as a product to introduce the world of Transformers to a general audience, it IS the perfect movie.
Sure, there’s too many Bay-isms (something that would get worse with time, unfortunately) and we as fans might complain about lack of robot screen-time, but focusing on the humans and introducing the Cybertronians through them was the best move. The only reason the opening of Bumblebee was possible is because literally everyone knows who Optimus Prime is now.
They may have taken all the wrong lessons from TF1 (focus on humans, bigger explosions equals better movie, etc), but it was a strong if flawed start. It also pretty much saved Transformers as a brand, so we gotta give it credit for that. When you’re the target demographic for this film when it comes out (like I was) and you have no clue what Transformers are, you know the brand is in trouble.
3 Likes
I admit I liked the movie (heck I even rewatch it sometimes) but it’s not a good movie, the characters are boring, the autobots are a joke and Sam is almost as unlikable as his godawful parents, I love the toys but they all fail as movies except maybe 4 which would actually be good with a little tweaking (I think maybe have Galvatron or Lockdown, both means neither get enough screentime) but if the movie was made with a better writer, Transformers 2007 could be a cult classic, but no it’s a joke and Bay’s luck has run out, causing the series to go back to square one
“Any last words?”
“Give me your face!”
“We will kill them all.”
“I’ll kill you!”
“DIE!”
“Defend my family or die!”
“NNNGRAAAAGHH!”
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
9 Likes
It’s just dawned on me that it’s been well over a decade since the first movie. Ain’t that something.
And, as much as I am aware that neither of my two favourite continuities (Prime and Animated, they tie for me, honestly) would have been possible without the Bayverse… did they have to suck so hard? It’s a dead horse, I get it, but if you call “bay-isms” bad writing, bad characters, and a team that barely knew or cared about what it was working on? I suppose the first one had that?
Sam is… there are many words one could use to describe Sam, none of which I’m allowed to use here. Bumblebee is barely a character, and especially later on it seems like they keep up the voice quirk just because they can’t be bothered to write one for him. So there’s our important human-robot bond in the dirt. Optimus Prime - inspirational? I guess? He was basically just a plank of wood that they used for expository speeches in this one (and a psycho in the rest of them). He displayed some measure of care for the humans, but most of what we see of them in the film is messing with Sector 7 and accidentally causing collateral damage so that doesn’t amount to much. Ironhide - triggerhappy annoyance, Jazz - stereotype, Ratchet - I remember one line, and it was a bad joke.
The Decepticons get very little dialogue beyond “A’M EVUL” (or just unintelligible screeching) so there’s that. Then the other human characters are either generic, or annoying, or a stereotype, or some mix of the previous.
The military is established as being capable of taking down the Decepticons on their own with heat rounds, especially with the small number seen in this film - thereby invalidating the existence of the Autobots. And it’s bizarre: despite their reputation, the runtime of most of these films is really just filled up with tedious nonsense and unfunny gags rather than robots punching each-other like it says on the tin. Like let’s actually break this down:
Start of the film, fairly big scene: Blackout wrecks the crap out of the base. Okay, fair enough. Then we’re on tedious scenes with Sam for a bit, cutting back to that girl I can’t be bothered to remember the name of finding out what the heck happened there, and the military guys screwing around in the desert every now and then. They fight Scorponok. Eh.
Then we get our first actual robot on robot fight… except not really because most of the scene focuses on Frenzy tearing Sam’s pants off (great work guys). Then we get another lull for a bit as the other Autobots finally show up. We screw around with them some more, Sector 7 captures Bumblebee and tries to make us feel sorry for him by making him sound like a dying whale. And then finally, finally we get our big action bit at the end that goes on for quite a bit. Bonecrusher tussles with Optimus on a highway, we have mission city - Optimus fights Megatron, “Devastator” is there, all good fun.
And it’s like… none of the inbetween stuff was even all that good. The score did half of the work, honestly. It’s just… sure, it introduced the wider public to Transformers again, but… at what cost? The bayverse is low-hanging joke fruit in the public eye.
Maybe I’m just a cynic, I dunno.
3 Likes
Imo there’s one good transformers movie and it’s from 1986, it treats it’s transformers like characters, Daniel is nowhere near as bad as Sam and Wheelie isn’t much of a main character and when he is I prefer him to any character in Bayformers
1 Like
And Bumblebee
4 Likes
I’m probably gonna rent Bumblebee soon out of curiosity
8 Likes
Do it.
I guarantee you will not regret it.
4 Likes
You should, it’s insanely good.
1 Like
I’m disappointed you didn’t see it before now. It’s the second best transformers movie I’ve seen (first being transformers the movie)
3 Likes
I’m not a transformer person lol. I’ve wanted to see it but I wanted to wait for the amazon rental price to drop
1 Like
Am I the only one who’s against Paramount’s announcement that they’re turning Bumblebee into a reboot instead of a prequel? I mean, they announced and developed it as a prequel, and it contains SO many references to the Bayverse. And yet they redid the opening and ending scenes to make it more G1, just so they could call it a reboot.
There is a rumor that in 2021, there will be a reboot movie with several human characters reprising their roles from Bumblebee, and having Megatron on Earth doing damage. Honestly, that movie should be the reboot. If they want to reboot this franchise, then I’m fine with it. But taking the prequel and claiming that it’s a reboot just feels…wrong to me. Seriously, what made them think it was okay? If anything, it’s caused problems by sowing seeds of confusion.
I just want them to reboot the whole dang thing. Start fresh properly.
I’m alright with the rebooting, personally. Bumblebee is a good launching point, and it has everything I like about the Bayverse while jettisoning all the stupid elements. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s exactly what I feel was needed for a fresh start. And sure, it was partially envisioned as a prequel starting out, but the possibility of making it a reboot has been on the table for quite a while now, so it’s not like it’s a sudden forced development
4 Likes
Bumblebee is a perfectly fine movie. Honestly I feel like tossing it on the sinking ship of the bayverse would be doing it a disservice. It’s genuinely charming, and heartfelt, it really captures what’s actually appealing about Bumblebee, and has human characters I give a crap about. I want to see where they go next. It would be a shame to let it go to waste as far as I’m concerned.
4 Likes
Tbh, I think that is Bumblebee remained part of the Bayverse, people would beg Hollywood to make it a reboot. It’s too good for the standards of the Bayverse.
Actually, this is what happened. Bumblebee was part of the Bayverse a few good months after its release, and everybody was bagging for a change.
1 Like
First of all, the Bayverse has sucked at continuity since circa 2011. I’ve jumped through hoops and hoops in this very thread trying to make heads or tales of any of it and TLK just finally killed any semblance of trying to keep things cohesive. Bumblebee, even before reboot reshoots, was going to continue to be a jumbly mess in continuity as well. From what we can tell, nothing about Shatter and Dropkick was rewritten, meaning that two Decepticons would’ve been inside the same base that their frozen leader and MacGuffin cube were and they did diddly squat about it. Rewriting the movie as a reboot rather than a prequel actually helps this, as now Sector 7 is just some sort of CIA retool and they don’t have alien tech hidden in their basement. And that’s just one instance, there’s a few others where this is the case. Any other references to the original '07 movie can be seen as a homage or just a reboot using story ideas found in the original material and putting a new spin on it, which reboots do all the time. Ironically, you speak of audience confusion at the prospect of using Bumblebee as a reboot movie when trying to keep up with Bayverse continuity prior to Bee is even more confusing and a perfect reason why using it as a reboot film is a perfect idea.
In terms of audience confusion, I don’t think that’s going to matter much considering the diminishing returns the franchise saw over the course of the last two releases. After Age of Extinction made all the money thanks to pandering to China, The Last Knight was a financial disappointment because everyone was tired of Bay’s style/storytelling. Bumblebee did well in comparison to its budget, but didn’t match any of the other films by a long shot. What a reboot using Bee as a spring board has going for it is good word of mouth. The film had positive reviews attached to it upon release, and its continued to have a positive reception to those that have watched it on home video. People are going to be open to seeing a sequel to it because it was good, and they’ll be able to accept the reboot for a multitude of reasons.
One of those is that the film (from the rumors) is going to be set in the 1990s, which is still before the events of the '07 movie, and those that are going to see it to waste upwards of two hours and have a good time aren’t going to care about continuity the way we nerds do. And we nerds are going to know it’s a reboot and be able to follow the story without having to question continuity since there’s only one other film in this new timeline. Look at Spider-Man for instance. From 2002 to present there have been eight different Spider-Man films featuring four different actors playing the web head. Three with McGuire, two with Garfield, two with Tom Holland (with a third on the way not to mention his appearances in other MCU films), and a Spider-Verse. If people can keep track of all the different Spider-Man movies and realize they’re not all in the same universe, I think they’ll be able to figure out that Bee and Bee 2 are separate from the Bay continuity despite the protagonist sharing design similarities with his other film version.
4 Likes
Really it was already causing problems for itself since 2009, but I digress.