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stuffp
Keeping it Light
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:06 am Posts: 11201 Location: Bright Falls
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Bumblebee
Quote: Bumblebee is a 2018 American science fiction action film centered around the Transformers character of the same name. It is the sixth installment of the live-action Transformers film series and a prequel to 2007's Transformers. Directed by Travis Knight and written by Christina Hodson, and starring Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, and Pamela Adlon, with Dylan O'Brien as the voice of Bumblebee. It is the first live-action Transformers film not to be directed by Michael Bay, though he still acts as a producer. Principal photography on the film began on July 31, 2017, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.
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Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:33 am |
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publicenemy#1
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:25 am Posts: 18869 Location: San Diego
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Re: Bumblebee
This was... fine. Totally forgettable but Hailee Steinfeld was very good and the movie has heart. At least they kept the length below 2 hours thank god
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Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:41 am |
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David
Pure Phase
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:33 am Posts: 34865 Location: Maryland
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Re: Bumblebee
It is all right. It greatly benefits from the comparison to the ten-and-a-half hours of bloated, ugly Michael Bay sequels, which last left us with the assertion William Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, and, uh, Merlin were members of an ancient secret society devoted to hiding the presence of Transformers on earth. Just by being a modestly pleasant E.T. pastiche with no apocalyptic stakes or hyper-coarse humor, Bumblebee registers as a welcome balm.
Hailee Steinfeld is a charismatic lead and shares a convincing, warm chemistry with her computer-generated co-star. In his live-action directorial debut, Travis Knight (a key member of the the brilliant stop-motion-animation firm LAIKA) falls short in one key area: he has not figured out how to turn two enormous, metallic aliens smashing each other to bits into an involving action sequence. Though not as big and noisy and interminable as Bay's Transformers fights at their nadir, Knight's film is still at its most tedious when the robots start wrangling; it is hard to absorb so many moving parts, so landed blows and building-obliterating throws feel inconsequential and repetitive. Knight handles the more intimate and/or comic scenes with much more aplomb.
I will say this for Bay's films: I am a bit sad this film, as far as I can tell, has already removed the idea of Bumblebee helping the Allies during World War II from the continuity. Though oddly shoehorned into The Last Knight as an apparently-now-aborted prequel tease, it was a compelling concept and more ambitious than just changing the setting to a Stranger Things-style '80s milieu.
_________________1. The Lost City of Z - 2. A Cure for Wellness - 3. Phantom Thread - 4. T2 Trainspotting - 5. Detroit - 6. Good Time - 7. The Beguiled - 8. The Florida Project - 9. Logan and 10. Molly's Game
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Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:39 am |
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thompsoncory
Rachel McAdams Fan
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:13 am Posts: 14544 Location: LA / NYC
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Re: Bumblebee
This was quite charming, largely due in part to Hailee Steinfeld's wonderful performance and the film's humor and heart. This is another knockout turn for Steinfeld in the vein of her revelatory performance in Edge of Seventeen - so glad she's found a bit of direction in her career after languishing for many years after her Oscar nom. I will say though that the action sequences were forgettable and dull as they always are in these films. But it's leagues better than any other film in the franchise.
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Thu Dec 27, 2018 11:23 pm |
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Brian
Ocarina of Time
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:21 pm Posts: 7951 Location: Hyrule
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Re: Bumblebee
Bland shit, I was expecting more. D
_________________ Most Anticipated 2023
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Fri Dec 28, 2018 1:16 am |
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Magic Mike
Wallflower
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:53 am Posts: 34876 Location: Minnesota
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Re: Bumblebee
thompsoncory wrote: I will say though that the action sequences were forgettable and dull as they always are in these films. But it's leagues better than any other film in the franchise. Yeah those were the only thing that brought the movie down for me. Everything else was pretty terrific. Loved the soundtrack. 8/10 (A-)
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Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:41 am |
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Algren
now we know
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:31 pm Posts: 67028
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Re: Bumblebee
A delightful installment in the Transformers universe, but basically Man of Steel with robots. The action, particularly on Cyberton, is TERRIFIC. Each fight and action sequence is adeptly choreographed and filmed, raising the whole enterprise above its predecessor's often messy and cluttered array of metal fighting visual chaos. Loved the 80s vibe too, which totally worked on me for the first half of the film at least. I got a bit tired of it towards the end where it became one synth and/or power ballad too many, but on the whole I am pleased with delving into the 1980s for two hours. John Cena was totally surplus to requirements, as was the overall faux-heart and the soppiness with Memo and her parents. But Steinfeld was a pleasant surprise.
This is not as involving as I thought it would be. No where near the level of Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction, but it's better than the first two and obviously that last debacle.
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Sun Jan 06, 2019 10:06 am |
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Magic Mike
Wallflower
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:53 am Posts: 34876 Location: Minnesota
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Re: Bumblebee
I loved how much 80's music there was. I was hooked when they started with one of my favorite Smith's songs (Bigmouth Strikes Again).
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Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:11 pm |
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stuffp
Keeping it Light
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:06 am Posts: 11201 Location: Bright Falls
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Re: Bumblebee
Bumblebee is a welcome Transformers entry. The 80's throwback, although not totally authentic, is fun and the film has a lot of heart with Steinfeld in the lead. She's great, and I liked those who played her family also. Cena is fine too, just doesn't get much to do. Only the guy who had a crush on Steinfeld was pretty much a disaster, I felt he had no charisma, even he's the self-called nerd it was off. The Transformers action is decent too, some nice sequences, transformations and well filmed, more easy on the eyes than in the recent Transformer films. The plot of two Decepticons hunting for Bumblebee and being aided by the military also isn't too interesting really, but Steinfeld's arc with some nice hit songs along the way is and I was more pleased with this than not eventually.
B
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Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:27 am |
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Flava'd vs The World
The Kramer
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:36 am Posts: 23758 Location: Classified
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Re: Bumblebee
This was great. Maybe a little too corny sometimes, and I wish Cena was playing a funnier character, but it never lost its spirit. The effects are phenominal, the transformations are so smooth and the well-lit action is always exciting. And the music choices were always spot on. The franchise has been saved by going back to the 80s. And having a story that can fit into a 2 hour movie without endless waves of exposition.
And I admit I got a little choked up during the big dive. Nice payoff!
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Wed Jan 09, 2019 3:58 pm |
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Rev
Romosexual!
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 3:06 am Posts: 32095 Location: the last free city
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Re: Bumblebee
A+
Best Transformers movie ever! Please make more of this style. PLEASE!!!
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Wed Jan 09, 2019 6:37 pm |
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SolC9
Forum General
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:11 pm Posts: 7172 Location: Wisconsin
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Re: Bumblebee
I really enjoyed this. It's not perfect, but it's fun, got heart, and the action is very well done. THIS is what a Transformers movie should be.
8/10
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Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:12 am |
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Felipe
Child Actor
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:20 pm Posts: 36
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Re: Bumblebee
Well... for a moment my eyes started to cry remembering my childhood and the similitud with the original cartoons... (some mistakes but it was crazy good) until they screwed it up...
I will just say... "I was 69,69% entertained by what I saw"
C+ for disappointed me
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Sat Mar 02, 2019 8:43 am |
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Dil
Forum General
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:48 pm Posts: 8942 Location: Houston, Texas
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Re: Bumblebee
Yeah unfortunately I wasn't big on this either. Hailee Steinfield gives a good performance and her scenes with Bumblebee were kind of cute and sweet at times. I also loved the brief battle sequences on Cybertron, but the rest of this movie was honestly pretty lame IMO from the awful, corny attempts at humor to the weak sauce action. I hated the scenes with the annoying family, especially the dad and the brother, and John Cena was just overacting his ass off the whole time, and none of his one liners were landing. I never bought that his character was some kind of badass let alone a threatening villain, although I got maybe two good chuckles out of him that was about it. I really didn't care for the guy who played the nerdy love interest either.
I'll at least give Travis Knight credit for making a film that for the most part is pretty well made, and has some really well directed action sequences, but I'd rather watch any of the first three Transformers again than re-watch this even 2 and 3 which I wasn't big fans of, but still found more entertaining than this.
C-
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Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:21 pm |
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Tuukka
Indiana Jones IV
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:35 am Posts: 1830 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Re: Bumblebee
I think this is easily the best Transformer film. It lacks the grandiose moneyshots of Bay films, which is probably the reason it "only" made close to 500 million worldwide. But it is better on every other way. The action scenes actually have choreography, strategy and story in them. The script makes sense, and is quite affecting at times. The two main characters and their relationship is great.
And I think Hailee is a superstar in this. I only remember her as the little girl in True Grit. I know she has done some prolific films and has established an impressive musical career (Her viewings on Youtube and Spotify are pretty impressive).
But holy shit she is good. She's hot and beautiful in a way that somehow manages to combine exotic looks (Probably coming from her Filipino roots) with neighbor girl relatibility, bad girl glamour and good girl vulnerability. Her acting is brilliant and authentic, with absolutely no false notes anywhere, even when she's acting with CGI objects. And she's just instantly lovable. She carries the film effortlessly on her shoulders, and in all honesty, it would be clearly a lesser movie without her.
It's really rare to see someone so obviously ready for superstardom. She's going to places. I'm a huge fan now.
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Sun Jun 02, 2019 5:49 am |
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Chippy
KJ's Leading Pundit
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:45 pm Posts: 63026 Location: Tonight... YOU!
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Re: Bumblebee
I thought this was great. And my 2 year old loved it.
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Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:49 pm |
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i.hope
Defeats all expectations
Joined: Fri May 26, 2006 5:04 pm Posts: 6665
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Re: Bumblebee
Breezy and had some cute moments (the deleted "appliance war" scene was great). The story was trite though.
68/100
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Sat Jul 06, 2019 9:34 pm |
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Thegun
On autopilot for the summer
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 10:14 pm Posts: 21632 Location: Walking around somewhere
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Re: Bumblebee
What the hell has happened to Rotten Tomatoes. 93%? It's probably the best since the original but come on. It's a fun film from start to finish, but that's it.
_________________Chippy wrote: As always, fuck Thegun. Chippy wrote: I want to live vicariously through you, Thegun!
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Thu Jul 11, 2019 9:22 pm |
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Jack Sparrow
KJ's Leading Idiot
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm Posts: 36923
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Re: Bumblebee
I really love this because its not another end of the world movie. The action is decent and story flows very well. Its not a great coming-of-age comedy but the acting is great across the board. Hailey is charismatic in here and her chemistry with Bumblebee is even better that what Lebouf shared in first movie. John Cena is easily the weakest link here but thankfully he isn't much in the movie. For me this is easily the best Transformer movie and hopefully if they make them in future they should continue this route rather than choosing world destruction.
B+
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Sun Dec 06, 2020 2:25 am |
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