#other transformers characters

[the-masked-reviewer]

Bumblebee (2018) Review

potential spoilers ahead...

This movie feels like it took the fan-favorite character and decided to make a cash-grab with him. Which would be less frustrating if it made sense in the Transformers universe or with his characterization(Yes, I am arguing they characterized a robot wrong). But it doesn't.

This movie's story is like you gave someone the worst vague description of who Bumblebee is and the Transformers as a whole (specifically the cinematic timeline) and had them write a movie, without ever going in and making the continuity make sense in terms of timeline, story, and characterization. On top of all that the teenage romance is boring, unnecessary, and out of place.

The music is great, because it's set in the 80's so duh. But even knowing it's a reboot, and that it's about my favorite character, and that many seem to love it, this is easily my least favorite transformers movie by a landslide.

Before I actually cover those changes, it's important to know that months after the film came out, it was confirmed as a reboot (comicbook.com) information that at least to my knowledge was never mentioned. Meaning if you don't know this is an attempt to reboot the franchise before watching, like me, it's pretty fucking confusing and infuriating. It does also mean, you can basically ignore the next two paragraphs of me being annoyed if you want.

Starting with the changes to the overall timeline, the biggest, and most confusing, change is the time period and reason various Autobots come to Earth. I was meant to be paying attention to the teenage romance and the two Decepticons chasing Bee, but instead this change left me wondering who else was supposed to be on Earth in all the wrong ways, distracting me from the story.  Obviously the change of who's present and when, changes just about everything we previously knew about the universe. You'd think that would make it clear its a reboot or alternate universe, wouldn't you? If fucking only.

The characterization makes Bee out to be constantly scared and reserved. And while the reasoning of prequel and how supposedly you watch him grow confident is used to explain it, I hate it. By the end of the movie Bee is still this cowardly robot who shrunk into a ball because a human teenaged girl SORT OF yelled at him. Bumblebee is supposed to be a confident, cocky, fun protector, not a nervous wreck.

[the-masked-reviewer]

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) Review

potential spoilers ahead...

As always with this franchise, the CGI is on another level. The amount of detail and realistic movements applied to these robot cars is truly astounding.

For starters, this movie's story uses a take on Arthurian Legend and adds a dragon on top, and I for one am easily bought by knights and dragons, making the overall story more interesting and fun. Of course the movie with knights, swords, and a dragon Transformer, also manages to show you more of all of the various dinosaur transformers than age of extinction, the dinosaur transformer movie.

This movie directly follows possibly the worst of the Transformers movies (cough extinction cough) which made me almost believe that the movies after would go back to what made the originals before them so much fun (I was wrong, but that's not this movie's fault, its their performance's fault).

[the-masked-reviewer]

Transformers (2007) Movie Review

potential spoilers ahead...

One of my most prominent thoughts after watching this (and almost every other Transformer movie) is "damn, I want a Camaro" so… the Chevy ad aspect of the movie clearly works well.

As for the actual movie, it's an action war movie about sentient alien robot cars. The quality of the story is exactly what you expect from alien robot cars. The CGI is actually very impressive and does a really good job at making these characters feel real.

This is one of those movies that you know objectively isn't really that good by any means, but it's fun. I've always really liked this entire franchise (probably just because of cool cars and Bumblebee) and I don't see that changing any time soon. At the end of the day, movies are a form of entertainment, and if you were entertained, then it was a good movie.

[the-masked-reviewer]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Review

potential spoilers ahead...

This movie, much like the first, is cars, guns, and explosions. I find it fun and a good movie to put on if you want something you don't have to think about with action. The actual story isn't anything groundbreaking, but given that this is the second movie about transforming alien robot cars, how high are your expectations, really? The CGI is well done. This whole franchise does a very good job at making the alien robots feel and look real. And when you compare these effects to those in movies almost 20 whole years later, you really do need to acknowledge just how well these effects are made, and how they still hold up today.

[the-masked-reviewer]

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) Review

potential spoilers ahead...

The CGI in this movie, like in the others, is absolutely incredible. The amount of work done to make these alien robots look real and convincing is insane, and the results speak for themselves. This movie is one of the funniest in the series. As the third installment in this franchise about aliens, this is the first to utilize space as a story element, helping the overall story to be interesting. Before this, it was always aliens bringing their war to Earth. This time war is not all they plan on bringing, they want to bring their entire planet. Of the Transformer movies I've seen, which is all but the latest, this is what I would call the last good one, or at least the last one that I find enjoyable to watch.

[the-masked-reviewer]

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

potential spoilers ahead...

Just like with Bumblebee, I went in not fully realizing this was a reboot which definitely affected how much I enjoyed it. I do think it's slightly better than Bumblebee and Age of Extinction, but that isn't saying very much. It's still not good, just not quite that bad.

The way ScreenRant describes this reboot as simultaneously a reboot that "softly disrupt[s]" the story (which is in no way how any reboot has ever worked) and as prequels to Bay's movies just makes trying to understand the direction this is all going that much more complicated.

The Autobot the main human works with, Mirage, is so annoying. This makes it hard to really care or enjoy anything happening in the movie. The beasts and their whole section of the story was actually interesting. And from what I understand, fans of the cartoons were looking forward to seeing this part of the Transformers lore come to life. Unfortunately, it didn't do so in a way that was actually entertaining or good.

Personally, I prefer Bay's Action filled, over the top creations. They knew what they were, and leaned into the action and that's what made them so good. I wish they either kept with unapologetic action movies or just stopped making Transformers movies at all opposed to all of this.

[the-masked-reviewer]

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) Review

potential spoilers ahead...

This movie's story is boring and feels disjointed. While you don't expect much story-wise from this franchise, you do expect to at least care about the human characters, which I just can't seem to do. You don't get to the first transformation, and subsequently the first taste of real action, until about 35 minutes in, taking away opportunities to show off the CGI these movies are so good at. Not to mention one of the selling points, dinosaur Transformers finally being shown on screen at the 2 hour 13 minute mark in a 2 hour 45 minute movie. Meaning you only get these characters for about 15 minutes, most of which they aren't even on screen. This is also the first movie in the franchise to play pop music over some of the scenes, including fight scenes. The songs they chose don't fit the scenes they are playing them over or the movie as a whole.

In my rewatch of these movies to review them, I almost didn't want to finish this one. Watching it right after Transformers: Dark of the Moon really makes the entire shift in mood, story, and overall approach that much more noticeable and worse.