sorry i'm late get a little traffic uh
optimus
decepticons
the transformers feature film franchise
has been around longer than anyone wants
to admit but for the majority of its
lifespan it seemed like every film was
worse than the last until
this movie came out
where's b127
bumblebee is a pitch perfect
transformers story that has heart
emotion and most importantly crystal
clear storytelling it shows what makes
the transformers as a franchise great
and how the original michael bay films
almost without fail misunderstood what
made the robots in disguise popular from
the beginning before we dive in we
wanted to call out that this video topic
was suggested by one of our subscribers
lifepennybicycle21 who requested it on
our last community post celebrating our
1 million subscribers so thanks to them
and thanks again to all of you for being
part of the nerd soldier community
transformers is one of the most popular
and successful toy lines in the history
of the world however its origins are as
convoluted as they are humble created by
takashi matsura and an army of other toy
designers and inventors the original
line was produced by takata co-limited
through a bizarre series of events
hasbro licensed the designs from dai
clone and micro change toy lines in the
1980s and imported them to american
audiences with a new story background
and paint skins to make them more
appealing to western audiences thus they
were renamed transformers and consumer
products were never the same after
multiple wildly successful animated tv
shows and toy lines paramount pictures
and executive producer steven spielberg
teamed up to make a run at adapting the
beloved property into a big budget live
action feature film they hired roberto
orsi and alex kurtman to pin the script
and resident let's make stuff blow up
director michael bay was brought in to
bring the beloved autobots and despise
decepticons to life on the big screen
and that's where they went wrong yes the
five transformers films produced under
michael bay and company have been wildly
financially successful keeping paramount
in the black for close to two decades
but the films are riddled with issues
poor decisions and just generally drove
the transformers brand into a ditch so
before we get into bumblebee let's look
at what makes the other transformers
films just so bad when development was
initially beginning on transformers as a
live-action property spielberg suggested
the guiding theme of a boy and his car
which propelled orsi and kurtzman into
exploring themes of coming of age
maturity and the cresting horizon of
adulthood it lended a deeper emotional
complexity to the story and provided a
firm girding from which to build a story
on top of in the first film samut wiki's
emotional development and impending
responsibilities are symbolized by the
transformers humanity is centered in the
story but the transformers are used as
the emotional backbone of the story
bumblebee is basically just a human baby
that sam has to take care of ride be
responsible for and then fight bad guys
with it's all the joy of discovery and
bonding that e.t offered but with more
explosions and slo-mo megan fox
fetishization however after the
financial success of the first
installment is when bay's true
megalomania and complete lack of
anything interesting to say on a story
level reared its ugly head transformer's
revenge of the fallen which was rushed
into production after the release of the
first film was thrown for a loop due to
the 2007-2008 writers guild of america
strike bay would wrest creative control
away from everyone else involved in the
project and never really relinquish it
going forward so what is revenge of the
fallen about there's a macguffin and the
autobots sam and the decepticons have to
run all over the world trying to get it
the fact that the film even has that
loose of a structure is a miracle
because it was almost literally filmed
without a script which led directly to
bay's fingerprints over every aspect of
the production this is a key issue with
resulting transformers films dark of the
moon age of extinction and the last
knight they are all impossible to see
what's happening when the transformers
are fighting one another it's just
masses of gray blobs pounding
other gray blobs which is to say nothing
to the fact that despite the film series
being literally named the transformers
none of the autobots or decepticons have
any legitimately discernible character
personalities sure optimus is strong and
heroic and bumblebee can't talk but
other than that what's a character trait
for jazz or ironhide or literally any of
the decepticons that's not genero evil
the summer of 2015 marked a potential
turning point in the future prospects of
the transformers on the big screen
paramount announced it was putting
together a team of filmmakers to create
a writer's room this brain trust would
be responsible for charting both the
short and long-term future of everyone's
favorite robots in disguise featuring
the talents of akiva goldsmith robert
kirkman and ken noland who would
eventually go on to write the last night
and christina hodson among many other
writers this brain trust would be
constructed with the goal of operating
as a hybrid between marvel's creative
council and a traditional tv show
writer's room they would map out the
stories build a cohesive universe and
make sure that all the transformers
films going forward would fit into a
cohesive vision moving forward the
public perception of the franchise at
this point was that the movies were loud
long and emotionally taxing in their
stupidity bay had burned through all the
goodwill of the initial film the
transformers were borderline the
laughing stock of the cineplex and
paramount knew it that's why they were
attempting to course correct hodson and
the writer's room solidified a new
approach to the franchise that would be
risky but if it paid off could lead to
decades of new stories they would tell a
lightly incontinuity prequel story that
would allow them to go back to basics
and fix some of the elements that fans
had been complaining about since the
beginning they were taking the franchise
back to the 1980s and thus they decided
to finally adapt the g1 designs that's
right the new project would feature
designs influenced by the generation one
of the transformers that fans had been
calling for for as long as the
transformers had been on the big screen
christina hotson pitched a rough take to
paramount that was ostensibly e.t with
bumblebee simple straightforward and
back to the theme of growing older and
embracing responsibility the brass loved
this new approach and hodgson would
become the first writer to receive a
solo writing and story by credit
released on december of 2018 bumblebee
starred haley steinfeld as charlie and
john cena as jack burns a former us army
colonel and current sector 7 agent the
film takes place in 1987 and follows
charlie much like her real world
predecessor shia labeouf as she finds
bumblebee attempting to protect him from
evil forces both human and decepticon
alike the first element of bumblebee
that sets it apart from the rest of the
transformers canon is that it has an
emotional hook it has an easy to grasp
concept yes it's reminiscent of the
original film but it's dialed in works
better has more clearly defined
characters and a visual style and
setting that actually plays into the
subject matter bumblebee is what
transformers 1 wanted to be it's
basically the same logline a girl and
her car but this time it doesn't have
any of the baggage or stylistic
overcomplications of bae it's the
evolved version of the original mission
statement even just visually the movie
feels more like what transformers should
feel like the gen 1 designs of the
robots are just so much more clearer
easier to understand and visually
impressive the film balances humor and
action well and does a great job of
tethering bumblebee's story with
charlie's and giving them a common goal
you want to see if i can fix it
i'll be gentle i promise however despite
having a great emotional core the real
reason everyone comes to a transformers
movie is to see the fights and travis
knight's direction is stylized clear and
engaging even just the opening sequence
of bumblebee alone is heads and
shoulders above the previous entries
into the franchise we see the autobots
on cybertron being led by optimus
engaging in a last stand battle against
the decepticons the action is impactful
clear simple and direct the direction is
stylish but not overly complicated and
that's ostensibly the entire film's
modus operandi it's to re-establish what
the transformers could do you know
proving that it could be an actual movie
franchise again as opposed to grey and
decipherable kitchen appliances barking
orders at one another i know i brought
it up already but truly the inclusion of
the gen 1 designs really levels up the
viewing experience of this film by a
full 20
even if you're not a hardcore
transformers fan the simple fact that
all the characters have large color
areas on their bodies makes them easier
to track and the fact that they all have
defined silhouettes and head shapes
really helps to make them identifiable
especially in an opening sequence like
this where there are multiple robots
running around shooting at each other
despite everything bumblebee had going
for it paramount was so unsure about the
direction of the franchise that they
initially didn't confirm or deny that
this film would be a full-on reboot or
just a soft prequel well after the box
office hall of 468 million dollars
they've officially committed to this
approach as a reboot throwing out the
bay led continuity and using this as the
new marching orders for the franchise
without hodson and knight's emotionally
honest and straightforward approach to
building a new transformers story this
franchise could easily have gone the way
of the theatrical x-men or pirates of
the caribbean franchise however if
things play out the way that they look
like they're going to we're going to be
treated to an extended run of new
transformers movies bumblebee provided a
service that i didn't even know i wanted
it created a venue for the viewer to
re-fall in love with the transformers it
made a clean on-ramp to something that i
had loved and then became jaded by it
washed away the grit and grime of
michael bay's cynical lowest common
denominator choices placing bumblebee in
1987 seems like such a blatant play for
nostalgia bait but unlike so many other
properties that feel like they have to
be in the 80s placing the transformers
there really elevates the material
organically and these choices are
everywhere in bubble bee from costumes
to character motivations to story
structure to as i've already said the g1
designs it's a great example of not over
complicating things and just telling a
simple story with a clear and concise
goal 2023 will see rise of the beasts
building on the framework that bumblebee
established we'll see if including the
characters from beast wars and beast
machines overcomplicates the streamlined
approach that bumblebee took but if
nothing else it's very apparent that
bumblebee saved the transformers well
that's it for this episode thanks again
blythepennybicycle21 for the episode
and thank you all for the million
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