Travis Knight Says Megatron Was Not in his Film to Maintain Continuity with Bayverse

Kyleor wrote:It feels like a reboot, no matter what people are being told to say.

Its not about what people are being told to say, I just newsed a story saying that Travis Knight was told to make a prequel and thus could not include specific scenes and characters he wanted since it wouldnt fit continuity.

I had done so well avoiding spoilers and then we front page one the day the movie comes out :'(

ScottyP wrote:I had done so well avoiding spoilers and then we front page one the day the movie comes out :'(

Well, considering that this film takes place in 1987 and Megatron doesn't awaken until 2007, I kinda figured that his absence from the film would have been a given (and I still haven't seen it yet but will in about 30 minutes or so from now, as of this typing).

Sabrblade wrote:

ScottyP wrote:I had done so well avoiding spoilers and then we front page one the day the movie comes out :'(

Well, considering that this film takes place in 1987 and Megatron doesn't awaken until 2007, I kinda figured that his absence from the film would have been a given (and I still haven't seen it yet but will in about 30 minutes or so from now, as of this typing).

Movie continuity is so loose I assumed there could be some allowance for him being there and getting deactivated again. I was genuinely curious!

Transformers Continuity. An oxymoron since 1984! Personally I think this works in both veins. theres enough connecting tissue to make this a prequel, but also enough pieces that don't fit into the established world to make it a reboot. Personally, I enjoy it for what it is, a dang good transformers movie. I hope it does really really well at the box office, because hasbro needs to make more like this one.

Everyone seems to be discussing whether Bumblebee is a reboot or not. This question can only be asked based on one basic assumption; that a continuity exists for it to be, or not to be, a part of.

On one hand, Travis Knight says there is a continuity and he had to follow certain plot points. Michael Bay said all of his films were sequels. Fantastic. On the other hand, take a look at the actual continuity of the Bayverse films. Megatron's dead at the end of the 3rd movie, very specifically dead in the 4th and comes back as Galvatron, and is then inexplicably back as Megatron for the 5th.

Now, while that's just one example of the many, many continuity plotholes the Bayverse has I bring it up for a specific reason: They stopped Megatron's inclusion in a prequel due to "continuity" while previously allowing Megatron to appear in a sequel despite "continuity".

What they say doesn't match what they do.

If you prefer Bumblebee to be a standalone movie, that's your choice. If you want it to be a prequel, go for it. If you want it to be the start of a reboot, that's fine.

Fortunately for Transformers fans we have the Unicron Singularity for just such situations.

I'm just taking this movie as a solo film (no pun intended), not a reboot, and not in continuity either. There are so many other contradictions already that not showing Megatron on Cybertron to "preserve continuity", is really superfluous at this point. The manner and arrival of all sorts of Transformers on Earth has changed with each passing film.

Maybe he didn't remembered or watched everything:now it's time for every possible mocking-rant on the sequels

Hmm...My first message has dissapeared

There are several reasons why Bumblebee doesn't tie in with the Baymovies.


In the 07 movie, Optimus Prime specifically says they're on Earth looking for the Allspark. There's no mention of that in Bumblebee where Prime specifically sends him to Earth to set up a base for the other Autobots.

In the Last Knight, Bumblebee and Hot Rod are seen fighting Nazis during World War 2 but Bumblebee doesn't arrive on Earth until the 80s in the Bumblebee movie.

There’s so much talk about the movies being bad and not making any sense continuity wise that I think it’s pushing people away. If not for the Cybertron scenes I wouldn’t have gone to see it. It was a good movie that I think I would’ve enjoyed way better in the comfort of my own home.

Windsweeper wrote:There are several reasons why Bumblebee doesn't tie in with the Baymovies.


In the 07 movie, Optimus Prime specifically says they're on Earth looking for the Allspark. There's no mention of that in Bumblebee where Prime specifically sends him to Earth to set up a base for the other Autobots.

In the Last Knight, Bumblebee and Hot Rod are seen fighting Nazis during World War 2 but Bumblebee doesn't arrive on Earth until the 80s in the Bumblebee movie.

To be fair, there's inconsistencies like that in the bay movies and they are sequels to each other.

Just got back from seeing the movie. With no pun intended, I give it a solid B.

As for the continuity issues, it's really primarily just TLK with its "familiar Autobot characters on Earth during historical era events" that this movie conflicts with, more than anything else, which almost gets me wondering if maybe it was decided by Paramount to kinda quietly sweep TLK under the rug and sorta pretend like that movie didn't happen (after how unsuccessful it was as a film).

That's probably for the best. Though regarding TLK, I'm still suprised they went with how Alligned handled Unicron.

ScottyP wrote:I had done so well avoiding spoilers and then we front page one the day the movie comes out :'(

I knew this two days ago

Just got back and the movie was much better than I expected it to be in all aspects.

It was much more toned down on the action scenes for most of it, meaning less going on since less combatants total between Autobots, Decepticons, and Army.

I had fun seeing most of the old 80s stuff at the beginning and the G1/Bayverse design mix actually worked pretty well for me even in the parts that looked like a videogame at the Cybertron opening scene.

The part with Optimus totally surrounded and Jon 3.0's Soundwave stuff was pretty cool to see too.

Probably had the most fun out of all the movies so far at this one, was toned down pretty well on the gritty/adult stuff most people complain about with only a few curse words here and there especially compared to TLK and DOTM.

Overall it was more of an adventure movie and less an action flick feel.

Steinfeld came through as a great human lead that worked better than I thought she would as well.

The plot points played out like many things taken from Season 1 of TF: Prime, but with Jack as a girl Charlie Watson and Bee instead of Arcee, the ending especially felt like that episode where June Darby finally finds out about the Transformers, where Airachnid has her kidnapped, especially the scenes where she is atop the crane and Jack has to climb up there were much like that part where Charlie was climbing to stop the transmission to the Decepticons, and Shatter came off like Airachnid in a way... Also her having a job at the Circus was like the KO Burger job Jack has in Season 1, and the bullying he puts up with were like the bullying from the popular girls.

All said and done, it really worked for me, loved it and still hope live action TF will survive into future films being produced.

Looks like Australian Transformer fans got to have a fun promotion for the Transformers Bumblebee movie! As Paramount Pictures Australia set up little booths in Sydney and Melbourne where aside from seeing a dancing Bumblebee, you could walk away with a Bumblebee themed blank cassette and a flyer with a link to a special Transformers Bumblebee movie themed Spotify play list!



Now why it looks like the promotion has ended, Australian site Ausdroid has gotten their hands on some and are giving them away to Australian fans who couldn't make it to one of the installations. To enter, go to the Ausdroid website and enter using the form at the bottom of the page, Australian residents only mind.

All non Australians will have to make do with the Spotify list and the ability to make your own 80s Bumblebee soundtrack from preset selections over on Bumblebee Rewind dedicated website.



This site allows you to make your own playlists, share them with friends and play them through Spotify itself.

Will you be listening to this list and be getting into the eighties mood? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews.

Ah man. Loved the 80's soundtrack to the movie. Would've loved snatching one of these...

As a serious cassette collector I'd love to get my hands on one of these so if anyone happens to have one and wanna get rid of it, I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands otherwise I'll be on the lookout on the internet haha

We have arrived.

So the Entertainment Weekly website (the same guys who gave us our first look at Shatter and Dropkick) posted an article about which transformers were in the Cybertron battle. (The text contains spoilers for a couple parts, in particular about the fate of a character)

But we got some nice screenshots of the Cybertron stuff, in particular Wheeljack, Arcee, Cliffjumper (You can see for sure that his design is just a recolor of Bee's Cybertron design with addition of a new head) and a bit of Brawn.

Also I didn't even know there was a Teletran 1 appearance till I read the article!

Note: Fun fact in the Wheeljack screenshot you can see Dropkick's cybertron form on a ledge beside a Seeker shooting at Autobots, near Wheeljack's shoulder but above the Autobot soldier (Ratchet I think)

Nice to get some good clear HD screenshots now instead of waiting for the movie to release on dvd/digital.

https://ew.com/movies/2018/12/22/bumble ... ng-battle/

I just saw Bumblebee and instead of a long review I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that this is what the movie-verse should've been from the very beginning. This is what happens when a movie is directed by someone who actually cares about the Transformers, rather than someone who's just in it for the money. This has restored my faith in the future of the live action movies.

Yeah, this movie was amazing. I took the opening scene as an apology for the first five movies.

steals_your_goats wrote:I just saw Bumblebee and instead of a long review I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that this is what the movie-verse should've been from the very beginning. This is what happens when a movie is directed by someone who actually cares about the Transformers, rather than someone who's just in it for the money. This has restored my faith in the future of the live action movies.

The problem with this movie is that the decepticons appear too weak... Blitzwing shot point blank at Bumblebee but Bee did not die...On the other hand, Bee shot Blitzwing once and Blitzwing exploded into pieces...Just because of such a small missile? Again, Dropkick (as a copter) shot at Bumblebee but could not harm it and Bee could kill Dropkick just with a chain?

Salacious_Monk wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:I just saw Bumblebee and instead of a long review I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that this is what the movie-verse should've been from the very beginning. This is what happens when a movie is directed by someone who actually cares about the Transformers, rather than someone who's just in it for the money. This has restored my faith in the future of the live action movies.

The problem with this movie is that the decepticons appear too weak... Blitzwing shot point blank at Bumblebee but Bee did not die...On the other hand, Bee shot Blitzwing once and Blitzwing exploded into pieces...Just because of such a small missile? Again, Dropkick (as a copter) shot at Bumblebee but could not harm it and Bee could kill Dropkick just with a chain?

The size of the missile doesn't really matter when it was right near his head, but I didn't think they were weaker than any of the previous decepticons. I mean in dark of the moon Bumblebee simply punches through Soundwaves head. That's pretty weak if you ask me.

steals_your_goats wrote:

Salacious_Monk wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:I just saw Bumblebee and instead of a long review I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that this is what the movie-verse should've been from the very beginning. This is what happens when a movie is directed by someone who actually cares about the Transformers, rather than someone who's just in it for the money. This has restored my faith in the future of the live action movies.

The problem with this movie is that the decepticons appear too weak... Blitzwing shot point blank at Bumblebee but Bee did not die...On the other hand, Bee shot Blitzwing once and Blitzwing exploded into pieces...Just because of such a small missile? Again, Dropkick (as a copter) shot at Bumblebee but could not harm it and Bee could kill Dropkick just with a chain?

The size of the missile doesn't really matter when it was right near his head, but I didn't think they were weaker than any of the previous decepticons. I mean in dark of the moon Bumblebee simply punches through Soundwaves head. That's pretty weak if you ask me.

Forget about Bay's crap...Decepticons (which are supposed to be millions of years more advanced than human beings) in his films already became prey of US soldiers...
I just wondered why Blitzwing could not kill Bumblebee with so many shots.

Salacious_Monk wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:

Salacious_Monk wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:I just saw Bumblebee and instead of a long review I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that this is what the movie-verse should've been from the very beginning. This is what happens when a movie is directed by someone who actually cares about the Transformers, rather than someone who's just in it for the money. This has restored my faith in the future of the live action movies.

The problem with this movie is that the decepticons appear too weak... Blitzwing shot point blank at Bumblebee but Bee did not die...On the other hand, Bee shot Blitzwing once and Blitzwing exploded into pieces...Just because of such a small missile? Again, Dropkick (as a copter) shot at Bumblebee but could not harm it and Bee could kill Dropkick just with a chain?

The size of the missile doesn't really matter when it was right near his head, but I didn't think they were weaker than any of the previous decepticons. I mean in dark of the moon Bumblebee simply punches through Soundwaves head. That's pretty weak if you ask me.

Forget about Bay's crap...Decepticons (which are supposed to be millions of years more advanced than human beings) in his films already became prey of US soldiers...
I just wondered why Blitzwing could not kill Bumblebee with so many shots.

Cos Bumblebee’s a good guy. He has plot armor.

Salacious_Monk wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:

Salacious_Monk wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:I just saw Bumblebee and instead of a long review I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that this is what the movie-verse should've been from the very beginning. This is what happens when a movie is directed by someone who actually cares about the Transformers, rather than someone who's just in it for the money. This has restored my faith in the future of the live action movies.

The problem with this movie is that the decepticons appear too weak... Blitzwing shot point blank at Bumblebee but Bee did not die...On the other hand, Bee shot Blitzwing once and Blitzwing exploded into pieces...Just because of such a small missile? Again, Dropkick (as a copter) shot at Bumblebee but could not harm it and Bee could kill Dropkick just with a chain?

The size of the missile doesn't really matter when it was right near his head, but I didn't think they were weaker than any of the previous decepticons. I mean in dark of the moon Bumblebee simply punches through Soundwaves head. That's pretty weak if you ask me.

Forget about Bay's crap...Decepticons (which are supposed to be millions of years more advanced than human beings) in his films already became prey of US soldiers...
I just wondered why Blitzwing could not kill Bumblebee with so many shots.

That's the power of plot armor. I mean the movie is literally called Bumblebee so obviously Blitzwing was never going to be able to kill him.

You do know that Blitzwing wasn't trying to kill Bumblebee with his gun right? He was using some for of Machine gun that shot little bullets to push Bee off the ledge so he could grab and question him.

Bumblebee used a plasma cannon which is more powerful for the intent of killing and this wasn't just "one missile" that one blowing up blew up all the other missiles he had on him which caused a chain reaction to make a bigger explosion.


Blitzwing wasn't trying to kill Bee at the time while the latter was.

Deadput wrote:You do know that Blitzwing wasn't trying to kill Bumblebee with his gun right? He was using some for of Machine gun that shot little bullets to push Bee off the ledge so he could grab and question him.

Bumblebee used a plasma cannon which is more powerful for the intent of killing and this wasn't just "one missile" that one blowing up blew up all the other missiles he had on him which caused a chain reaction to make a bigger explosion.


Blitzwing wasn't trying to kill Bee at the time while the latter was.

So actually Blitzwing was humane and merciful while Bumblebee was a merciless and callous murder... In other words, Blitzwing was actually a good guy while Bumblebee was a bad guy

Salacious_Monk wrote:So actually Blitzwing was humane and merciful while Bumblebee was a merciless and callous murder... In other words, Blitzwing was actually a good guy while Bumblebee was a bad guy

Heh heh, yeah kinda comes across that way the way I typed it.

I mean more so that Blitzwing wasn't trying to kill him at that one moment, as the film shows after he throws Bee off the cliff (not that Cliff fan fic writers) Blitz goes to finish him off, if he didn't stop to pick him up and monologue he would have surely killed Bee right there and then, good thing Bee is quite the intelligent bugger.

Yeah, you are right. Bad guys always have too much to say and in the end get themselves killed. Another thing that I was not satisfied was that the movie could have included in the main theme (music) of the G1 toons. That could have been awesome!

Salacious_Monk wrote:

Deadput wrote:You do know that Blitzwing wasn't trying to kill Bumblebee with his gun right? He was using some for of Machine gun that shot little bullets to push Bee off the ledge so he could grab and question him.

Bumblebee used a plasma cannon which is more powerful for the intent of killing and this wasn't just "one missile" that one blowing up blew up all the other missiles he had on him which caused a chain reaction to make a bigger explosion.


Blitzwing wasn't trying to kill Bee at the time while the latter was.

So actually Blitzwing was humane and merciful while Bumblebee was a merciless and callous murder... In other words, Blitzwing was actually a good guy while Bumblebee was a bad guy

Haha, the way I see it, Blitzwing needs Bumblebee alive, Bumblebee just retaliates and does not need Blitzwing alive at all.

Fellow Seibertronian Deadput has helped us out by not only letting us know of these gorgeous new high definition stills of the Transformers: Bumblebee movie's Cybertron scene but also providing a great description of what we can spot. You can check it all below, the still are from EW.

Deadput wrote:So the Entertainment Weekly website (the same guys who gave us our first look at Shatter and Dropkick) posted an article about which transformers were in the Cybertron battle. (The text contains spoilers for a couple parts, in particular about the fate of a character)

But we got some nice screenshots of the Cybertron stuff, in particular Wheeljack, Arcee, Cliffjumper (You can see for sure that his design is just a recolor of Bee's Cybertron design with addition of a new head) and a bit of Brawn.

Also I didn't even know there was a Teletran 1 appearance till I read the article!

Note: Fun fact in the Wheeljack screenshot you can see Dropkick's cybertron form on a ledge beside a Seeker shooting at Autobots, near Wheeljack's shoulder but above the Autobot soldier (Ratchet I think)

Nice to get some good clear HD screenshots now instead of waiting for the movie to release on dvd/digital.

I was originally typing that I thought I might have saw Jazz beside Ironhide in the Cybertron scene since I came across a very clear recording of the Cybertron battle on youtube but watching it again I'm pretty sure it was Wheeljack considering that Ironhide was next to him in his scene, the camera panned so fast the blurred screenshot sort of made it look like Jazz's silhouette.

Could of also been one of the generic Autobots we saw on Cybertron since there is a white one at the front of the group you briefly see during Wheeljack's part that gets blown up when Optimus makes his jumping entrance above the guy.

But speaking of them I think the guy who gets blown up and flips around in the air before landing on the ground right before Brawn's scene was Huffer possibly.

He has the same mostly purple with orange color scheme and he seems to have a big orange back (not as big as the G1 cartoon/toy Huffer but still a bit of kibble that could be the Huffer hood)

Also the blue Autobot that's behind Brawn during his bit actually might be female since her waist, "metal underwear" and legs resemble the more..."shapely" look that female Autobots like Arcee have, I have a good screenshot of that but I'm not going to post them due to site rules and respect to Paramount/Hasbro.

I can't wait for the HD public release so we can scourge the Cybertron scenes for good shots and see if there is anymore cameos.

While these would look aweome in a cgi only full length war for cybertron movie (which I am sure would cost way too much for them to ever make) in this live action universe, they look ridiculous and out of place. It was clearly a hastily done, shameless nostalgia trip.

hausjam wrote:While these would look aweome in a cgi only full length war for cybertron movie (which I am sure would cost way too much for them to ever make) in this live action universe, they look ridiculous and out of place. It was clearly a hastily done, shameless nostalgia trip.

I mean what do people expect digitally created colorful toy robots to look on the big screen?

Like real Transformers?

This is why we had the metal plate "insect" faces of the previous Transformers Bay films because it's less uncanny and unnatural looking then humanoid faces especially ones that are not fully human looking like robots with metal human faces.

This is why that if this is a "reboot" and they continue down that they keep Bee's face as it is since A:It makes him standout from other Transformers instead of having the same metal face as the others. B:It would be less cute if he had a face that was more like Cliffjumper, like this one.

hausjam wrote:While these would look aweome in a cgi only full length war for cybertron movie (which I am sure would cost way too much for them to ever make) in this live action universe, they look ridiculous and out of place. It was clearly a hastily done, shameless nostalgia trip.

compared to the droids you see in starwars these characters are done pretty well not shameless
and everybody loves starwars and the droids you never hear of how fake and lazy CP30 was done
this is no different to the quality of starwars droids

Ultra Markus wrote:

hausjam wrote:While these would look aweome in a cgi only full length war for cybertron movie (which I am sure would cost way too much for them to ever make) in this live action universe, they look ridiculous and out of place. It was clearly a hastily done, shameless nostalgia trip.

compared to the droids you see in starwars these characters are done pretty well not shameless
and everybody loves starwars and the droids you never hear of how fake and lazy CP30 was done
this is no different to the quality of starwars droids

To be fair most of the time C-3PO and R2-D2 were acted using actual on set costumes so they were pretty convincing.

CGI Battle droids and the like I can give you.

Deadput wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:

hausjam wrote:While these would look aweome in a cgi only full length war for cybertron movie (which I am sure would cost way too much for them to ever make) in this live action universe, they look ridiculous and out of place. It was clearly a hastily done, shameless nostalgia trip.

compared to the droids you see in starwars these characters are done pretty well not shameless
and everybody loves starwars and the droids you never hear of how fake and lazy CP30 was done
this is no different to the quality of starwars droids

To be fair most of the time C-3PO and R2-D2 were acted using actual on set costumes so they were pretty convincing.

CGI Battle droids and the like I can give you.

thats what i was getting at the cgi battle droids were good for starwars nobody really complained
this is no different

Ultra Markus wrote:thats what i was getting at the cgi battle droids were good for starwars nobody really complained
this is no different

I mean I would say that Stat Wars is "famous" for it's bad CG over practical effects and the negative reception to those.

So nobody lost their sh*t when they saw your favorite G1 Characters looking like Transformers onscreen?

It was amazing man, Holy crap, Arcee, looking like Arcee. It's not a shameless nostalgia trip bank whatever. It's Transformers, what a Transformers movie should be about.

The 5 movies we got should've been re-imaginations with their art-house weird designs. And after 5 real Transformers movies. They should not've been the start.

Anyway back to positive. I do feel like this has been decided lateron in the production of the movie seeing a lot of people are sick and tired of Transformers not being Transformers (and more like Skyrim in the last movie). That they chanced back to the roots (where one should start)

Loved it, tuesday going to see it again with the fiance

Who said the movie should look like G1 in the first place? I mean it's not like they haven't changed styles at all during the thirty years run, and banking on nostalgia only works for so long.


To settle this, I propose that Hasbro reboot the series with the next film and use a different style completely. Not the one used before, and not this one. The style should be constantly changing as much as the toystgo from one mode to another. I mean Transformers is all about change,why do we fear it so?

ZeroWolf wrote:Who said the movie should look like G1 in the first place? I mean it's not like they haven't changed styles at all during the thirty years run, and banking on nostalgia only works for so long.

To settle this, I propose that Hasbro reboot the series with the next film and use a different style completely. Not the one used before, and not this one. The style should be constantly changing as much as the toystgo from one mode to another. I mean Transformers is all about change,why do we fear it so?

To be fair the G1 crowd hasn't had a live action G1 styled live action film yet while we have had 10 years and 5 films of Bayformers so I'd say it's fair to have one more film with this style for them, and with the likely hood Bumblebee doesn't do so well in the box office Paramount/Hasbro are gonna have to since we need a big hit Transformers film for the franchise's future, so it needs to make money and we need 3 things to make it happen.

1: Give the aesthetic that draws in the biggest crowd and hence the most money, that aesthetic so happens to be the G1 stuff over anything else in the franchise. (Is Transformers Prime or Armada anywhere near as beloved?)

2: They need to have a good movie with a good plot and a good ensemble cast, this is where the originality can sort of start to peak without going to far from the G1 image, the best thing to do is have 7 Autobots against another group of Decepticons you can mix up well known characters like Prime, Bee and Jazz with more obscure guys like Hot Shot or Metalhawk same goes for Decepticons, story wise it's best to keep things simple so no end of the world plots or magic Macguffins

3: They need to have a better premier date, Bumblebee going up against Aquaman, Spiderverse, Mary Poppins, etc has probably hurt this movie's sales bad.


Alienating the G1 crowd with both it's unfamiliar character designs compared to their counterparts (Not the aesthetic just that characters like say Ironhide don't look anything like the G1 guy) combined with the over complicated and juvenile save the world plots that's been the plot for all 5 movies is part of why the Bay films stopped working as we have seen with the dropping box office and poor critical reception.

There is no reason why the Bumblebee movie couldn't be a fresh reboot itself, outside of Bumblebee with his design and Sector 7 the biggest things tying to the Bay films is dealt with by the end of the movie, the Allspark and Megatron aren't mentioned leaving their fates open to being dealt with differently in a later movie and the ending has Optimus as well as 7 Autobots arriving on Earth at the end of the film which already breaks continuity with the 2007 film alone.


What other Transformers aesthetic would Hasbro/Paramount even possibly come up with, anything is just going to resemble the "realistic" Bayverse type designs whether they be more "Car wraps around the Transformers skeleton" or boxy style G1 type looks, that's always been the case Transformers changes how the stories happen and the cast but the actual style of Transformers has never changed that much, it's always the Autobots vs the Decepticons (Or groups with similar roles like the Maximals vs the Predacons) the aesthetic of Transformers only has two different styles:

The original boxy toy like looks such as G1 or the Unicron Trilogy or the more stylized curvy (as well as mostly toy design unfriendly) looks of the movies and Transformers Prime.

Only Transformers Animated sort of denies this by being a stylized cartoon style that is basically a combination of the other two styles and this wouldn't work for a live action movie.

No popular franchise can "change" that damn drastic without losing the audience and it's identity, your idea is possibly the worse thing Hasbro/Paramount can do, yes even worse then sticking with the Bayverse continuity which itself is probably an awful move.

This ideas basically what crippled Star Wars as a franchise with The Last Jedi, because it changed so much and even worse "disrespected" a lot of what came before like Luke god damn Skywalker the hero of that franchise.

The Marvel movies can take what's familiar, change it slightly and make good plots and make that work why can't Transformers?


You change it so much and what makes it Transformers anymore besides robots transforming into vehicles? Literally no other franchise does this.

Regarding the marvel movies, phase 4 will be interesting to see as there's no more iron man, no captain America, who knows his much longer there will be a hulk unless Mark has more films left on his contract.

Why does this franchise have such issues with change? G1 itself went through several iterations, it allowed itself to change. It's very hard to feel nostalgia for something that never goes away. Also if this movie doesn't perform to expectations, this will become a prequel in all. After all, megs wasnt allowed to be in the movie

ZeroWolf wrote:Regarding the marvel movies, phase 4 will be interesting to see as there's no more iron man, no captain America, who knows his much longer there will be a hulk unless Mark has more films left on his contract.

Why does this franchise have such issues with change? G1 itself went through several iterations, it allowed itself to change. It's very hard to feel nostalgia for something that never goes away. Also if this movie doesn't perform to expectations, this will become a prequel in all. After all, megs wasnt allowed to be in the movie

Yeah but the core of the franchise never did change so drastically it was always a faction of good guys vs a faction of bad guys with some familiar characters or character archetypes in the line up. (Cheetor and Hot Shot were basically Bumblebee with a different name and slightly different looks.)

I mean if Bee fails then we don't get another movie for a long time in general so it doesn't matter.

Doesn't take a genius to know that making Bumblebee the first film in a reboot and having sequels take a similar (not exactly the same) direction would be the most profitable thing to do instead of rebooting to a whole new non G1 style after teasing fans and the casual audience with that style.

Plus whatever happens the next film whenever it's made and regardless if it continues on from Bumblebee or they reset with a fresh reboot it will obviously still be using some of the G1 stuff since putting that stuff in the Bee trailers is probably what drew a lot of people into the film.

It all depends if the teases translates into tickets sold. I'm hoping word of mouth does its work, but given when Paramount released... I'm expecting them to have written it off and begun working on the prime origin movie as a reboot to tie into the hasbro movie verse... I hope they've learned the lessons from the Dark Universe and the good tips of the mcu.

ZeroWolf wrote:It all depends if the teases translates into tickets sold. I'm hoping word of mouth does its work, but given when Paramount released... I'm expecting them to have written it off and begun working on the prime origin movie as a reboot to tie into the hasbro movie verse... I hope they've learned the lessons from the Dark Universe and the good tips of the mcu.

Outside of Rom and Mask I personally don't think that many of the other Hasbro toy properties work with Transformers.

And I only say Mask due to the characters there making their vehicles using Transformers tech is a pretty good way to tie those two franchises together.


I never want to see Visionaries with Transformers ever again.

Gi Joe will be the biggest one, as they have had a shared history for a long time now. Plus it's easy to explain the very advanced tech Cobra have if they got it from the cons.

Well I saw a thread on another site about what they would change about the Bumblebee film and it got me thinking about what I would of done this is assuming this movie is a reboot, I wouldn't drastically change the plot or remove any scenes besides the part where Bee Goes all "evil iron giant" on those soldiers or at least tone it down to just have him be angry and about to go violent but Charlie calms him down before he does in a call back to the 2007 film where Sam calms Bee down after S7 free him. and also the one brief, minor bit where shirtless, popular guy from Charlie's school and the mean girl are acting flirty since it didn't add anything to the plot and it was the one scene that made me uncomfortable alongside the part where said girl is eating a corndog which gave me weird vibes although it could just be me.

The following contains some spoilers for the movie might seem like I'm talking about 20-40 minutes of stuff but all of the Cybertron stuff is only another 10 or so minutes on top of the existing 3 minutes, it goes by fast like the actual movie and a lot of the details are brief.

I loved the Cybertron scene although I would of liked a little more context to what was going on and showing more of how the Autobots were this small scaled Resistance and how bad their situation is, so I would of started with a "recreation" of the opening scene to the G1 cartoon where we see Wheeljack and Bumblebee stealthily stealing some energy conductors from a Decepticon base because Wheeljack needs them to fuel the escape pods that the Autobots use in the film while, they have colorful banter and stuff to establish their personalities like Wheeljack explaining why they can't use an Ark class ship due to Bee complaining about using the cramped up pods, Bumblebee would accidentally alert the Decepticons to their presence and the two go on the run in a fast paced Cybertronian car chase by a few Decepticon cars who's designs are inspired by the Battle chargers and have various different colors and heads such as Battlecharger heads, heads with proper faces and TFP/FOC Vehicon heads, that are led by an Earth Wars inspired Barricade, he wouldn't be a big part of the film only on Cybertron just to sorta feed that whole Bee/Cade rivalry that uh wasn't really obvious in Bay's films, Wheeljack would be pulling a sort of Cybertronian truck bed with a laser turret to carry the conductors and Bee that he would use to take out most of the pressures outside of Barricade who gets injured similar to when Bee shot Barricade in TLK, that would sort of homage Wheeljack's van turret without the whole weird scale thing of Bee being inside Wheeljack. The car chase would feature Velicitron inspired ramps and stuff with the Decepticons creatively switching between robot and alt mode to gain the advantage.


Mean while we see Optimus entering a small and hidden underground outpost located in Iacon right by the with an open entrance and guarded by a couple Autobot grunts (Their colors and general appearance are inspired by Autobot redshirt characters Deadguy and Cannonfodder with more G1-like designs and are named as such as well, the only named generics here.) walking past and taking note of the Autobots in the big but narrow hall way he's in and occasionally greeting some of the Autobots which includes the Autobots that we see in the film in addition to a few others like a complaining Huffer and a cheerful Hound who uses a Cybertron-edited version of the Jeep Bumblebee design with different colors, head and shoulder gun, it would cut back between happy down time perspectives such as a group of Autobots drinking some "Energon/Nucleon/Oil" stuff including one with a face plate pouring it in some hole/port on his shoulder or chest to cynical ones where Autobots are in despair or discussing about how their losing and how their all going to die, to wounded Autobots being treated by Ratchet and a couple assistants of his (With colors schemes inspired by Ratchet redecos such as one having the colors of the two movie Ratchets decos) but witnessing one of the patients dying with Ratchet at his side would sadden Prime and would somberly comfort the medic and giving his condolences which would establish how close of a bond Prime shares with his soldiers and establishing character before moving on to the room at the back of the hall which is being guarded by Ironhide and Brawn to show that it's an "important" room.

Optimus would enter the room to talk to his 3 top lieutenants among the group Prowl, Cliffjumper, Jazz (He hasn't been on the big screen since 2007 so it would be nice to see him as well as be buddies with Cliff.), and they would discuss the Autobot's lack of resources, Wheeljack and their plans to leave Cybertron and establish a base on another planet and Prowl (Who would be a notable presence in this scene because he hasn't been in a movie yet so establishing his logical personality and being Primes second in command would be a nice on screen character establishment for him, also the Earth Wars inspired Barricade shares the same body as him with a different head which saves on budget the same way that Bee/Cliff, Ironhide/Ratchet and the Seekers do.) after going through a list of planets that Jazz's Special Ops group has monitored name dropping Perceptor with some planets having names of various planets from the franchise like Nebulos and Charr with a notable line about not going to the planet Quintessa due to the bad "judging" from the inhabitants despite it being known as "The planet of life", Prowl finally pulls up Earth and Optimus chooses it due to having a "gut feeling" that it would be the best place, the 4 Autobots debate over who to send with Cliffjumper suggesting Bumblebee, with the planet and scout decided Optimus contacts a rather beat up Ultra Magnus in a hologram (White recolor of this film's Optimus but with a face instead of a face plate, voice by Micheal Ironside) who is leading the rest of the Autobots at the Iacon capital (that Arcee mentions in the actual film) to cause a distraction so that Prime's Autobots can leave, he's not on screen for long but establishes his loyalty and friendship to Prime as well as his sense of duty.

Afterwards we cut back to Deadguy and Cannonfodder who are engaged in a Red vs Blue inspired conversation about their importance or rather their lack of it in the Resistance compared to heroes like Ironhide and Ultra Magnus as well as how awesome Optimus Prime is when Deadguy decides to stretch to prevent stiff gears due to being in his words "Being still for a whole slagging mega-cycle" Cannonfodder tells him to get down with Deadguy scoffing at him confidently stating that with Optimus and other Autobot big shots around around there is no way he could die just as he's sniped in the head by one of many Deceptions in a big army approaching the base with Shockwave at the forefront, Cannonfodder would panic and run into the base without closing the gate and alerts the other Autobots to the Decepticons presence just as he's shot in the back by Shockwave leaving a huge hole in his torso as the young Autobot lifelessly collapses into the arms of Prime as the latter reacts in distraught and orders the Autobots to retreat to the nearby launch pad and contacts Wheeljack and Bumblebee telling them to meet them there, when a generic Autobot asks how they were found the camera pans to one of the "lampposts" with a close up of the Decepticon symbol on it as it transforms into Soundwave kills the Autobot.

With the Autobots on the run and Decepticons in pursuit, Optimus makes a bold plan to cut off their pursuers by blowing up a large bridge after crossing it, they do so with the land base Decepticons being cut off Shockwave orders Starscream to send his Seekers to bombard them, instead of going himself he sends his second in command Blitzwing who is introduced in this scene interrogating an Autobot straggler with the same body type as Bumblebee (Different colors and head), with the Autobot refusing to give information Blitzwing takes his optics before killing him. (Blitzwing has a hobby of robbing Autobots of an important body part and letting them suffer before killing his victim) so Blitzwing leads the Seekers that we see in the beginning of the film but also including the Seekers from the first episode of the cartoon Sunstorm, Hotlink and Bitstream (I'll get to them later) in an assault bombing fleeing Autobots and pinning them at the location the Autobots are at the beginning of the actual movie, with the Autobots setting up good positions to shoot down the flyers the Decepticon Seekers are forced to land on ground and engage in a fire fight that is mostly equal sides although it takes a turn for the worse when Sunstorm's group set up on a good flanking ledge and rain fire down on the Autobots...literally as Hotlink uses a gun that shoots flames in grenade/mortar like projectiles so not a straight up flamethrower like in the original episode.

As the Autobots are dealing with the chaos, Wheeljack and Bumblebee are almost at the launch pad when it turns out their current route is leading them straight towards where the Seeker squad is, however the 3 Seekers notice them and attack the two in a similar matter to the similar situation in the G1 cartoon, there would be a funny bit here where Bitstream orders Sunstorm to melt those Autobots down only to be met with Hotlink's sarcastic retort that "I'm the one who actually shoots fire around here in the first place remember." Thanks to the firepower Wheeljack and Bumblebee are forced down to where the other Autobots are and the two catch up with Prime and discuss about getting the conductors to the pods but being unable to due to the Decepticons firepower, Bumblebee gets an idea about going around and attacking them from behind, although concerned about Bee's safety Optimus agrees to the idea due to the lack of options and Bee transforms to vehicle mode and heads off to the seekers, seeing the Autobot leave the group Blitzwing realizes what he's going to do and heads off alone to stop him, after a brief air chase Bumblebee out smarts him by driving up a wall using magnetic wheels, transforming and landing on top of the Decepticon's tetra jet form he "jet judos" the Seeker second in command right into a wall sort of like what he did to Skyquake in Transformers Prime, afterwards he continues on his way saying "Thanks for the trick Windcharger." (Also yes the Decepticon Seeker that Bee pushes off the ledge at the beginning of the film is Hotlink and the two other Seekers he knocks a side is Sunstorm an Bitstream.)

Afterwards is where the actual film begins with the Decepticons breaking through the front lines and the Autobots losing contact with the Capital, only changes here is that right before Brawn's bit where he gets shot we see Acid Storm take a lucky shot at Prowl who's mouth foams orange smoke from the corrosive shot he doesn't die immediately and Ratchet tries to help him with Prowl visibly moving and squirming in pain although we don't get to see if he actually dies leaving his fate ambiguous so on one hand it homages the 1986 film yet leaves room for Prowl in the future, also somewhere during when the Autobots are first pinned we get a bit with Cliffjumper, Hound, Arcee and Jazz with them partaking in friendly banter, the short scene sort of focuses on Cliff most since he's the subject of the conversation since he pulls out a movie version of the giant gun he had from the first G1 episode out of nowhere and takes a dangerous position to take out some grouped up Decepticons, the other 3 Autobots sort of jokingly tease him about his reckless fighting style stating that something like that is going to kill him someday ( )

Another difference is that in this version of the film Cliffjumper is assigned with Bumblebee as his body guard and partner and the two go to Earth, several pods are shown going in groups with one of those being Ironhide, Ratchet and Jazz as a callback to the 2007 cast. So after the pods take off we cut back to the Decepticons who are regrouping and killing off any Autobot stragglers, this is our first proper introduction to Shatter and Dropkick who are taking on a big Autobot (Think of the big brutes with the shields, hammers and back weak spot from WFC) the two use team work and trickery/manipulation to take him down, afterwards the two walk back to the gathering Decepticons notably Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream, Blitzwing, Acid Storm Thundercracker, Skywarp, Sunstorm, Bitstream and Barricade and discuss how to proceed the fleeing Autobots, Shockwave decides to have Seekers chase the pods instead of wasting warship fleets to conserve resources, Blitzwing having being mocked by his fellow Seekers for his humiliating defeat at Bumblebee's hand with Starscream rubbing salt in the wound by demoting him and replacing him with Acid Storm publicly and out loud the embarrassed ex-second in command picks Bumblebee's pod to hunt and leaves Cybertron in hot pursuit while most of the other Seekers pick their own targets, afterwards when the Decepticons start heading back to their headquarters in Kaon Shockwave who is still monitoring the pods notices that the ones belonging to Bee and Cliff are heading in a drastically different direction then the other Autobots and asks for volunteers to join to track them due to suspicions that the Autobots have some big plan, Barricade confidently volunteers first and the movie initially makes you think he will be the one to go but is turned down by Shockwave who states he needs someone who is actually reliable (Thundercracker and Skywarp snicker at the Decepticop's expense) with Shatter who volunteers herself and Dropkick, Shockwave lets the two take his personal shuttle.

And that's the end of the Cybertron stuff.

Bumlebee and Cliffjumper land on Earth where Jack Burns and the other Sector 7 agents are doing their training, the two Autobots land in different spots and are pursued by two different Sector 7 squads with Agent Burns actually calling in the Air Force this time, Cliffjumper spots the quarry and tells Bumblebee to meet him there, Cliffjumper unlike Bee does not scan an Earth vehicle and as such has trouble driving on the bumpy dirt road, so as in the movie Bumblebee gets cut off from escaping into the quarry tunnel although this time after S7 surround him Cliff shows up from behind and aggressively tells them to put their weapons down although Burns refuses directly challenging the trigger happy Autobot although through his words Bumblebee calms them both down and after making it clear that neither of them want to hurt the humans Burns orders his men to put his weapons down and calls off the Air Force, one of the pilots replies that their detecting an unknown bogie approaching from the atmosphere and at that moment they are taken out by Blitzwing after scanning one of the planes he proceeds to destroy all of them in a scene similar to Starscream taking out F-22's in the 2007 film, afterwards the movie proceeds very much the same with Blitzwing taking out the S7 forces as well as knocking out Cliffjumper who took the brunt of the damage shielding Bumblebee, the Blitzwing fight proceeds the same except after Blitz throws Bee off the cliff and comes down to finish him off Cliffjumper wakes up in time and shoots Blitzwing in the chest with his Glass gas gun. With Blitzwing enraged and distracted Bumblebee does the whole blowing him up with his own missile thing, this time Blitzwing's remains such as his head are more intact, after checking up on his heavily wounded comrade Cliffjumper hears Shatter attempting to contact Blitzwing from the dead Seeker's "radio" and how she detected his signal but has lost contact and is on her way, Cliffjumper and a limping Bumblebee attempt to make their way out of the area but after a few steps Bumblebee falls down and scans the Beetle before waking up one last time to awkwardly Transform into it (I was confused about what happened in the actual movie and how he ended up in the junk yard).

Cliffjumper in a rush takes the form of a red Porche 924 Turbo and tows the unconscious Bumblebee as the sun sets, when he detects the Decepticon's ship near where they are he is forced to hide Bumblebee in a ditch and split up so they don't both get caught and makes the cons chase him, the next day "Uncle Hank" (the guy who gives Charlie Bee) comes across the VW while he's on a drive and arranges to take the abandoned car back to his junkyard, several months pass and we go to Charlie's perspective and life just like the movie and all proceeds the same until she activates Bee's radio where we cut to Shatter and Dropkick who use the ship to contact Shockwave (ala the G1 cartoon screen and all) who have traced Cliffjumper to a closed factory at night time the cyclopean Decepticon tells them of his plan to use a space bridge to send the rest of the Decepticons to Earth to loot it of it's resources but needs specific coordinates from a powerful enough transmission source to be able to accurately use the bridge, the Autobot who's been on the run all this time has devised a trap made from human materials and plans to ambush the two Decepticons then go back for Bumblebee, his reckless plan goes well at first with him managing to catch Shatter, blow up the Decepticons ship leaving them without a means of contact and goes to town with Dropkick using a red version of the hammer that Bumblebee used in TLK and beats him to near death but just as he's raising his arm to deliver the final blow Shatter having freed herself cuts off his arm, the Cliffjumper interrogation and death scene goes exactly the same way as the actual film except on Earth this time and not on Saturn's moon, afterwards the Decepticons scavenge parts from Shockwave's ship and Shatter upgrades her and Dropkick with flight tech which is why they can triple change to air vehicles.


After this point there isn't much difference from the actual movie except for a brief scene inside the Sector 7 base in Hoover Dam where Shatter and Dropkick come across the remains of Blitzwing and Cliffjumper that S7 has recovered, Shatter has a conversation with Agent Burns explaining that while he was also a "Peacekeeper" Blitzwing was a violent, disobedient contract freelancer loosely associated with their forces, she also explains that Cliffjumper was one of the most vile warlords on their planet and is the reason that the otherwise friendly Bumblebee is such a bad guy having corrupted the young soldier who she says was a former "Peacekeeper" cadet prior and that she's trying to capture him so she can deliver him to the Decepticon authorities for his own good so they can help him, while Burns doesn't believe her because of the contradictions to his previous interaction with the 3 Transformers he goes along with the plan anyways due to wanting to protect Earth.


The Cybertron hologram flashback would be the same except after crashing the Seeker he is riding to the ground Optimus gets harassed by Ramjet, Dirge and Thrust who at this point aren't Coneheads but he wipes the floor with them with ease, Starscream arrives afterwards mocking the 3 Seekers lackluster performance calling them a bunch of "Coneheads", Soundwave ejects Ravage and the scene continues on like normal.


After this the film and final is the same until the end during the battle Dropkick taunts Bee about Cliff's death and waves his Glass Gas gun around, after he chains up Dropkick with the latter taunting him about the chains being unable to do anything to him Bee picks up the gun and shoots the Decepticon with it before tearing the scared Decepticon who pleads for his life despite him not sparing anyone himself, apart with the chains, Bee sadly stating afterwards with the radio that killing him was for his friend but that he must save his new friend, after Bumblebee shoots the "wall" behind Shatter, floods the area and getting "saved" by Charlie it seems all is alright until a heavily damaged Shatter ambushes them easily knocking down the tired out Autobot and crushes the Glass Gas gun at the cost of it "shattering" her hand, as she prepares to execute the Autobot once more, a voice sounds out from nearby asking her to lay down her weapon and surrender, as the recently arriving Optimus Prime approaches them Bumblebee takes advantage of a refusing and distracted Shatter kicking her away however he accidentally kicks her towards Charlie who Shatter takes as a hostage, as the Decepticon angrily raves on about her cause as well as how nothing will stop them since the Decepticons already know where Earth is and will arrive one day regardless, Optimus again tries to reason with her but to no avail, as it looks like there is nothing they can do Agent Burns shoots Shatter from behind with a rocket which causes her to drop Charlie, as the Decepticon raises her weapon to kill the Agent, Optimus shoots her as he notes with regret that despite all of the things she has done under the Decepticon name he would of still accepted her surrender.

Optimus then formerly meets Charlie and Jack Burns who apologizes to Bumblebee about hunting him and admits that he was wrong about him, he also lets the two Autobots know that they have Cliffjumper's body although it's impossible for him to give it to them since the rest of S7 still assume that Autobots and Decepticons are the same, just like the movie Burns lets them go and salutes Bee.

Optimus, Bumblebee and Charlie head to the San Francisco bridge where nearby Optimus Prime has hidden a trailer that within contains Teletraan 1 which he will use to call other Autobots to Earth he leaves Bumblebee and Charlie alone so that the two can say their goodbyes afterwards the two Autobots head out together (Bee still scans the Camaro)

The scene with Bee and Prime at the forest is slightly different, a set up Telatraan 1 is set up in the background, while Bumblebee asks how he got off Cybertron Prime just says he will tell him at another time and then thanks him for defending Earth and the two watch the other Autobots arrive.

A new after credits scene, S7 scientists are developing cryo-freezing equipment inspired by Cliffjumper's Glas Gas gun as well as conducting energy experiments on the remains of Blitzwing who is hooked up to a intricate machine using the same tech as S7's Electric guns, after a few tests with no results they go with a higher voltage and Blitzwing's optics briefly light up going from scared and pained to a hateful rage before shutting back off.

The End.

My god I spent 5-6 hours writing this. (Can I get a writing job yet? I just need a Proofreader lol)

I don't think you need Blitzwing to survive, in fact you could easily set up the Dinobots in a scene like that, where they discuss the Cybertronian tech as a way to revive these mysterious dinosaur machines they found. Sometimes it's okay if villains stay dead