New 'Bumblebee' International Trailer Features More Optimus Prime Footage
A new international TV spot for Bumblebee is now out, and though brief, there is some new footage [...]
A new international TV spot for Bumblebee is now out, and though brief, there is some new footage of Optimus Prime on Cybertron, giving Bumblebee the fateful mission that will send him to Earth, and start a whole generation of Transformers saga on our world.
Paramount has been steadily increasing the marketing for Bumblebee on a global scale, with some other recent international promos revealing lots of new footage. In addition to that, things seem to be looking up for Bumblebee: news that Paramount is holding early screenings of the movie have led to industry speculation that the studio has confidence in what director Travis Knight has put together, which would be an unexpected but welcome surprise for fans!
The last installment of the Transformers movies, Transformers: The Last Knight, was arguably a franchise-killer. It dropped nearly 50% in box office returns compared to its predecessor, Age of Extinction, and had the most abysmal reviews in a franchise that has rarely gotten above a 40% mark on Rotten Tomatoes. Most ironically, The Last Knight was supposed to be a major franchise expansion plan, but killed a lot of fans' interest in ever seeing another Transformers movie.
That brings us back to Bumblebee. Director Travis Knight did a great job as an animator working with the high-concept stop-motion films of Lakia. His own stop-motion animated work, Kubo and the Two Strings was an Oscar-nominated achievement, and if even half of that talent translates to the animated characters and concepts of Bumblebee, then fans may finally get the love-letter to the original Transformers G1 cartoon that they've been hoping for. If Bumblebee works out, then there could be a new avenue for the Transformers movies to expand into better territory than what The Last Knight proposed. More G-1 stories, or other fan-fave branches of the franchise (like Beast Wars) would be on the table. As it stands, rumors are that a Autobot/Decepticon origin story film could be in the works, as well as that long-discussed Transformers / G.I. Joe crossover.
SYNOPSIS: "On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie, on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug."
Bumblebee is directed by Travis Knight. The film also stars John Cena, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Schneider, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Jason Drucker, Kenneth Choi, Ricardo Hoyos, Abby Quinn, and Grace Dzienny. It hits theaters on December 21st.
