Bumblebee is one of the more overlooked movies in the Transformers franchise, despite the fact that it features one of the best action sequences of the franchise. Following the end of Michael Bay’s time with the Transformers movies, Bumblebee sought to take the franchise in a new direction with this spinoff prequel centered around fan-favorite robot in disguise, Bumblebee. It follows his first trip to Earth and the connection he forms with a human (Hailee Steinfeld) long before Sam Witwicky’s Transformers story began.

The movie is a smaller-scale story, earning some of the best reviews for a Transformers movie by focusing on characters rather than just the bombastic action of Bay’s movies. Despite this, Bumblebee managed to include a sequence that delivered what fans had long been waiting for in the live-action movies while also setting up the potential for the future of the franchise.

The Fight On Cybertron In Bumblebee Is Transformers At Its Best

The Sequence Brought The Cartoon To Life

While audiences had previously seen glimpses of it in the Michael Bay Transformers movies, Bumblebee delivers the first real glimpse of the war for Cybertron, the home world of the Transformers. The extended opening sequence of Bumblebee sees the final days of the Autobots fighting the powerful Decepticons, leading to Optimus Prime sending Bumblebee on a mission to Earth to establish a new base for their kind so they may live to fight another day.

Not only is this the best look at Cyberton as an actual planet populated by the Transformers, but the sequence is alive with a style reminiscent of the classic 1980s Transformers cartoon. The nostalgic designs of the Transformers are also elevated by the fun action of the sequence, which also feels like a throwback. Bay is a master action filmmaker, but his style of violent and visceral action sometimes felt out of place in the Transformers franchise. The Cybertron scene has fun simply being a battle with robots shooting lasers at each other, yet it still maintains stakes.

While Bay’s Transformers movies attempted to place these cartoon characters in a real-world setting, Bumblebee‘s first scene reminded the audience that it doesn’t need to be taken so seriously. It felt like a cartoon come to life in the best way possible, embracing the fun of this world and its creations, and giving the audience something that truly meant a lot to them.

This Bumblebee Scene Set The Tone For What Worked In Transformers One

Transformers One Finally Let The Transformers Take Center Stage

The Cybertron scene in Bumblebee was an impressive step forward in the franchise that eventually led directly to the acclaimed Transformers One. The animated take on the franchise was hailed as the best movie in the franchise since Bumblebee. A lot of its acclaim came from the fact that it was embracing those same aspects that made the Cybertron scene so popular.

The Transformers franchise always seemed to be a little timid about putting the robot characters front and center. Instead, their adventures were in the background of the human characters’ stories. Bumblebee does the same thing, with Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie the real center of the movie. However, the Cybertron scene seemed to be the franchise’s way of experimenting with having Optimus and the other Transformers leading the story for a change.

Transformer One feels like the Cybertron scene extended into a feature-length movie. It returned the franchise to its animated roots while also telling a story with only Transformers characters and no humans to take away the spotlight. It was another chance to expand the lore of Transformers with an exploration of Cybertron as a home filled with dark secrets. It also allowed the Transformers themselves to be real characters for the first time, especially in exploring the relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Transformers One gave us the best depiction of Cybertron, but it never would have happened without Bumblebee.