WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Paramount Pictures' Bumblebee, in theaters now.

Despite frequently negative critical reception, Michael Bay's Transformers franchise was one fans couldn't stop flocking to see. Although it lacked a coherent continuity, featured many offensive jokes, over-sexualized its female leads, and pitted Autobots and Decepticons against each other with no attempt to create an emotional connection to either group, the franchise was a gold mine for Paramount Pictures. That is until 2017's The Last Knight tanked.

REVIEW: Bumblebee Is a Refreshing Reset of the Transformers Series

The Last Knight was the last straw for many fans, with critical and commercial reception confirming people were tired of Bay's style-over-substance approach. However, with Travis Knight's Bumblebee, loyalists can finally sink their teeth into the course correction they've been so desperately seeking, as this spinoff rights all the wrongs of the Bay era.

IT PROPERLY BALANCES THE HUMAN ASPECT

Bay's films spent a lot of time focusing on the franchise's human characters, prioritizing Sector 7, the U.S. military and other humans like Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky over its robot characters. Apart from Optimus, Bay didn't really delve into any of the Autobots or Decepticons, not even Decepticon leader Megatron.

RELATED: Bumblebee Completely Changes the Transformers Movie Universe's Timeline

Bumblebee, though, gets this balance right. Knight doesn't focus too much on Hailee Steinfeld's Charlie or 'Bee; instead, he crafts a film that gives each their time in the limelight and allows the two to form a partnership that feels natural and not just based on crude punch lines. Charlie's family and Memo also get proper screen time without compromising Bumblebee's fight against the Decepticons. Knight even allows Sector 7 to factor into the film, but it's tastefully done and doesn't shift the spotlight away from the fan-favorite yellow Buggy.

Next Page: From Cybertron to the Villains, Bumblebee is Much Better

THE CYBERTRONIAN BACKGROUND

Bay didn't seem to care much about Cybertron. In 2007's Transformers, we found out the battle for Cybertron drove the Autobots and Decepticons to Earth in search of the Allspark. From then on, the history of the planet became rather chaotic. As the films rolled on, Bay gave little insight into Cybertron itself, making it feel like an afterthought. He placed more emphasis on Earth and devalued Cybertron to the point that we never really understood the past struggles of the Robots in Disguise, which is crucial to a refugee story such as Transformers.

Bumblebee takes its influence from the War for Cybertron storyline, with Knight illustrating how the Autobots have lost their homeworld to a Decepticon uprising. He approaches the subject subtlety, merely teasing the war in a flashback. That little bit of backstory is enough to explain why Optimus looks towards Earth: it's their new home, and they must protect it from the Decepticons. Also, by fleshing out the fall of Cybertron, it puts why the Autobots are ready to lay their lives down for humanity into context.

SMOOTHER ACTION SEQUENCES

Bay's films were filled with over-the-top CGI fights that were often tough to follow. When the Autobots and Decepticons fought, it felt visually incoherent. There were too many moving parts to focus on, which may partly be because of an emphasis on the VFX technology available at that time. However, in Bumblebee, these scenes -- even when it's something as simple as the robots transforming into vehicles -- are so much smoother. The less bulky Generation One designs also make Bumblebee's car chase sequences easier to digest than those of Bay's movies.

RELATED: Bumblebee's Emotional, High-Octane Ending, Explained

Knight's brawls are also made better by actually having some sense of fight choreography. Bumblebee uses an MMA style, while Shatter and Dropkick have a street fighter approach to battle, giving them more character and personality in the field. It's not just about lasers, missiles and senseless explosions in Bumblebee. This spinoff wants to highlight these robots as soldiers who can throw down without guns, thus cultivating a more wholesome and well-rounded experience for action lovers.

THE VILLAINS ARE MORE FLESHED OUT

Bay's five films lacked depth when it came to villains. Whether it be Megatron, the Fallen, Starscream or Sentinel Prime. They all viewed Earth as some having some kind of relic to empower them, which made the story feel like your average Hollywood popcorn flick, especially since Bay lacked patience in developing his tyrants a la Josh Brolin's Thanos or Heath Ledger's Joker.

RELATED: Bumblebee's Post-Credits Scene Hints at the Transformers Franchise Future

In Bumblebee, we get an emotional connection to Shatter and Dropkick because their motivations are clear. They're patriots and extremists who believe the Autobots are traitors. These foot-soldiers think their coup is for the benefit of their homeworld (similar to Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger in Black Panther) and aren't tolerating sedition, which is why Blitzwing tries so hard to kill Bumblebee early on in the film. The Decepticons in Knight's film aren't attacking the Autobots because they hate them; they're hurt Optimus' followers are abandoning them. And instead of lusting for power available via some arbitrary artifact, the Decepticons' main goal is more sympathetic: they just want to build an army to establish order in the galaxy.

Directed by Travis Knight from a script by Christina Hodson, Bumblebee stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Pamela Adlon, Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Ricardo Hoyos and Gracie Dzienny.