As a result, characters such as Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron became instantly recognisable.įor ease of understanding, the live-action Transformers movies can be divided into three parts. It gained wider international attention with Michael Bay’s five blockbuster films, underlined by awe-inspiring CGI and high-octane action. The franchise is based on a popular 1980s Japanese transforming robot toy line, which spawned other media versions over the years. Transformers is a massively successful media franchise, involving toys, animated shows, video games and live-action movies, whose core story revolves around a planetary war between alien robots known as Autobots and Decepticons.