Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon: July 1st 2011

[lordcookie]

Trailer description:

Transformers: Dark of the Moon, from the teaser, plays on conspiracy theories related to the moon landing. The first part of the movie alternates images of the control room at NASA and of the astronauts on the moon. The landing is what we know well, including the famous words about the “giant leap for mankind.” But what we did not know was the journey of the astronauts to the dark side of the moon, until the control room tells them that “… we are not alone.” Then we see some Transformers. The camera comes close to the eye of one of them, which starts to flash. But the camera does not stop, and takes us inside the robot and its mechanisms, making us understand that it’s coming back into action.

[moosegrinder]

I predict lots of orange and blue.

[Steve McQueef]

Imagine Unicron was the moon, or at least what appeared to be a lifeless satellite, orbiting some planet in our solar system, dormant for millions

of years.

Now he's reawakened and the Autobots & Decepticons have to go fuck his shit up, because Cybertron's on his snack list. Cue epic space battles.

Fucking game on!

Alas, these writers have the imaginations of retarded monkeys.

*sigh*

Just watch Transformers The Movie.

[lordcookie]

I'm not sure anyone could do Unicron in live action, especially in the TF world that Bay has created.

[Steve McQueef]

We just have to wait for the reboot. *shudder*

[lordcookie]

For once it is a reboot I can't wait to see (assuming they hand it to somebody with talent).

[Alex W.]

I think people need to stop using the word "reboot" so irresponsibly. If you start a beloved five-film franchise or something like Star Trek all over again, that's a reboot. You're taking a huge, intricate mythos and daring to reimagine it. When you take something like Transformers or the Spider-Man movies and go back to the beginning you're not rebooting, you're soullessly reiterating the same old shit on a ten-year cycle.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

I'd have thought Unicron's just too massive, literally and conceptually, for a Michael Bay film. It's as close as Transformers gets to Lovecraft, just pure, ancient evil beyond normal comprehension. Megatron's bad because he wants to be the Grand Poobah, the Duke of New York, A-No.1; Shockwave's obsessed with logic and order and seeks to impose both on everyone; Starscream's a sneaky bastard who thinks he knows best. Unicron does what he does because he's a primeval force of nature, chaos made flesh metal. He just is. It's the sort of thing that works fine in a cartoon that's cool with playing up ridiculous elements and isn't really concerned with the hows and whys but, terrible as the live action stuff is, it's very solidly grounded in a kind of reality where having Mecha-Cthulhu show up, warp minds and bodies and eat planets is just a step too far for a director who already hates the mere idea of giant robot dinosaurs, never mind Evil incarnate.

[lordcookie]

I think people need to stop using the word "reboot" so irresponsibly. If you start a beloved five-film franchise or something like Star Trek all over again, that's a reboot. You're taking a huge, intricate mythos and daring to reimagine it. When you take something like Transformers or the Spider-Man movies and go back to the beginning you're not rebooting, you're soullessly reiterating the same old shit on a ten-year cycle.

I don't really see the difference. A reboot is nothing more than a studio deciding they can make more money from a franchise by starting again rather than continuing down the existing route. Whether that switch takes place after three films or 20 is almost irrelevant. Did Nolan not reboot the Batman franchise then? He covered the same origin story so was it also 'soulless reiteration'? It's not as if your example of the Star Trek reboot was lovingly crafted by life long fans of the series either. JJ Abrams made it clear he was never really into Trek as a youngster. I'd rather use the term reboot, which sounds exactly what it is; cynical and calculating, rather than some ridiculously flowery term like re-imagining.

[Alex W.]

I don't really see the difference. A reboot is nothing more than a studio deciding they can make more money from a franchise by starting again rather than continuing down the existing route. Whether that switch takes place after three films or 20 is almost irrelevant. Did Nolan not reboot the Batman franchise then? He covered the same origin story so was it also 'soulless reiteration'? It's not as if your example of the Star Trek reboot was lovingly crafted by life long fans of the series either. JJ Abrams made it clear he was never really into Trek as a youngster. I'd rather use the term reboot, which sounds exactly what it is; cynical and calculating, rather than some ridiculously flowery term like re-imagining.

I think the distinction I'm making is between franchise reboots that occur because the well's gone dry (Star Trek) or the franchise went in a stupid direction (Batman), but where there were once glory days of genuinely influential work, and franchise reboots that occur in a product that was hardly a raft of innovation to begin with.

[lordcookie]

But they went in the wrong direction with Transformers from the very beginning. It might be based on a toy line but there is plenty of scope for an entertaining popcorn movie to be had from the source material.

What would you call these reboots then if you dont like the term?

[Steve McQueef]

A Franchise-Enema.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Teaser trailer's up.

Looks like Alpha Trion maybe?

[lordcookie]

As with all the Transformer films they cut a good trailer and this one is very nice without showing anything. However, there always seems to be a big difference between the quality of the trailers compared to the final film. It would be great for this to be the exception.

[Cyhwuhx]

Teaser trailer's up.

Looks like Alpha Trion maybe?

I was thinking of Vector Prime considering the colour scheme and the supposedly present time-travel stuff.

But hey this is Bay-territory. It might be The Last Autobot for all we know.

[Revival]

Theres too many animation nods back to the animated film for it to be anything other than Unicron.

[Major Britten]

Theres too many animation nods back to the animated film for it to be anything other than Unicron.

If it was unicron he would be the moon, also its Shockwave that is the main villain in this one. /Film seem pretty certain its Alpha Trion, even doing a comparison which makes it seem most likely

[Revival]

This is a Bay film remember so its like painting by numbers, That Unicron will come in contact with the Allspark and he'll become...

[MDY]

This is a Bay film remember so its like painting by numbers, That Unicron will come in contact with the Allspark and he'll combine with and transform the whole moon to become...

Fixed!

[Cyhwuhx]

The Optimus-style head and colours could also point towards:

Sentinel Prime.

Alpha Trion (or maybe even A3?) makes sense as well, especially considering Alpha Trion is regarded as Optimus's father in the cartoon and Optimus and Megatron are supposedly brothers in the Movieverse (tying everything up with drama).

Whatever we think of, it'll probably be something completely different. He'll be Wreck-Gar and turn out to be the essence of Primus and transform into a new Matrix of Leadership, or something batshit crazy like that.

[Despin]

Hey there.

I don;t get how this works as a teaser. We already know the transformers exists right?

We've had two movies tell us that they have been around for a long time and that the government knows about them.

So what's teasing about this teaser? It's just repeating information.

Despin out.

[Alex W.]

Most of the people who see the trailer won't have clicked on a link marked "Transformers 3 Teaser" and will be taken by surprise when the robots show up at the end. It's a pretty good way of getting people intrigued by the premise.

It also hints at a finale in which Buzz Aldrin punches robots unconscious.

[MDY]

He'll be Wreck-Gar and turn out to be the essence of Primus...

Yeah but 'Wrecktimus Prime' sounds like something you'd use if you've got hemorrhoids...

[Space Renegade Ulala]

I would actually watch it if they did a film all about Wreck Gar riding around like a giant alien robot production of Easy Rider.

[Steve McQueef]

As long as Eric Idle voices him.

[wev]

Ferrari 458 = Hot Rod? I'm struggling to think of any really famous autobots that are missing from Bay's movies other than Wheeljack, Prowl and Sunstreaker...

[lordcookie]

The Dinobots and all the combiner Autobots.

[wev]

Well I overlooked the Dinobots because they're not really feasible in Bay's Transformers and I'd forgotten which of the Autobots were combiners

[JohnC]

I'm not really familiar with the dinobots. How did they work? I'm assuming there weren't robots "disguised" as dinosaurs walking around in the present day. Was it actually set in the far past?

[Kinketsu]

"ME GRIMLOCK KINGGGGGGGG"