Living with the immediate “ADD” audience that exists today, it’s hard for major studios to believe that kids today can follow the plot of any single movie, let alone a multi-film franchise like what Michael Bay has done with Transformers. It seems like that argument has gotten to Bay and his producing partner Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, as they are currently planning on rebooting the Transformers series to a brand new audience in 2014. From THR:

Bonaventura said that he and Bay were still in early stages of development process, but they wanted to reinvent the saga to pave the way for a new mythology. Bay showed a willingness to shake up the ensemble in Dark of the Moon, when he replaced Megan Fox with Rosie Huntington-Whitely as Sam’s love interest.

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You know you can tell a good trailer when 90% of it is all doom and gloom. That’s just what we’re getting with the first full-length feature trailer for Michael Bay’s Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.

If you’re just now coming into the franchise or you have already forgotten the robot balls from Revenge of the Fallen, here’s the official synopsis.

Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. When a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us.

This trailer gives us all of the goods: tons of destruction, introduction of both the human and robot villain, and lots of visible robot battling. Joining the regular cast of humans this time is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, John Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey, Ken Jeong, and the always evil Frances McDormand.

Take a look at the brand new trailer after the jump, and get ready for Transformer action (and hopefully Dinobots) on July 1st.

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With the fan reaction being as negative as it could have been for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, it was expected that the studio and Michael Bay would be very careful in choosing a title for the third film. Fans felt alienated with the way Revenge of the Fallen went down, between the racist robots and robot balls, and now that creeping feeling is returning as the title for the third film has been announced.

It isn’t confirmed just yet, but according to a reliable Transformers fan site, marketing has started for the title Transformers: Dark of The Moon.

Some upcoming books listed at the Amazon revealed what might possibly be, the Title of the 3rd Transformers Movie.
The books are to be released (May 17, 2011) very near the release date of Transformer 3 (July 1, 2011). The author of the books is official and has written books for the 2007 Movie and ROTF. The publisher is none other than HarperColins, which produced similar books for both movies.

So it may sound like a high school adaptation of a Pink Floyd film, but this could bring new depth to Bay’s Transformers universe. It has been confirmed that Megan Fox is not returning, while LaBeouf, Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and Turturro are all coming back. Joining the cast for the first time is Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey, Ken Jeong, Alan Tudyk, and Frances McDormand.

The film is slated to hit on July 1st of 2011, so expect to see a big trailer by year’s end, hopefully along with a confirmed title.

Back in 2007, Michael Bay accomplished what seemed to be a miracle in the film community: he took a nearly dead property that was built off of a line of action figures, and made it into a highly successful–and one can even say decent–film for both old and new fans. Sadly, with Revenge of the Fallen, Bay and his team try to top themselves with a grandiose successor, and come up pretty short.

The plot follows Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), two years after the events of Transformers. Sam’s now off to college where he and blah blah blah…does any of this matter? Let’s face it, you’re going to see this movie for one reason, and one reason only: to see gigantic robots beat the crap out of each other. I’m happy to say, you get what you come for, but that’s about it. This movie is pretty much identical to it’s predecessor, now with 30% more character development, mass murder, and zany humor. Oh, don’t forget a brand new track by Linkin Park, which sounds exactly like the last track by Linkin Park.

There are some pretty embarrassing moments for a film of this caliber. One of which is the use of racism in the form of CGI robots. The racism isn’t very blatant, as it is overused stereotypes that are meant to be funny, but come out laughable, and not in a good way. Two characters, Mudflap and Skids, stand out above the rest. They are designated as the “urban” Autobots, donning two gold front teeth and illiteracy. There is also a Mexican ice cream truck at the beginning of the film that sets the bar pretty low. And those who say that Jazz in the original cartoon set a precedent for characters like Mudflap and Skids should know that Scatman Crothers, who originally voiced the character, transcends race.

A major downfall for the film, which seems to be a complaint across the board, is the massive 150 minutes of the film’s length. There is definitely a period where the audience, as a whole, glances at their collective watch. Without knowing the true story, I wouldn’t doubt that the film had a much darker first cut and the studio decided to amp it up with things like jive-talking sidekicks and robot balls (yes, there are robot testicles in the film). There’s definitely a dark film in those 2+ hours, and it would be interesting to see that cut someday.

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With all the trailers, pics, videos and whatnot floating around the Internets concerning Michael Bay’s sure to be a monster sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I’m starting to get a bit burned out. Sure, I like seeing footage of robots fighting, stuff blowing up, gun fights, car chases and Megan Fox running around all sweaty and glistening. Let’s face it, who doesn’t?

That said, I always start to get a bit concerned when studios trot out so much stuff before a movie’s release. Its as if they’re trying to beat us over the head and convince us the movie is “super cool” by the sheer amount of info we’re being subjected to. Its not like there isn’t precedent for this either. Look at the recent campaigns for both Terminator: Salvation or Land of the Lost.

You couldn’t turn on a tv, browse the internet or ride a bus without seeing either Christian Bale, a Terminator or Wil Farrell and a damn dinosaur. And sadly, even with all that marketing and the extreme “in your face” nature of it, both movies ended up being not so good — especially in the case of Land of the Lost which, you could make the case, basically bombed.

So what does this all mean for Transformers 2? Who knows. Just take a look at this new clip (after the break) and try not to get too jaded about it. Plus, it features Megan Fox quite a bit, so that couldn’t hurt, right?

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We here at The Flickcast have been reporting a lot on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which smashes into theaters and IMAX screens on June 24th. Great news, right? Well, not so much for the excited fans of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, whose IMAX release is getting delayed due to epic robot fighting.

Slashfilm is reporting that due to Paramount’s deal for a four week long IMAX run for Transformers, the sixth film in the Harry Potter series will have to be released in IMAX on July 29th, two weeks after it’s initial release in regular theaters. This delay is a primarily a result of a Warner Bros. decision back in November 2008 to push back the release of Harry Potter.

With movie tickets already at a ridiculously high price and IMAX tickets even more expensive, are either film worth checking out in IMAX? Maybe so. The IMAX cut of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will contain 12 minutes of 3-D footage not available in regular theaters, similar to the IMAX release of the last film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The IMAX version of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will also be longer and feature scenes shot with IMAX cameras, which is something we haven’t seen since last years smash hit, The Dark Knight.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince hits theaters July 15th.

Its Thursday so that must mean its time for some brand new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen photos. With only a couple more weeks until the film opens, we will most likely begin to see even more stuff from the film then we already have. You can probably expect more photos, more trailers and more of your favorite Transformers actors to be making the rounds on talk shows, websites and the like.

In these new pics, courtesy of our pals at MTV Splashpage, we’re treated to more shots of stars Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel, some cool robots and, of course, the obligatory “Megan Fox in jeopardy” photos. As we’ve probably said before, seeing these photos makes us very interesrted in the film because they just look so darn good. That’s something director Michael Bay has never really had a problem with, his movies always look great. Its the other stuff like story and character he sometime has a problem with.

Still, there’s no denying he knows how to direct action, move a camera and make his stars, human or otherwise, look as good as possible. And believe me, it takes talent to do that. It doesn’t happen by accident. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hits theaters on June 24th.

Check out the bigger pictures after the jump.

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