The score for the first Michael Bay Transformers movie was something of a shock. I wasn’t expecting much from the movie, and I anticipated even less from the movie’s score. In fact, I expected something more like incomprehensible metal percussions and minimalism in the theme department.

What Steve Jablonsky delivered was nothing short of a revelation, I had a perfect  cinematic music moment during the arrival to earth scene. A moment where the music, movie and context of my own life all blended together for one transcendent moment.  This has only happened three other times in my life, and the composers responsible were named Wiliams, Goldsmith and Shore. So believe me when I say I really liked the music of the first film.

Then came Transformers 2, an abomination of truly grand proportions. The score was solid, but unspectacular. It had none of the awe and wonder that made made the first film’s music such a joy. In the absence of that we got instrumental Linkin Park! Whoop!

Now I understand a film that is second in a franchise isn’t going to have that same freshness, but I was expecting so much better. So now here we are at Transformers 3, Jablonsky has returned with almost everyone else and I am more than curious to hear what he has to offer.

Last week I gave you a review where I hadn’t seen the movie (well TV show actually), now this week I am giving you a review where I saw the movie first before I listend to the score album. In the movie, the music wasn’t as dominant as it was in the first film, but it was far more enjoyable than the last film’s score.

When asked about his role in Jaws 4: The Revenge, Michael Caine once said, “I never saw it—but I saw the house it paid for, and it’s fantastic!” I suspect John Turturro’s been saying something similar for the past four years whenever he’s asked about the Transformers movies. Now we can add John Malkovich and Frances McDormand to that group. And maybe Alan Tudyk.

The plot is as labyrinthine as it is unnecessary. Back in the early 1960s, a ship from war-torn Cybertron (if the Transformers spend all their time fighting, how did they ever evolve?) crashed on the moon. Among the cargo were several “Pillars” that have some sort of significance to the war.

Also, a big, tough Autobot named Sentinal Prime. The White House gets wise to this, and thus we have the impetus for the moon landing (apparently, many historical events were due to Transformers; they don’t get around to revealing that car in which Kennedy was shot was an Autobot, but there may be a fourth film).

Fast-forward to the present day, where the Autobots are now working for the Feds to preserve humanity (how did we ever get along without them?). While on a mission to Chernobyl, Optimus Prime discovers some remnant of the Pillars and decides that it’s high time to revive Sentinal. Also, the Pillars are somehow able to teleport things, which means that it can be used to bring an army of invading Decepticons to earth (according to Frances McDormand, National Intelligence Director).

If you’ve been counting the weeks, days, hours, minutes and second until the third Transformers movie hits theaters and destroys everything in its path, the amount you have to count has just gotten smaller. That’s right, the release date for everyone’s favorite movie where robots blow stuff up has been moved up.

Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark Of The Moon has been moved to Wednesday, June 29th from Friday, July 1st. The studio’s big Summer 2011 blockbuster will open day and date in all markets except China and Japan on that new date.

According to Deadline, Paramount is apparently pretty psyched for the movie. “Early response to footage, especially the 3D footage, has been great so we want to get the word out that this film is as good or better than the first and much better than the last.”

We’ll see, Mr. Bay. We’ll see.

Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• Are you a Star Wars nerd? Do we need to ask? Here’s 19 Things You Didn’t Know about Star Wars.

• Here’s the opening to Transformers 3. Yeah, not impressed either.

• The Betty White conquest of Hollywood continues. Next stop: Community.

• Thinking about a DROID X? Here’s some first impressions on the device.

• See, Peter Jackson was just like you and made movies when he was a kid. Of course, his were way better.

• In case you missed it, the Harvey Award nominees were announced.

• Like hot chicks in leather with guns? Obviously, director Zack Snyder does.

• Here’s some photos from the vampire movie Priest. It doesn’t look all that great but at least there’s no Rpat.

• Like Star Wars? How about Princess Leia? How about hot models pretending to be Princess Leia in a modernized “Slave Leia” outfit? Yep.

Pixar’s Toy Story 3 won the Father’s Day weekend with a total of over $109 Million, making it the highest grossing opening weekend for a Pixar movie thus far. I’ve got to say, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer movie.

Toy Story 3 is a true 4 quadrant film that the studios are always hoping for. It’s the the holy grail of box-office goodness, because it appeals to men and women, young and old.  It’s rated G, which means families can feel at ease bringing the young ones. Critics universally loved the film, and audiences polled by cinemascore raved as well (Entertainment Weekly.)

Toy Story 3 enjoyed a massive opening, as it played on over 4,000 screens.  Roughly half of those were 3D screens, which bolstered the total gross.  Toy Story 3 is the second highest opening for an animated movie, bested only by Shrek the Third’s $121 Million opening back in 2007.

Another family-friendly film took the number two spot.  The Karate Kid dropped around 48%, and tallied up another $29 Million, bringing its 10 day total to an impressive $106 Million.

The A-Team didn’t benefit from word of mouth all that much.  It experienced a 46% drop from last week, earning $13.7. The movie has made about $49 Million in two weekends, but it had a $110 Million budget, so it has a long, steep hill to climb to recoup its budget.  I have yet to talk to anyone who disliked the movie, so I am really puzzled over its performance (or more accurately, lack thereof.)

Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something.

• Megan Fox is out of Transformers 3. Who will take her place? Heidi Montag or Ben Kingsley? Your guess is as good as ours.

• Speaking of replacing Megan Fox (only in the movie, not in our hearts) it looks like it may actually be this Victoria’s Secret model. Wonder what she had to wash to get the part?

• Patton Oswalt + Firefly + Comics = a nerdgasm the likes of which we’ve never seen.

• Who wouldn’t want to watch a video about Gwyneth Paltrow’s Shrimp Taco? There’s no further explanation necessary.

• Ever wonder what video games your favorite porn stars like to play? Well, wonder no more.

• What the hell is going on with Owen Wilson’s career? Pajiba breaks it down for us.

• NBC Exec Jeff Zucker runs a once-great network into the ground, and then gets a $30 million severance package. Ain’t life sweet?

• Finally, a comprehensive list of The Best and Worst Vampires in Film History…take that, shiny Robert Pattinson!

Apparently, the reports of friction between director Michael Bay and hot actress Megan Fox are true as, according to various reports, the actress will not be returning to star in Transformers 3. The studio supposedly did not pick up her option for the third film, which starts shooting this week in Los Angeles. Although, if you believe Fox, the decision to not to appear in the film was actually her’s.

If the studio really did make the decision and Fox is just covering, then I agree it still seems like an unusual move for the studio and director Bay to make, especially as the film has just begun production. To eliminate an actress from a franchise where she plays a pretty large part and is also the love interest is somewhat risky. In addition, previous reports had indicated that writer Ehren Kruger and Bay were planning on creating a ‘female nemesis’ for Fox’s character.

I guess you can forget about that as Bay and company now plan to take the story “in another direction,” and will cast a new love interest. Perhaps said love interest will be a female bad guy? Could be interesting.

But really, the stars of any Transformers film are the robots so what actors star in the film, even though the list has impressively grown for this film with the additions of John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and Patrick Dempsey, are not as important. To be honest, you could probably replace the entire cast with new people and as long as the robots were cool, which let’s face it they are, the movie would still make a ton of money.

Transformers 3 is filming now and will hit theaters, sans Megan Fox, on July 1st 2011.

This week On the Radar bring a whole slew of new and interesting stuff. Let us know if we missed anything.

• The Flickcast’s own Elisabeth Rappe reports from the set of Jonah Hex (for another site but we don’t care, we love her).

• James Cameron says 3D will replace 2D soon. Yes, but when will substance replace style?

• True Blood gets a comic book. At least that’s better than a Lady Gaga comic. . . oh, wait.

• Heroes to get the axe? Isn’t it about time, really? The show has pretty much sucked sense Season One.

• Judge Dredd is returning to the big screen. He is the law, dammit!

• Some guys made a Mega Man movie. Why? Why the hell not?

• Hayden Christensen to help rip off The Da Vinci Code in The Genesis Code. But what about the younglings?

• Michael Bay says the Racist Robots will be banished from Transformers 3. On a related note, Michael Bay is a liar.

It was an interesting show for the Oscars this year.  From the “Kanye” moment to Sean Penn somewhat proudly proclaiming he’s not part of the Academy.  Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role (The Blind Side) the very same year she accepted a Razzie for Worst Actress (All About Steve).  And, of course, the gross upset of Avatar at the hands of The Hurt Locker.  With 41 million viewers, this year’s Oscars had something for everyone but, perhaps more interestingly, it best reflected the two sides of Hollywood which exist today.

How fitting to have two hosts on the one Oscar night that would truly exemplify both faces of Hollywood.  For so long many have seen Hollywood as one massive, filmmaking entity but that really isn’t the case.  Now more than ever there’s a division between what I’m calling (for the purposes of this article) “mainstream” Hollywood and “performance” Hollywood.  The names pretty much say it all.

Films in the mainstream category are all the summer blockbusters, tent pole movies studios rely on to turn a healthy profit year over year (e.g. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Avatar).  In contrast you have the performance pictures, lesser known films with limited release and all too often far less money behind them (e.g. Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, The Hurt Locker).  These are two very different types of films, each vying for the attention of movie goers.

This was a big week for news, especially of the comic book movie variety. Surprisingly, even with all that coming out we still have even more items worth talking about on the radar. Batman beats Superman…again, a Star Wars character makes a bid for a mascot job, MGM is still looking for money, Brian De Palma may get paranormal and what cities will Michael Bay reign destruction upon next?

Batman trumps Superman on the auction block

Looks like Batman wasn’t content with beating Superman at the box office, he had to do it at an auction as well. The 1939 first appearance of The Dark Knight sold for a whopping $1,075,500. This beats Superman’s first appearance in comics which sold for 1 million. Sorry, Supes…but, hey, you did land an awesome writer for your upcoming reboot.

Blockbuster struggles to remain relevant in the digital age

Video rental store Blockbuster continues an uphill battle to compete against digital alternatives.  The brick-and-mortar business reported a “$435 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $360 million in red ink in the year-ago frame. Revenue dropped 18% to $1.1 billion.” As companies like Netflix and Redbox continue to steal market share some believe Blockbuster has some merit left:

“The drying up of retail competition from the ongoing closures of most Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores; major studios aren’t making their new releases immediately available to Redbox; and Warner Bros. will begin a 28-delay before giving Netflix access to new-release DVDs.”

Personally, I don’t see a rebound at this point and beyond the legit competition Blockbuster still has piracy to content with. Is this the end? We’ll see.

I’m not sure if this news should be taken as good or bad, but it seems writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are officially off Transformers 3.  The dynamic duo of writing are probably two of the biggest names in Hollywood scribe circles these days having penned the fist two Transformers movies and this past Summer’s Star Trek reboot.

When asked why they are leaving Orci stated: “The main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the opportunity to sing news songs. We’ll see.”

With the pairs departure all the writing duties at this point fall to Ehren Kruger along with whatever Michael Bay wants to contribute (more explosions!).  This may not be such a good thing as Kruger is attributed for adding a lot of the comedy to the scripts which I felt did a disservice to the overall tone and pace of the story.

Getting back to my good/bad comment above,  I think it’s both.  It’s bad in the sense if there was anything positive about either movie (of which there was little as far as I can tell) it probably came from these two writers.  It’s bad because without Kurtzman and Orci the third Transformers film can only go downhill from here.  Not that it has far to go to hit rock bottom.

On the flip side, this will certainly free up the pair’s time to work on the sequel to Star Trek and continue producing their hit show Fringe. Even in Kurtzman and Orci’s absence I’m certain the next Transformers installment will go onto make a load of cash which makes it even more surprising the two would make an exit.  That said, I have to respect them for turning down a huge payday in favor of their craft.  My hat is off to you both.

Transformers 3 hits theaters July 1, 2011.

In what was undoubtedly not very surprising news, Michael Bay has confirmed on his website that there will, indeed, be a Transformers 3. Not only that, the film will hit theaters earlier than its rumored release of July 1, 2012 and will, in fact, be coming to a multiplex near you in 2011, a full year earlier. But wait, there’s even more — and this, while not entirely surprising, is a bit unexpected.

Not only will there be a Transformers 3 and it will be coming out a year earlier than expected, Bay also confirmed that franchise star Megan Fox will be in the third film as well. Given the seemingly hostile nature of their recent public spat, it appears Bay at least has decided to live and let live. I’m sure the many millions of dollars the franchise has made had nothing to do with it.

Bay wrote on his website that he met with ILM in San Francisco Thursday morning, followed by a flight to Rhode Island with Kruger to meet with Hasbro about new characters. “Well, it’s official: We have a great ‘Transformers 3’ story,” Bay said on his site. “Today is Day One.” This point is not better illustrated by the countdown clock now running at Bay’s site. As of today, it shows 636 days until Transformers 3 hits theaters. So, start planning accordingly.

Even though Bay has publicly confirmed Fox’s involvement in the third film, the beautiful star herself has not, as yet, commented. In addition, Shia LaBeouf was not mentioned by Bay at all, so there’s no confirmation on if he will be in the third film along with Fox. Although, according to other sources, both Fox and LaBeouf are slated to return, as is Exec. Producer Steven Spielberg and co-writer Ehren Kruger. So, we can probably expect announcements from Fox and LaBeouf’s people soon.

Transformers 3: The Blatant Grab for Cash hits theaters on July 1, 2011.