If we were to tell you that Michael Bay was determined to dial it back for Transformers 3 and focus on character, you'd probably laugh - but that's exactly what he has claimed in a recent interview with the LA Times.
After claiming that this film won't be as "robot-heavy" and will (gasp) feature fewer explosions, Bay went on to say that, "There will be a nice crescendo ending,” Bay said. “It gets much more into the robot character. The last time you kind of met a few of the robots; this time you’re gonna get a much cooler landscape.”
It's tempting to speculate that "landscape" here might refer to alien worlds, prehistoric Dino-bot territory (only kidding!) or at the very least the Decepticon's spaceship the Nemesis, but that hardly squares with the less-robot-heavy idea. Then, it wouldn't be the first time that Michael "No, Megatron isn't in the sequel" Bay has been less than accurate about his plans.
Frankly, don't start thinking that this is going to be the big-budget character piece that Bay hints at, with Optimus going through a mid-life crisis or Bumblebee learning a valuable lesson about women or something. "Fewer explosions" still leaves room to blow up at least four national monuments and crash through sixteen lesser buildings, while inflicting 80% collateral damage on the surrounding areas. And even less "robot heavy" could give us a good ten or twelve of the damn things.
But with details about the summer 2011 release still thin on the ground, this may give you speculation fodder to be going on with, so post your thoughts below.