Earlier today, we brought you some of our chat with Michael Bay about his work on Transformers: Dark of the Moon. We also got to see a nice chunk of footage from the movie. Well, now it’s time for everyone to get a look...
Yes, we said “announcement trailer.” Not teaser trailer. Unlike the teaser created way-back-when for the first Transformers film, this one features actual footage from Dark of the Moon. “When I look at it, I think it's cool, but is it exciting?” says Bay. “It's intriguing. It's good; it's doing its job, I think.”
The clip features what, according to the movie at least, really happened when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were cut off from communication with planet Earth on the dark side of the Moon. Actually, that was a big cover-up by NASA, and the astronauts were using the few minutes of presumed radio silence to investigate a crashed alien spaceship filled with machinery.
Intriguing is a good word to describe it, and it’s certainly a lot calmer than many of the scenes in the second film. Something that even the director himself acknowledges. “We have a more serious story this time, and I'm trying to make up for movie two,” he laughs. "I got rid of the dorky comedy, I mean we've got two little characters, that's it, but the dorkiness is not there. Dork-free Transformers. It's still entertaining..."
While Bay has been deeply involved with much of the process, he handed over some responsibility for crafting the new trailer because he just didn’t have time to work on it directly. “We had an idea what we were going to do. I wasn't that involved, because I was in the thick of shooting. Now that I'm back, I'll be much more involved in the teaser aspect. But I think it's just good to get the name out there, to let people know that we're coming.”
And, as always with footage that arrives this far out from the release of the film, what you’re seeing, while still damned impressive, is not 100% finished, according to the director. “Some of the shots are 80%, like the one where it's a helicopter shot, them walking on the Moon? That's still a turkey shot.” Bay goes on to explain the concept of the “turkey” shot, which basically boils down to an effects piece that isn’t yet in its final stage, a process made more complicated by the extra work that goes into fine-tuning 3D footage. “The effect isn't blended enough. The inside of the ship is not blended enough, the character that we find is not a fully done model of that character yet. So those shots will change, but I think they're good enough for use right now.”
He did let slip that one very famous former astronaut is involved. “Buzz, he's in the film. I definitely know they landed on the moon now!" he grins, recalling Aldin's love of pitching his books about his life and the mission to anyone in the area. "I wanted to know exactly about the Hasselblad cameras they used. And I said, 'When you brought back the cameras...' And he was, 'Brought back the cameras? We didn't bring s**t back, we had to throw it all out! It's a junkyard up on the moon. We could barely get off!' It was cool to have him involved.”
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Watched it? Let us know your thoughts. Transformers: Dark of the Moon will be out on July 1.