Michael Bay: Today is "Day One" For Transformers 3

[Oskuro]

From The Escapist:

Director Michael Bay has announced that "Today is Day One" for the third Transformers movie, with a planned release date of July 1, 2011.



Michael Bay, as seen in the clip above, is well known for his love of special effects, military hardware, and lots and lots of stuff blowing up. So some might say that this makes him the perfect choice for the director of the live-action Transformers films. On the other hand, some might also say that he's a hack who ruined the franchise with 2007's Explosions and this year's Explosions 2: Revenge of the Hard-to-Follow Fight Scenes.

Whether you like the films or hate Bay's guts, though, it won't change the fact that he's the man in charge. And in a post made today to his personal news blog, Bay confirmed that today, October 1st, marked "Day One" for the next Transformers trilogy:

Well its official: We have a great Transformers 3 story. The release date is now July 1st 2011. Not 2012.

Today is Day One. This morning started with an ILM meeting for five hours in San Francisco. Currently I'm flying with writer Ehren Kruger to Rhode Island to talk to Hasbro about new characters.

P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.

Pain and Gain is right after shooting of Trans 3.

Michael

New characters, huh? Maybe we'll get some Decepticons that are colors other than plain gunmetal black or military gray so that we can actually tell them apart in fight scenes. That'd be kind of cool, Michael Bay. You should look into that.

Or at least see what you can do about licensing The Touch. Pretty please?

So, if Unicron shows up on this one, will we see a joke about his testicles before he is pwned by a secondary character?

[McC]

So, if Unicron shows up on this one, will we see a joke about his testicles before he is pwned by a secondary character?

C'mon, be honest now. Unicron was pwned by a secondary character in the animated movie.

[VF5SS]

Since when was Hot Rod a secondary character? I'm pretty sure it was the combined might of Judd Nelson and 80's Hair Band music that destroyed Unicron.

[McC]

Since when was Hot Rod a secondary character?

Since he was introduced in the movie? Sure, he was basically the protagonist of the movie, but he was new to Transformers at that point, and thus basically a nobody.

I'm pretty sure it was the combined might of Judd Nelson and 80's Hair Band music that destroyed Unicron.

If only more movies used this as a climax.

[Vympel]

Excellent. Something to look forward to in 2011.

[Darth Wong]

I wanted to like the second movie, but I just couldn't stand the Ghetto Twins, nor could I stand the obligatory "asshole government bureaucrat who tries to ruin everything and who has no comprehensible motive for any of his behaviour other than to irritate the audience and make you cheer when he gets thrown off the plane" character.

The film would have been vastly better if those two additions had simply been deleted. There was plenty to pick at in the rest of the film, but those two elements were simply intolerable. Anyone who said Jar-Jar sunk TPM had better not say they liked Transformers 2, because Jar-Jar is a beautifully understated model of script-writing subtlety compared to those two fucktards.

[Garibaldi]

The Transformers movies are terrible, but they would be good if they were just 30 minute shorts of robots bashing each other and Megan Fox looking hot. Virtually every other element just drags the films down.

[Big Orange]

The "ghetto bots" seemed more unambigiously and intentionally racist as well, unlike Binks. I too despised the contrived "asshole government official", but those three morons were merely the most egregious aspects of the rotten Transformers sequel. The hyper glossy presentation of all the hardware and Megan Fox was extremely easy on the eyes, but I was falling asleep and looking at my watch by the 45 minute mark.

[Peptuck]

The "ghetto bots" seemed more unambigiously and intentionally racist as well, unlike Binks.

Michael Bay, racist? Shock and awe.

I wanted to go see TF2. I really did. But I caught a clip of the two Ghetto Bots and I just went "fuck it." Maybe I'll get it on DVD so I can fast-forward it past that nonsense.

[Anguirus]

I wanted to like the second movie, but I just couldn't stand the Ghetto Twins, nor could I stand the obligatory "asshole government bureaucrat who tries to ruin everything and who has no comprehensible motive for any of his behaviour other than to irritate the audience and make you cheer when he gets thrown off the plane" character.

This.

I think this film will probably have a better script without the writer's strike complication, but in the negative column is that Bay probably has more influence over Kruger than over Orci & Kurtzman. Bay is a superb visual director, but I'd rather he not have a terrible lot to do with the story (as he did in TF2 by pushing ahead with preproduction and basically requiring the script to be written around action scenes that he and ILM were already well into planning).

I'll go see it and enjoy the robot fights regardless, I just hope that it doesn't end with Unicron being taken out by an airstrike.

[Darth Yan]

I rather liked the second movie, but I hated how they built the Fallen up as this awesome badass, and then have his final showdown with Optimus last less then a minute. Also, I eventually had to say "fuck it," and use the Bathroom cause it just dragged on and on. If they had eliminated the Alice character, Sam's mom doing pot, and the beauracrat, and maybe had the final battle take less time then the movie would be great rather then just a "meh" birthday present (I saw it on my birthday).

[OmegaChief]

I'll go see it and enjoy the robot fights regardless, I just hope that it doesn't end with Unicron being taken out by an airstrike.

Deilvered by the FREEDOMERICA uber shuttles from Armageddon is my bet, because as the Bay movies show, dispite being at war with the Decepticons for millions of years the Autobots can do next to nothing without the American Military.

[McC]

being at war with the Decepticons for millions of years the Autobots can do next to nothing without the American Military.

A long-term stalemate using their existing tactics implies that changing something up might be a good idea...

[Simon_Jester]

Yes, but why US? Why the implication that we, here, now, are the ones who can break the stalemate? I remind you of our notable inability to invent smart materials that can change from cars into giant robots and fly into space whenever the hell we feel like it. The Transformers not only have that kind of technology, they embody it. Why should major-league Decepticons find a barrage of JDAMs or a high-megajoule range railgun slug more than moderately inconvenient?

I mean yes, it can contribute to the awesomeness, but only at the expense of plot.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

The twins didn't bother me that much, maybe its because I know real people who act like that.

[McC]

Yes, but why US?

Er, because the movie is directed at audiences comprised of us. Who the hell would go see a movie where an eons-old stalemate between transforming robots is broken by...other transforming robots.* Or something. The reason humans are often Special™ in movies and fiction generally is, gosh, the audience is comprised of humans.

* Okay, granted, probably a great many board members. The general viewing public, however, likely would not.

[McC]

The twins didn't bother me that much, maybe its because I know real people who act like that.

QFT. They only bothered me insofar as people who act like that bother me to begin with.

What's more, the proportion of white people I know* that act like that is way higher than the proportion of black people. So much for racist overtones.

The Twins are caricatures of modern culture's dimwits. Bay said as much about them. Race is completely irrelevant to the matter. People are inventing controversy for the sake of it.

* And I will skull fuck the first person who trots out the "anecdotal evidence is not evidence" line on this topic.

[SylasGaunt]

QFT. They only bothered me insofar as people who act like that bother me to begin with.

What's more, the proportion of white people I know* that act like that is way higher than the proportion of black people. So much for racist overtones.

I seem to recall the black voice-actor for one of them stating in an interview somewhere that he was basically told 'wannabe gangsta' and allowed to voice the character however he felt like.

But yes it does probably help that pretty much every person I know who's acted like them has been white.

[tim31]

I'll go see it and enjoy the robot fights regardless, I just hope that it doesn't end with Unicron being taken out by an airstrike.

AC-130 in space? I like your angle!

[Anguirus]

^ See, what I'd rather see is an AC-130 Transformer! That like seemingly all flying TFs, would indeed be able to go to space.

I loved the airstrike in TF1, it showed superior tactics and three planes worth of heavy ground-attack firepower could take out the widdlest Decepticon (not counting Frenzy). F-22s taking major pieces out of Blackout and Megatron was a little more marginal, especially when in the same scene they couldn't scratch Starscream's paint.

What I didn't like in TF2 was the endless stock footage montage of American forces somehow teleporting themselves to the Jordanian Pyramids ( ) and for some reason NOT being crushed like flies before the awesome might of Devastator in a rousing homage to Godzilla, but instead killing most of the 'cons with one bomb and Devastator with one shell. It relegated the Autobots to the "foot-soldier" part of combined arms, whereas they ought to be more like walking armor and artillery themselves.

JDAMs killing 'cons is fine, but it would be nice if they'd seemed able to fight back. A well-staged battle would have been fun to see no matter who won, but no-name 'cons charging into lines of tanks was pretty meh.

[OmegaChief]

being at war with the Decepticons for millions of years the Autobots can do next to nothing without the American Military.

A long-term stalemate using their existing tactics implies that changing something up might be a good idea...

Ah yes, a good point, to expand on my intended point whenever we see plain TF on TF figthing(Mostly in the final of teh first city before the marinesget involved) the Autobots quite frankly seem to suck.

So it's kinda hard to imagine them holding a stalment for a long time. Also outside of the opening of TF2 the human militiry seems to be doing almost all the work.

[Solauren]

The transformers in the the live action movie were not millions of years old.

At best, they were 10s of thousands. I mean, after all, they built the pyramids to hide the energon harvester, and fought stone age/early bronze age humans.

And Jetfires dad was the first wheel and all.... (What did he transform into? Nothing! But he did it with Pride! With Honor!)

[Ford Prefect]

F-22s taking major pieces out of Blackout and Megatron was a little more marginal, especially when in the same scene they couldn't scratch Starscream's paint.

I've always liked the interpretation that Starscream was the 'heavy hitter' in that strike, even though it's too subtle for Bay.

the Autobots quite frankly seem to suck.

Did we watch the same movie? The Autobots kick ass. Sideswipe is a fucking ninja car, Bumblebee does a pretty good imitation of Kratos from God of War and even the twins were impressive when playing grabass with Devastator. They don't tank as much firepower as the Decepticons (even the 'Con grunts take pretty negligible damage from an Abrams), but the Autobots generally brutally dominate their opponents in one on one combat.

[Vympel]

The F-22s didn't really take major pieces out of either Blackout or Megatron anyway. They did damage, but all it did was briefly stun then, it's not like they blew pieces off. As for the "mook" protofrom Decepticons in TF2, we did see an M1A2 blow one's head off, IIRC. Which is right and proper.

Anyway, TF2 comes out on Blu-Ray in a couple of weeks, I'll be picking it up (duh) and having a look at all the stuff I undoubtedly missed / want to see over and over. For those who didn't see it in IMAX, they missed out some cool shit (Bumblebee ripping out Ravage's head + "spinal chord" in slow motion for example, and Grindor getting some hits in against Optimus in the forest fight).

Even better, I'll be able to skip through Skids and Mudflap scenes

As for the government bureaucrat, he was only in IIRC two to three scenes, tops, so he barely registered as an annoyance.

[tim31]

On that note Ford, Bumblebee vs. Ravage in the final all-in was gruesomely enjoyable.

For those who didn't see it in IMAX, they missed out some cool shit (Bumblebee ripping out Ravage's head + "spinal chord" in slow motion for example...)

Beat me! I didn't see it at Imax though, was it supposed to have been cut from normal screen release?