We’ve been waiting patiently for our first glimpse of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen – and finally, thanks to the movie’s Superbowl spot, we’ve got it. And it didn’t disappoint.
A teaser in the truest sense of the word, it’s a bombardment of astounding images that indicates that Michael Bay has really gone for it this time around. As amazing as ILM’s effects were for the 2007 original (perhaps recipient of the most baffling Oscar snub of the last few years), they look like they’ve reinvented the wheel, perhaps conscious of the competition posed by that other giant robot film – Terminator Salvation – which comes out this summer. There are some amazing images in this brief trailer, including transformations which are far slicker and grander in scale than anything seen in the previous film.
Tonally, this is considerably – yes, we’re going to say it – darker than the ads for the original movie. Not only is the colour scheme less cheerful than before, but the action looks more intense, and our heroes more imperilled – we get shots of Megan Fox’s Mikaela looking distraught, Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky warning his father (Kevin Dunn) to run away (from what, we don’t know), then a look at Sam being pinned to the floor by an evil Decepticon that, to our eyes, looks like it could be Megatron, to our beloved Optimus Prime, beaten to a pulp by a massive foe that could be Devastator (the Decepticon formed from the Constructicons) in a stunning last shot. Is this the end for him?
Our first reaction? Wow. Simply wow. Of course, once we hear trifling details like the plot and dialogue, we might be less enthusiastic – but right now, this has become possibly our most-anticipated movie of the summer.