Giant Freakin Robot

It’s only been less than a week since Michael Bay bludgeoned the world with Transformers: Age of Extinction, and while the critics have not been particularly kind to the film, it has still raked in more than $381 million across the globe. And just because the movie is still relatively new to theaters doesn’t mean that Paramount doesn’t already have their eyes on the future. They recently unveiled the spectacular packaging for an upcoming special edition Blu-ray, and the producers have already started thinking about possible new additions to the franchise.

I haven’t seen Age of Extinction yet, and to be honest, I don’t know if I’ll get to it in the theaters—there are a lot of films ahead of this one on my need-to-see list—but I do want to own this Blu-ray. There’s no official release date yet, and not word on the extras, but you can already preorder it on Amazon. The most memorable image from the glut of marketing, one that was used with great frequency, is that of the Autobot leader Optimus Prime riding on the back of the Dinobot named Grimlock, who is essentially a robotic fire-breathing dragon. It is completely insane, over the top, and if I do pay money to see this in the theater, it will be because I want to see this blasted on a screen many stories tall.

Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction is set to open worldwide this Friday, June 27—unless a lawsuit in China delays the release there—and it is sure to be one of the biggest movies of the summer. Even though the previous movies in the franchise have earned billions of dollars—billions with a B and an S—that doesn’t mean that Paramount Pictures is going to be content to rest on their laurels and not promote their movie. Oh no, that’s not how they role at all. In fact, the closer we get, the more we see, including this latest short TV spot.

And when we say short, we mean very short. This video may only be 15-seconds long, but almost all of those seconds are full of new footage. Considering that Bay is fond of shots that are measured in nanoseconds, you can fit quite a lot of shiny new film into a spot this brief.

The world is about to be invaded by giant shape shifting robots from space, again. Are you ready? Michael Bay and company will unleash Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth in a multi-billion dollar earning franchise, at the end of the week. Early reviews of the film have started trickling, and have been mixed-to-positive, but the cinematic juggernaut has hit a speed bump, one that could lead to some last minute edits.

Yahoo reports that a property developer based in Beijing, China, has filed a lawsuit demanding that one of their properties be cut out of the film before it opens there. Beijing Pangu Investment Co. Ltd is suing both their business partners and Paramount Pictures. They own a hotel that is apparently shaped like a dragon, which is a great idea in itself, and claim that Age of Extinction fails to fulfill an agreed-upon sponsorship deal.

The biggest spectacle of the summer is nearly upon us. In less than a week, Michael Bay delivers the fourth installment of his multi-billion dollar franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction. I envision constant explosions and no single shot that lasts more than three-quarters of a second. It looks totally nuts. So far, the Transformers movies have been critic-proof, and regardless of what anyone thinks of the movie, I fully expect this to be one of, if not the biggest movie of the summer. Even though Paramount can pretty much print money with these movies, they’ve never been one to short-change the promotion process, and they’ve released another clip from the film, as well as a featurette digging into the IMAX and 3D portion of the process.

This clip places the human element of the film front and center, focusing on Mark Wahlberg’s inventor Cade Yaeger. He’s just your average Joe, living life, trying to make ends meet, scolding his daughter for wearing really short shorts, right as Bay delivers an extreme close up of the offending garment. That is going to be one giant ass projected onto the screen.

Michael Bay is preparing to assault the collective eyeballs of the entire world with Transformers: Age of Extinction next week. Considering that the previous three films have raked in multiple billions of dollars, it’s rather likely that just about the entire world will wind up seeing this movie. Even though that is almost a given at this point, Paramount Pictures isn’t one to skimp on promotion, so they’re back to tease the June 27 release date with a new TV spot, a featurette introducing you to the human protagonist, and the announcement that Transformers 5 has already been scheduled. And if that isn’t enough, there’s even a brand new Honest Trailer for the second film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

This latest television ad–apparently the 20th, which is totally believable–is like a conglomerate of clichés. You have giant robots entreating others to roll out, the old gang gets back together, and someone gives something a whirl. And Mark Wahlberg calls Bumblebee by the affectionate nickname “B,” because he has to prove that he is hip and relevant, and because Bumblebee’s name does in fact start with the letter B. At least they didn’t include the bit where the nerdy guy asks Wahlberg for his insurance after an alien spacecraft crashes into his car, which might have made me cry.

The next big sci-fi movie on the summer schedule is Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. There are others we’re way more excited about (namely Snowpiercer, The Rover, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), but none of them are going to be anywhere near the same neighborhood, spectacle wise, as this film. Just take a look at these three new TV spots, which are full of flashy new footage, and you’ll have a good idea of exactly what you’re in for.

Transformers 4 is intended as a soft reboot of the multi-billion-dollar-earning franchise. Though it takes place in the same world, and involves many of the same giant shape shifting robots, they’ve added new human characters as well as additional story arcs. Easily the most prominent feature of all of these commercials, especially the first one, is the new villain, Lockdown. While we’ve seen him from afar many times, this gives us our first close up look at the antagonist. He certainly looks like he’s not in any mood to be trifled with, and he’s quite intent on causing serious problems here on Earth.