Thirty seconds of slow-motion robotic destruction...

It’s only fitting that such a big, intense, and quintessentially American (though also with a broader appeal) event such as the Super Bowl should feature a trailer for a Michael Bay movie, and sure enough, here it is, the Transformers: Dark of the Moon Super Bowl spot, delivering tantalising glimpses of the spectacular, robot-crunching action that we’ve come to expect from the Transformers franchise and director Michael Bay.

That is to say, compared to most spots, it’s action-packed, but it only scratches the surface of what will be in the final film. It leaves you wanting more, which I suppose is the point. There’s a melée of robots transforming, things on fire or exploding, and cars and trucks being flung through the air, sometimes all at once; reminding us that Michael Bay is the undisputed king of visual overload.

Having said that, the trailer’s actually somewhat restrained in some respects, though in a way which is intended to maximise the impact.

There’s no dialogue, and the only text is the simple “On 7.1.11, Earth Goes Dark”, which could refer to either the tone of the film, or the events (such as possibly an eclipse of some kind, which would tie in with the subtitle, Dark of the Moon), or both. There are dramatic slow-motion shots of Earth under attack from the air, being besieged by some kind of ships, presumably Decepticon. Perhaps at some point the sky is blocked out by hovering spaceships, as in Independence Day, from similarly bombastic director Roland Emmerich?

Sound-wise, the trailer is silent for the first few seconds, which seems strange, but then some repetitive sound effects kick in, which are very slightly on the side of annoying. However, after about a dozen viewings of the trailer, it occurred to me that perhaps there’re supposed to represent alarms or sirens of some kind, because Earth is under attack. This makes a lot more sense, and renders the sound effects much more palatable, and even atmospheric. Even so, the trailers for the first movie were much better in this respect, although at least the sound effects go more metallic towards the end of this trailer, which ends with an echoey sound that’s much more like the trailers for the first movie.

The trailer puts the focus squarely on the robots, presumably reflecting Michael Bay’s stated desire to move away from the “dorky comedy” of the second film, Revenge of the Fallen. The only humans who even get a look-in here are Shia LaBoeuf, Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, and Tyrese Gibson.

The Transformers we get a glimpse of include Bumblebee (in a heroic, preparing for action shot), a jet that could be Starscream, two cars which crash into each other and transform upon impact, some kind of winged Transformer, and Optimus Prime, heroically slicing his way through the midst of battle as he takes on the jet.

Sadly we’ll have to wait until July to see the rest, although hopefully there’ll be a full trailer sometime before that.

You can download the trailer from Paramount here.

See also:

Rango Super Bowl spot brings the crazy. In a good way...

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