Transformers 3 Will Respond To T2 Criticisms

Director Michael Bay promises third film won't be as rubbish as the second, and confirms the new film’s villain – Shockwave

Transformers 3 will tone down the goofball comedy, have deaths that are really deaths (and not have characters resurrected all over the place) and a decent villain, promises director Michael Bay in an on-set interview with USA Today . The article also confirms that the film will be shot in 3D, and that the robotic nemesis this time round will be fan favourite Shockwave.

Bay admits that he must take some of the blame for the some of the failings of Transformers 2 and promises that the third film will respond to the criticism made by reviewers and fans in the third film. Which is a honest admission from a man who could hide behind the defense that the sequel, Revenge Of The Fallen , was the number two movie of 2009 (behind Avatar ), earning $836 million worldwide. But fans will be glad to hear that he wasn't deaf to the complaints.

"I'll take some of the criticism,” says Bay, standing in the set of a dilapidated nuclear reactor. “It was very hard to put (the sequel) together that quickly after the writers' strike (of 2007-08).”

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura agrees: “We tried to do too many things in the second movie, which didn't give enough time in any one of them. We were constantly jumping to the next piece of information, the next place.”

Bay adds, “This one really builds to a final crescendo. It's not three multiple endings... As a trilogy, it really ends. It could be rebooted again, but I think it has a really killer ending.” Which also seems to be confirmation he won’t be helming a Transformers 4 .

“One thing we're getting rid of is what I call the dorky comedy,” Bay reveals. The dreaded twins are “basically gone”. Hurrah!

Transformers 3 will be about the space race between Russia and the USA. “The movie is more of a mystery,” says Bay. “It ties in what we know as history growing up as kids with what really happened.”

Bay refers to the second film’s villain, The Fallen, as "kind of a ****** character,” before confirming that film three’s villain will be fan favourite Shockwave, the transforming laser-cannon and dictator of Cybertron.

Dave Golder
Freelance Writer

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years. 

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