The first trailer for Michael Bay's third Autobots-vs.-Decepticons flick, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," has arrived and, unsurprisingly, it has zero Megan Fox in it (a side effect of, you know, her not being in the movie). Somewhat surprisingly, however, the trailer also fails to feature star Shia LaBeouf, new leading lady Rosie Huntington-Whiteley... and any robot-induced mayhem. It does boast a whole lot of astronaut Neil Armstrong (or, rather, a guy playing him) and even a little Walter Cronkite (portraying himself in archival footage).
That's because the trailer is a teaser in the truest sense of the word, delving back some 40 years into history to show humankind's first encounter with the giant robots that, in the modern day, use Earth as their playground/battleground. Interspersing real archival footage of Cronkite and NASA with a reenactment of Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic moon landing, the trailer reveals what the astronauts found on the dark side of the moon (so that's where the title comes from!).
This may (but probably won't) shock you, but what Neil and Buzz come across is a gargantuan, wrecked spacecraft that has no signs of life. But then the camera pans deep into the wreckage to reveal a seemingly dead robot whose eyes begin to flicker alive.
Is this robot indeed Alpha Trion, one of the 13 original Transformers, as has been postulated on the Interwebs? Was the NASA mission to the moon an excuse to investigate a crash they already knew had happened? Or was finding the 'bot spacecraft pure coincidence? And, if NASA knew about Transformers way back in 1969, why'd they keep it a secret for so long?
All will be revealed (we think) when "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" hits theaters on July 1, 2011 -- or when the full trailer hits. But until then, there's plenty to debate and to be excited about. After a lackluster second installment, it looks like Bay is getting back to basics with a flick that will explore the Transformers' origins in more depth and flesh out the series mythology in a (hopefully) more coherent manner than "Revenge of the Fallen."
What do you think of the trailer? Who's the robot in the wreckage? And are you psyched for the movie? Tell us in the comments!
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