Transformers 3 : Dark of the Moon

Transformers 3 : Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (also known as Transformers 3) is a 2011 American science fiction/action film, part of the Transformers film series, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and was released on June 29, 2011.The film is presented in regular 2D, Real D 3D and IMAX,featuring Dolby Surround 7.1 sound.
Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro reprise their starring roles, with Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving returning as the voice of Megatron. Ehren Kruger, who collaborated in the writing of the last film, was again involved in the writing. Despite having been initially confirmed for the film,and with the film already into principal photography, it was announced that Megan Fox would not be reprising her role from the previous two films. With Fox's character (Mikaela Banes) being dropped, Sam was assigned a new love interest, portrayed by English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Also, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, having written the last two films, did not return for this installment in the series,which Orci had earlier somewhat anticipated, fearing the duo would "risk getting stale". Bay has stated this would be his last installment in the series.In May 2011, it was announced that Paramount Pictures had bumped Transformers: Dark of the Moon's release date of July 1, 2011, two days earlier, June 29, in order to receive an early response to footage.The film was then released one day earlier, June 28, in select 3D and IMAX theatres, nationwide.The total budget of Dark of the Moon, including marketing costs, has been estimated to be $270 million.

Plot
In 1961, a Cybertronian spacecraft known as the Ark crash lands on the far side of the moon after escaping a war-devastated Cybertron. Piloted by Sentinel Prime, it carried the Pillars, technology that could have won the war for the Autobots. On Earth, the crash of the Ark is detected by NASA, and President John F. Kennedy authorizes a mission to put a man on the moon as a cover. In 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 lands on the surface of the Moon to investigate the Ark.
In the present day, the Autobots have forged a military alliance with the United States, assisting in human conflict to prevent humans from destroying themselves. During a mission in Chernobyl, Optimus Prime discovers a fuel cell from the Ark (which awakened Shockwave) that the Soviet Union attempted to use as a power source, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster. Knowing this, Optimus launches his own mission to retrieve the Pillars and revive Sentinel Prime. Just five Pillars remain on-board the vessel, which the Autobots describe as being the means to establish a mobile space bridge between two points and transport matter through. U.S. National Intelligence Director Charlotte Mearing is horrified at this revelation as they could be used to bring an invading army to Earth.Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky is frustrated that he has not been able to find a job since graduating college. He takes his frustrations out on his new girlfriend, Carly Spencer, and her close relationship with her boss, Dylan Gould. Sam is eventually hired in a mail room in a high-pressure working environment. One of his co-workers, Jerry Wang, passes information on to Sam about "the dark side of the moon" before being assassinated by Laserbeak, a condor-like Decepticon. After contacting the retired Seymour Simmons, Sam realizes that the Decepticons are systematically killing people connected to the American and Russian space missions. They locate two Russian cosmonauts who show them satellite photos with hundreds of Pillars being stockpiled on the moon. Sam realizes the Decepticons raided the Ark decades before and are luring the Autobots into a trap. Unable to revive Sentinel Prime, they left him and five Pillars, including a Master Pillar, for the Autobots to find. Sam contacts the Autobots and reveals that Sentinel Prime is being targeted by the Decepticons, and escort him to their base. However, Sentinel reveals that he made a deal with the Decepticons and betrays both the Autobots and the humans, destroying their base and executing Ironhide before fleeing with the Pillars.Sentinel uses the Pillars to establish a space bridge with the moon allowing the Decepticon army hidden there to attack Washington DC; Some Decepticons taking the forms of vehicles they pass. Lt. Colonel Lennox orders several military commands to DEFCON 1. Sam is forced by Gould, in league with the Decepticons, into finding out Optimus Prime's plans for retaliation. Sam finds Optimus Prime, who tells him there is no plan for retaliation. The Autobots are exiled from Earth by way of a ship that brought the second wave of Autobots from the last movie to earth called the Xanthium. Knowing this, the Decepticons destroy the Autobot rocket and take control of Chicago. With Gould's help, they establish themselves in Chicago and fortify the city. Gould reveals to a kidnapped Carly that the Decepticons intend to rebuild Cybertron, strip-mining the Earth for resources and using humans as slave labor. To do this, the Decepticons have placed Pillars around the world to call Cybertron itself through the space bridge.
Angered at the betrayal, Sam finds USAF Chief Robert Epps and the two re-form the disbanded NEST team to go into Chicago and rescue Carly. They are nearly killed before they have set foot in the city but are saved by Optimus Prime and the Autobots, who evaded the explosion of their shuttle in one of the ejected booster rockets. Sam, the Autobots and NEST advance on Gould's penthouse to rescue Carly and disable the Master Pillar before Cybertron appears in the sky. Battling through the city, NEST takes out the Decepticon leaders (including Shockwave and Starscream) while Carly convinces Megatron that he will answer to Sentinel Prime once Cybertron is restored, instead of leading the Cybertronians himself. Sam reaches the Master Pillar where he confronts Gould, which ends in Sam taking an uprooted pole and knocking Gould into the Pillar where he is electrocuted. Bumblebee and Ratchet arrive, the latter shooting the pillar allowing Bumblebee to tackle down the Pillar. The connection to Cybertron is broken, and the half-formed planet collapses into itself. With Cybertron seemingly destroyed, Optimus and Sentinel fight in the ruins of Chicago. Optimus loses an arm and is about to be killed when Megatron intervenes, provoked by Carly's words. Megatron comes close to killing Sentinel, but Megatron wants a truce that would put him in power, with Optimus for the time being while taunting him in the process. Optimus rejects this truce and takes the opportunity to attack Megatron, ripping his head and spine from his body before executing Sentinel. Sam and Carly are reunited and the Autobots accept that, with Cybertron gone, Earth is now their home.

Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon Teaser Trailer

As a preemptive measure, Michael Lucchi and Paramount announced a July 1, 2011 release date in IMAX 3-D for another Transformers film before completion of Revenge of the Fallen. Director Michael Bay responded, "I said I was taking off a year from Transformers. Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3—they asked me on the phone—I said yes to July 1—but for 2012—whoops! Not 2011! That would mean I would have to start prep in September. No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots."
On October 1, 2009, Bay revealed that Transformers: Dark of the Moon had already gone into pre-production, and its planned release was back to its originally intended date of July 1, 2011, rather than 2012.Filming started in May 2010, with shooting locations including Chicago, Florida, and Moscow.Due to the revived interest in 3-D technology brought in by the success of Avatar,talks between Paramount, Industrial Light & Magic and Bay had considered the possibility of the next Transformers film being filmed in 3-D. Testing has been performed in bringing the technology into Bay's work.Bay was reluctant to film with 3-D cameras since in test he'd found them to be too cumbersome for his filming style, but he didn't want to implement the technology in post production either since he was not pleased with the results.According to various published sources, Megan Fox's absence from the film was due to Bay ultimately choosing not to renew her role in light of her comparing him and his worth ethics to Adolf Hitler,although representatives for the actress said that it was her decision to leave the film franchise.It was later revealed by Bay that Fox's comments comparing him to Hitler particularly angered Steven Spielberg, which affected Bay's decision to let her go."I wasn't hurt," Bay stated, "because I know that's just Megan. Megan loves to get a response. And she does it in kind of the wrong way. I'm sorry, Megan. I'm sorry I made you work twelve hours. I'm sorry that I'm making you show up on time. Movies are not always warm and fuzzy."With Fox not reprising her role, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was chosen to play Sam's new love interest. Ramón Rodríguez was initially planned to be in the film, in a role bigger than the one he had in Revenge of the Fallen, but he was dropped during early production.In a hidden extra for the Blu-ray version of Revenge of the Fallen, Bay expressed his intention to make Transformers 3 not necessarily larger than Revenge of the Fallen, but instead go deeper into the mythos, give it more character development, and make it darker and more emotional.Shortly after the release of Revenge of the Fallen, Orci said he would like to introduce Unicron "for scale's sake", and Unicron is briefly shown in a secret Transformers 3 preview feature in the Revenge of the Fallen Blu-ray disc. Ultimately the producers decided to forgo a plot involving the planet eating transformer, and no further comments are ever made on the subject.Having been called Transformers 3 up to that point, the film's final title was revealed to be Dark of the Moon in October 2010.
On March 19, 2010, the script was said to be finished,and pre-shoots began on April 7, 2010 in Northwest Indiana, specifically around Gary, which portrayed Ukraine, and Los Angeles.Filming began on May 18. The first six weeks took place in Los Angeles, locations included Sherman Oaks, Fourth Avenue and 5. Main. The next four weeks were spent in Chicago. Locations filmed in Chicago included LaSalle Street, Michigan Avenue, Bacino's of Lincoln Park at 2204 North Lincoln Avenue and around the "Sears Tower".The scenes set in Michigan Ave featured a substantial amount of pyrotechnics and stunt work.Filming in Detroit was planned to take place in August but the Chicago shoot was extended until 1 September.In late September the production moved to Florida, just before the launch of Space Shuttle mission STS-133.While filming in Washington the crew shot on the National Mall, Bay stated that there would be a car race on the location. Two further locations announced were the Milwaukee Art Museum and an old factory location of Tower Automotive, currently under redevelopment for mixed use as well as the City of Milwaukee equipment yard. Filming was scheduled to take place there after work was done in Chicago.On September 23, filming was done at the former city hall in Detroit, MI. On October 16, work was done at the Johnson Space Center in Texas with intent to shoot a scene set in the late 1960s utilizing extras with period fashion and hairstyles.One day of shooting was also done at the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia.Other planned filming locations included Africa, Moscow, and China.About 70 percentof the film was shot in 3-D, using Arri Alexa and Sony F35 cameras,while other footage was shot in the anamorphic format on 35mm film and converted into 3D in post production.35mm film was used for scenes filmed in slow motion, and scenes which required higher image quality than the HD digital 3D cameras could provide, such as closeups of faces or shots of the sky.35mm cameras were also used for scenes where the 3D cameras proved to be too heavy, or were subject to strobing or electrical damage from dust.Filming was officially completed on November 9, 2010.On November 26, it was announced the film had entered post-production.
Initially scheduled to be released on July 1, on May 20, 2011 it was announced that the film would be released on June 29 instead.According to the Daily Mail, there is a speculation that moments from The Island may have been recycled for Transformers 3. Brian Howard, from the Daily Mail, says "the scenes...do show a high degree of similarity through several sequences.
The album was released on June 14, 2011. Linkin Park's song "Iridescent" is the lead single for the film, continuing the streak of the band's songs as the theme songs of the film series. The single follows "What I've Done" being used in the 2007 film, and "New Divide" for the 2009 film. The music video for "Iridescent" was directed by Joe Hahn.Two other singles were released specifically for the soundtrack, "Monster" by Paramore and "All That You Are" by the Goo Goo Dolls. Several other unreleased songs make their debut on the album, including "The Pessimist" by Stone Sour and "The Bottom" by Staind.Activision developed a video game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.The trailer for the Dark of the Moon video game was released in February 2011.The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game were developed by High Moon Studios, who had previously developed Transformers: War for Cybertron. Behaviour Interactive developed the Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS versions of the game. Each and every version of the game officially were released in North America on June 14, 2011.