As a fan I spent time spotting the individual robots and all the newcomers, especially the ones I’ve seen as toys — yet ultimately I left wanting more, lots more. The excitement at seeing the new characters quickly dwindles as they disappear ten seconds later, with the off chance of another appearance slightly later. Sideswipe, Arcee, Devastator, Jolt, Sideways, all constructicons, The Fallen, Grindor and Soundwave are momentary plot elements, each are a little disappointing in their own way — you could blink and miss them for the most part. However, the new characters that have plot invested in them — Jetfire, Ravage, Wheelie, Skids and Mudflap are all superb and valuable additions. Alice is an odd plot point, interesting but an idea still not fully explored.

The hype about Sideways, Arcee and Demolishor, spurred on by the superbowl teaser, make up the opening action sequence, including the NEST bonus footage. It’s all over in a flash — Arcee is seen chasing Sideways as briefly as in the TV spots, the twins — currently as an ice cream truck, attempt to help but curb badly and fall apart. The rumored scene showing the truck splitting in two and then reforming, past some bewildered kids (as read in the Bethlehem Steel call sheet) isn’t there. The motorcycles drop away and Sergeant Epps calls in Sideswipe — a kick, a slide and a flip and a huge sword slices the Audi R8 clean in two. Meanwhile Demolisher is running amok in Shanghai, taking out helicopters and generally destroying everything he comes across on those enormous great wheels. Optimus Prime drops in via parachute, speeds along the bridge and leaps onto his head, creating that spectacular explosion as seen in the teaser and filmed at Long Beach. A swift blow to the head and Prime takes him out — easy as you like, but not before he can mutter something about The Fallen returning.

Cut to Sam’s parents house and Sam Witwicky is leaving home for college, his mom, one of the pivotal comedy elements, is making a scene. Packing for college, Sam uncovers a shard of the AllSpark, it burns through the floor and sets the kitchen abuzz with little terrorizing robots — out to attack Sam. Bumblebee is called in to save the day, but his weapons destroy the house and dejected he’s sent back to the garage. Cue the “I’m so excited” ShoWest footage and Sam leaving home and Mikaela.

The ever so sinister Soundwave is the overseer, keeping watch on all human activities. He sends in Wheelie to steal the shard from Mikaela and listens in on a debate at the autobot hangar. Here a government bigwig is moaning about the operation, and over a live video feed reveals Megatron and the AllSpark’s location to the decepticons. If you’re watching this scene in the glorious full screen IMAX experience, Optimus Prime will be actual size as he stands tall — it’s spectacular to imagine.

Ravage falls to earth, his mission — to retake the AllSpark parts. Everything about Ravage is brilliant, the way he sneaks and prowls is perfectly animated, it’s mesmerizing. The ball bearing bots are released into a security bunker, where inside they form a tall slither of a robot which steals the cube, Ravage providing cover fire with his hind mounted turrets.

Back at college, Sam is moving in and his parents are helping — his mom describes the dorms as Hogwarts before getting stoned on hash brownies — hilarity shortly ensues. We also meet Ramon Rodriguez’s Leo Spitz — a spunky but cowardice conspiracy theorist. Leo points out the sultry Alice, played by Isabel Lucas, and she’s already making eyes at Sam. At the student party Alice comes onto Sam, and when Bumblebee turns up she forces her way into the car for the ride. To the car radio and lyric “your cheating heart”, Bumblebee makes a nuisance of himself, and as seen at Princeton, Alice ends up covered in green goo, storming off into the night. All the while, Mikaela sits at home, missing out on their first webcam date.

The devastating Decepticon news is broken to Sam at the cemetary by Prime, “It’s not my war”, and all that lark about leading a normal college life. Now the symbols start appearing and Witwicky Jr. can’t stop drawing them everywhere — including an episode in Astronomy 101.

With Megatron’s co-ordinates, the enormous Long Haul, Ravage and constructicons descend into the watery depths to resurrect their leader, sacrificing one of themselves so that the (German) doctor can piece him back together — in an instant it seems. With new life it’s up and away, as a jet and into space, to confront Starscream and receive orders from his master, The Fallen.

Next up, the second of the three BD Live sequences, Wheelie attempts to steal the AllSpark shard from Mikaela, and we know how that turns out. Wheelie’s character is filled with crude laddish humor and his on screen moments are always entertaining — maybe with the exception of the leg humping one which is just plain odd. With Sam having a mental breakdown (brought about by symbols), Mikaela flies out to meet him, walking in on him and Alice seemingly making out.

“That kiss tasted like diesel”, Alice transforms into a spindly Decepticon and attempts to choke Sam with her huge mechanical tongue as Mikaela fends her off. Hot wiring the Saturn Astra, the three, Leo in tow, set off with Alice on the bonnet, akin to a famous Terminator 2 scene. Her life ends prematurely as she is crushed against a lamppost — a shame as the character had potential (you could make a whole movie about a single robot disguised as a human, hunting a boy, maybe the boy would be named John). Shortly thereafter we get the third BD live sequence; Grindor swoops in and carries the trio off to Starscream and Megatron — the fall should surely kill them but they miraculously escape unharmed. “I am zee doctor!” screeches the spindly mechanoid examining/torturing Sam, beneath Megatron’s huge claw.

The next action scene shows how much the special effects have developed in just two years — Prime and the autobots flood in to save the humans, leading to an escape sequence and a forrest fight we’ve seen snippets of in the TV spots. This fight is awesome, the effects are perfect and suddenly Optimus Prime is kicking all sorts of ass (swords and all) as he takes on Megatron, Starscream and Grindor all at once, all expertly choreographed with the token Michael Bay slow-mo death scenes. This is the adrenaline kick we’d hoped for. Ultimately it’s all too much for prime and Megatron destroys him, literally stabbing him in the back and exploding his chest cavity. With their leader gone, it’s time for the Decepticons to mobilize.

From hereon the slower second half somewhat fails to match up to the first — many protoforms are seen falling to earth, destroying Paris, aircraft carriers, etc., and amidst the carrier destruction the reinvigorated Fallen arrives on earth — through a hacked satellite network he issues a global broadcast looking for Sam Witwicky, he wants what’s in his head. This apparent global Decepticon attack never materializes on film — you’d expect some montage of worldwide robot destruction. NEST gets shutdown in the process.

Instead we cut to the unfolding mystery of Sam’s symbol obsession — which for no discernible reason has implanted itself in Sam’s head; ‘it’s his fate’ is the best explanation we’ll get. There’s a short and improbable chain towards explaining the symbols — Leo happens to know the guy that runs BigEffingRobots, who happens to have seen the symbols and happens to be Agent Simmons — (now working in a Deli after the shutdown of sector 7), here he has details of ancient prophecies and Transformers on earth. Wheelie reads said details (whilst on a leash) and points the four to the Smithsonian museum, whereupon they stumble on Jetfire, a bumbling old British fool with a cane — the Blackbird SR-71 and former Decepticon.

Jetfire’s rambles are a charming nonchalant backdrop to the Transformers mythology; he quite randomly ends up teleporting all parties (Skids, Mudflap and Bumblebee included) to Egypt, via the Space Bridge — Sam happens to damage his arm in the process. Now begins the unnecessarily long ‘mystery’, with an aim to resurrect Optimus Prime — following lame clues to find the Tomb of the Primes and the Matrix of Leadership, which breaks into dust on touch. Meanwhile, Simmons has contacted the NEST crew and, with Primes’ body, Autobots and reinforcements, they set off for Egypt. All very slow and drawn out.

The action kicks in again near the pyramids, or more precisely, in White Sands, New Mexico. NEST’s arrival coincides with Starscream’s swooping attack on Bumblebee and the twins, splitting the group in two and sending Sam and Mikaela running towards NEST; leaving the twins, Simmons and Spitz to confront whatever the building site throws at them.

The next big robot battle commences, although without the choreography, urgency or adrenaline of the forrest fight. As NEST and the autobots fend off Megatron, constructicons (Scrapper, Long Haul, Scavenger), Ravage and numerous characterless repaints, the twins find themselves facing the vacuum sucking behemoth Devastator (somehow made of the same constructicon models already battling elsewhere — slightly confusing for fans).

We don’t see much of Devastator’s constituent parts (nothing more than the footage seen in the TV Spots) and there’s no explanation for their presence. Mudflap gets sucked into Devastator’s vortex before attacking him from the inside and being spat back out, and as the humans stand beneath the slow moving giant for safety, it begins its climb up the pyramid. Devastator is entirely disappointing with it’s giant demolishing balls clanging above Simmons as he sends in the order for the top secret rail gun — an attack that takes the giant out in one fell swoop. No battles, no clever autobot team up to take him down, no aggression or personality; might as well have been one giant snail with a Dyson.

Meanwhile, the tanks and guns that struggled to take out Decepticons in the first movie, take out attacking robots with relative ease. And as Sam and Mikaela desperately run from more giant robots, the Decepticons can’t catch up or shoot straight, crazy. The highlight of this segment comes in Bumblebee’s handling of Sam’s parent’s hostage situation; launching on Scrapper from above and executing him with expert style, before rumbling with Ravage and ripping his spine out in slow motion. We see Arcee for another split second before she gets destroyed by a missile, I think she utters a couple of words; no misinformation from Bay this time around. Sideswipe makes an appearance, commanding some men, whilst Ratchet and Ironhide are relegated to minor battles.

As battle draws to a close, one last gasp missile from Megatron catches Sam, knocking him down, where for a few moments we are led to believe he might be dead. “Am I dead? Where am I?” Sam asks, as the scene cuts to autobot heaven and the ghosts of the primes with their messages of fate and leadership. The Matrix of Leadership re-materializes and Sam uses it to bring Optimus Prime back to life, but not before announcing his love for Mikaela.

Without warning, The Fallen, in his brief third appearance, teleports in, steals the Matrix and teleports back out to the top of the pyramid, to begin activation of the sun harvester. In response, Jetfire sacrifices himself to heal Prime’s broken parts (as the only decent thing he’s ever done) and augment his powers — here comes Jolt’s ten seconds of stardom — his robot mode and electrical powers are called upon to facilitate. Prime now flies off to battle The Fallen and Megatron simultaneously atop the pyramids, and again he kicks all sorts of metal rear; heavily damaging Megatron (who cowardly flees to fight another day), and beheading The Fallen in a brutal attack, sadly it’s all over quite quickly. Where all the other Decepticons have gone isn’t clear, Starscream could aid but doesn’t. Optimus Prime is victorious and the movie ends shortly after with Sam and Prime standing aboard the John Stennis aircraft carrier, once again awaiting whatever the future may bring. New Divide plays us out and there’s no extra scene at the end of the credits.

Roll on Transformers 3.

I’ve embedded our tweets below for a preview!

Reports

The first report comes via the Don Murphy forums — obviously LOTS of spoilers herein!

Ok guys just got back! Don’t have much time to post, don’t wanna miss the train but here’s some quick stuff.

Movie was incredible, I liked it much more than the first! More action, more robots, less humans! Though there are some lame sexual innuendos like Wheelie humping Megan’s leg.

Anyway, Bay and the actors came right into the theater and introduced the film. I was tempted to scream “Don Murphy Stooges #1″ but I didn’t want to get led out by security!

The VA thing in the credits was way too fast, sorry guys. The Fallen was Todd something. Welker does voice Soundwave, and Devastator too. Devastator has one line, screaming his name. Soundwave only has a few lines but he speaks English. But he never comes down to earth and never turns into a robot. Bleah. Very little screen time, but at least he doesn’t get exploded which leaves things open for the third movie.

Mostly English, not much cybertronian.

The Twins were lame. As in the “bust a cap in you ass” stereotype. I could’ve done without them.

Jetfire was comic relief. He has a British accent and reminded me of a Monty Python character. He doesn’t “combine” with Prime in the normal sense, he gets fatally wounded and rips out his spark, killing himself so Prime can use his parts.

Wheelie is nothing like G1 Wheelie. He kinda reminds me of Rattrap.

Lots of kitchen bots. One was a Samurai too. Bludgeon?

Only named Constructicon is Rampage, and he is red.

Megatron is revived by some Constructicons and “The Doctor.”

Sideways never transforms, he is cut in half by Sideswipe in the first battle scene in car mode. Sideswipe is cool. Ravage is cool too.

There was a bot that looked like Blackout but he was not named. Blackout himself was never revived so I can’t say it was him. He did not speak and was not named in the credits. In fact in the last battle scene there were tons of, well, “repaints,” basically reused animation. So even after Devastator forms, there are still constructicons running around. And some Protoforms. I even saw a truck that looked like Bonecrusher…though I never saw him in robot mode. Scorponok is in the final battle too and is killed by Jetfire in about 2 seconds.

There are three motorcycles, but they appear to be named collectively Arcee. Not much screen time/lines for them anyway.

The term “Matrix of Leadership” is used, it’s a key that operates a device to draw energy from the sun.

Ok that’s enough for now, not gonna check this board again till tomorrow! I suppose this thread will be about 100 pages long by then so I’m sorry if I can’t answer everything.

Thanks again Nightbird for the tix!

Whilst Sora at the Michael Bay forums says,

I loved Transformers 1 so much, but I’m sure you’ll feel like the previous movie was just a dash of bitters in a glass of appetizer Martini. Be prepared to be impressed!

Video of stars arriving

The stars arriving and signing for fans, as well as the photoshoot and Bumblebee

Photo galleries from premiere

via Coming Soon

With our anticipation at its highest level, the attendees of Botcon roared into cheer as the first clip of the movie started. The footage started with John Turturro and Sam’s roomate in the middle of a construction zone looking on to a group of construction vehicles surround them. The constructicons were revealed when Mixmasters Decepticon symbol is shown and Scavenger begins to transform. At the same time the other constructicons move closer to form Devastator!!!

Scavenger literally forces all the other constructicons into the gestalt ala Scorpion in Mortal Kombat [I think he means that “Come Here!” with chain grab move — ed]. Tuturro then runs with Sam’s roomate when the scene cuts to Sam and Mikaela running from Rampage.

Rampage begins chasing Sam’s father when Sam jumps in front of him to draw his attention. Sam then says “Wait, it’s not them you want. It’s this, the MATRIX!” He then holds up an item and continues to coax Rampage when Bumblebee arrives. The battle begins.

Rampage and Bumblebee fight ferociously with Bumblebee getting the better of Rampage when Ravage enters the fray. Using his hip cannons he blasts Bee and jumps on his back. Bumblebee then forces Rampage to the ground when Rampage lunges for Sam and takes Ravage and tears him apart piece by piece.

Bumblebee then rips Rampage’s arm off and decapitates him.

Montage of ‘Rise of the Decepticon’ book

Plot summaries below provided via Transformers Live and TFW2005, as a form of self-preservation I have not read through all of these, I’d like the movie to retain some surprise!

Junior Novelization Spoilers

— The Allspark created the first 13 Transformers called the Primes. Needing energy, they created the Matrix of Leadership which powers the Sun Harvester. This in turn takes energy from the sun so the Primes vowed not to take that energy from a sun that provides life to its worlds after finding life on Earth via early man.

— One of the Primes, The Fallen, wanted the power to himself so the other Twelve hid themselves and the Matrix from him.

— NEST (Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty) searches for Demolisher and Sideways in Shanghai. The team of Ironhide, Sideswipe, the Twins, Lennox, and Epps find them. Sideswipe stops Sideways. Demolisher (with explosions), defeated, says The Fallen providing the Autobots with something they didn’t know before.

— US, explained the Mission City fight blamed on a robotics company. Meanwhile Sam packs for college and Mikaela is uneasy about a long distance relationship. While packing the Allspark shard falls, burns through the floor and activates six appliances, which Bumblebee destroys by destroying the kitchen. The shard is given to Mikeala who stores it in her father’s shop, which Wheelie sees.

— At Nest HQ, discussion of Shanghai and other tops leads to Soundwave discovering location of Megatron. Ravage and the Doctor are sent to retrieve the shard from NEST HQ (not sure how got form Mikeala to there).

— Sam, not at college meets Leo who is a conspiracy nut that runs www.therealeffingdeal.com whose competitor is Robo Warrior. Sam meets Alice, they go to a party and Sam starts seeing symbols. Bumblebee’s car alarm goes off, two leave in him. BB got Sam to take him to meet Optimus at a cemetery so stops the car and douses her with antifreeze. Sam told shard has been stolen and they still need his help.

— Ravage and Doctor take shard and use it to reboot Megatron (trailer indicates this is completely changed).

— While in Prof. Coulon’s class (Rainn Wilson), Sam starts speed reading, ranting Einstein being wrong and so forth. Gets kicked out of class, goes to the library and find a book on his grandfather.

— Megatron, once revived goes to Mars and meets Starscream and the Decepticons waiting there with the Nemesis (Decepticon ship, counter to the Ark from the G1 days). The two talk to the Fallen about re-creating the AllSpark using the Sun Harvester and Matrix which Sam now has the location of. Megs and Starscream leave with 15 additional Decepticons for Earth to find Sam.

— Back to Mikaela who find Wheelie spying, befriends him, find out why he wants the shard and goes off to find Sam. She walks in just as Alice making a move to kiss Sam. Alice reveals her pretender status and starts chasing after Leo, Sam and Mikaela (the Frenzy-like robot, all the car footage from Princeton). A chase ensues and they stop Alice by smashing her between the car and a pole.

— Drive off, now getting by a helicopter (Blackout) and then cornered by Megatron and Starscream in a factory. The Doctor is about to torture Sam for info when Optimus and Bumblebee comes to the rescue. The fight between Megatron and Prime moves to the forest area outside the factory where Starscream and Blackout join the fight. Prime takes on all three, the fight ends after Megatron severely wounds Prime with a spike from behind just before being chased off by Ironhide, Ratchet and the Twins.

— Unable to find the hidden Sam, Soundwave broadcasts a message from Megatron saying either give up Sam or cities start getting destroyed. Sam’s parents on vacation in France, see the message (and later attacked).

— Trying to learn more from the Sam’s symbols, they contact Robo Warrior who turns out to be Simmons working at his mom’s deli. Sam, somehow, knows that Megatron wants a new power source already on earth that the Autobots don’t know about because it pre-dates them. Mikaela still has Wheelie so the question him and learn that 10 Seekers are on Earth and he helps them find Jetfire.

— Jetfire translates the symbols and uses his ability of wormhole transportation to bring everyone to Egypt and gives them the background on the Sun Harvester and Matrix and that a Prime can only defeat a Prime (the Fallen). Prime is still wounded but the Matrix could heal him.

— While Prime is being brought to Egypt by Lennox, Sam and co think the Matrix is in a tomb (Petra). It is found behind a wall after a whole is accidently put into it (by the Twins). The Matrix, now dust, is collected into Sam’s sock.

— Autobots attacked as they try to get back to Prime’s location, Fallen appears on the scene, Constructicons form Devastator and Megatron determines the location of the Harvester (the Pyramid).

— Meanwhile, Sam gets nearly blown up and knocked out. He dreams of the 12 Primes, they give him a speech about destiny and he comes to with a reformed Matrix which he plunges into Prime, both repairing Prime and passing on his knowledge.

— Fallen teleports in, grabs the Matrix, teleports to the Pyramid and powers up the Harvester. Jetfire sacrifices himself to provide the parts Prime needs to get back to fighting shape which Ratchet helps facilitate.

— Simmons provides the Navy with Devastators coordinates, essentially destroying him. The Harvester fires towards the sun, Prime deflects the blast, hitting Megatron and Starscream who later escape. Optimus fights Fallen, using the parts of the harvester as a bludgeon. The Fallen teleports to escape but Optimus uses the Matrix to stop him and toss him into a new wormhole, defeating him.

Official Novelization spoilers

- The Arcee bikes have individual robot forms and do have the ability to form one robot.

- Two websites that will participate in the ARG promotion this year, one is www.therealeffingdeal.com that is run by Leo Spitz, Sam’s roommate. The other is www.gianteffingrobots.com run by RoboWarrior, i.e. Simmons. Currently the passwords to log into either site are not known.

- Sam’s mother has a close encounter with brownies with a little something extra so that should be a hilarious scene.

- Ravage has a re-enter mode because he breaks off of Soundwave, a satellite in Earth orbit. He steals “the shard” (two pieces of the AllSpark? Still confused on how Mikaela has one and NEST has one) from NEST.

- The Doctor, three Constructicons and one other descend to revive Megatron. The “red shirt” Decepticon is sacrificed for parts so the Doctor can re-assemble Megatron and revive him with the shard.

- The fight with Megatron, Starscream and Blackout ends with Optimus Prime going into “status lock.” This is another Beast Wars concept that indicates heavy damage or low energy. Think of it as the Transformer version of a coma.

- The scene in the trailer of Sam drawing the “language of the Primes” on the ground is him talking to Jetfire to get more info on The Fallen.

- Ransack is in the novel, apparently one of the Seekers created by the Primes (created to find appropriate suns for the Sun Harvester).

- In this version, The Fallen kills all the the Primes but one escaped with the Matrix and sealed himself and his brothers in an unknown tomb. Optimus, the last decendent of the Primes, is the only one that can stop The Fallen.

- In Petra, the room “found” by the fighting Twins is the fused bodies of the 12 ancients, one with an outstretched hand holing a pile of black sand.

- Scene from trailer with the Insecticon is part of Sam and Mikaela’s attempt to get to Prime with the Matrix. Ripping him aparts alerts the Decepticons to their location and the chase begins.

- Devastator forms from 7 Constructicons, not six, in the novel.

- A ‘Con, carrying Sam’s parents captured in Paris, threatens to harm them if he doesn’t turn over the Matrix. Bumblebee attacks the Con as Sam and co escape. This is probably the seen between BB and Rampage or Scrapper in the trailer.

- Skids is sucked into Devastator’s mouth but bursts through his right eye. Like a video game boss battle, do to size and slowness, staying underneath the monstrosity keeps everyone safe.

- “A pogosticking ‘Con is bouncing around destroying everything in sight.” (A new character I guess.)

- The Fallen teleports into the battle while Devastator moves toward and onto the Pyramid containing the Sun Harvester. Fallen also seems to have telekinetic abilities to go with his teleportation skills.

- Simmons provides Devastator’s coordinates to the Navy so they can fire a new Rail Gun. Yep at some point Lennox says/writes “Bring the Rain”.

- Jetfire destroys a ‘Con, Skorponok attacks Jetfire wounding him with a blow through the chest and gets his head removed for the effort.

- Megatron, in tank mode, is the one that blasts Sam into unconscience where he speaks to the Primes. Matrix reforms, used on Prime to revive him, Jetfire sacrifices self to Prime can merge with his parts and fly, and Fallen activates the Harvester.

- Devastator hit point blank by rail gun and broken into component parts, Prime breaks the Sun Harvester and confronts Fallen, Megatron and Starscream. Prime precedes to own him, asks for Megatron’s help who ignores him. Fallen opens a portal to escape, Prime yanks him back but Starscream and Megs use it to escape.

- Spire from Harvester rammed by Prime (with jetpacked assistance) into the Fallen, killing him. Matrix retrieved from device. Battle won.

- Optimus: “I know one thing. Whatever it may hold, it is a future we’ll meet together. Our Planets, our races, united by a history long forgotten, yet to be discovered.” Tilting back his head, he peered up at the sky and through it, to the stars beyond.”

- Epilogue: Back on the Nemesis Megatron waits for himself to repair. He goes back to the cargo bay as the lights flicker on. Megatron peers at the numerous sarcophagi, hold protoforms all Loyal to Him! “Arise”

A grainy in-theater version has leaked early, given the quality of these things, this one is pretty watchable. Lots of new footage and a lot more of the storyline in this trailer. Including a shot of Devastator climbing up a pyramid.

Download the trailer

UPDATE: Changing video source to one that works, though sound is out of sync:

or alternatively:

Trailer description

- Opens with Sam telling Bumblebee he’s not coming to college
– “Look at this place, I feel smarter already”, Sam’s parents at college
– Sexy panning shot of Megan Fox straddling a bike
– Sam has a ‘mental meltdown’ in the middle of his class (as reported from the Princeton filming), seeing symbols, marking them into the ground
– Sam meets Optimus in a cemetery (cemetary filming set report)
– More of Bumblebee and the Twins in the dessert, some of that GM promo footage too
– Finding the symbols on something ancient, presumably behind that painting
– Megatron returns! We see him rising from the depths of the ocean and rising up behind Mega nFox
– “Megatron wants what’s in my mind“
– “Fate rarely calls on us at a moment of our choosing“
– We see Sam and Mikaela jumping rooftops
– Bumblebee ducks a swinging arm from Demolisher
– Explosions in a library
– Silver Saturn Astra (as seen at Princeton) flying through the air with presumably Shia falling out and Megan Fox calling after him
– Optimus Prime attacking the character with rotor blades on his back, possibly Blackout
– Prime flying through the air after Megatron attacks him
– Bricks floating in circles around one of the pyramids, F-16s fly past, Devastator climbs up the side of the pyramid (same angle on the pyramid as seen in the official shots)
– Jetfire stoops down
– Devastator crushes a vehicle before he starts sucking up sand with his giant vortex mouth
– We see a robot, possibly Mudflaps being sucked towards the vortex

Prime continues to look badass with gun in right hand and illustrating a more inter-mingled combination of Optimus Prime and Jetfire, the two characters now appear seamless.

To summarise the piece:

- To build Shia’s injury into the movie the screenwriters added a scene showing Sam Witwicky being injured by a “Space Bridge“
– Shia was given a custom made protective and photogenic cast after delaying surgery
– The Pyramids in Egypt are the setting for the final battle
– Bay likes to blow things up, nothing has changed: “A fish tank, a helicopter, concrete tubes. We blew up a library. This set you’re looking at? This will all be gone.“
– Using CGI to cover up Shia’s injury was too expensive and “a pain in the neck”.

Space Bridge

The bridge is from the G1 cartoons and was built by the constructicons:

The space bridge appears in several universes. The exact properties of the space bridge vary, but typically they serve as a more convenient means of moving Transformers from one planet to another than the traditional means of space travel. [e.g. Cyberton to earth]

Scans after the break…

Scans

Via “reave”

As summarised by Seibertron:

The Fallen and his “brothers” were born on a terrestrial world where the Allspark was located. They learned that the energies of the Allspark were limited, and could only be restored through the destruction of a sun. In order to help them, the Allspark created workers who would go out and search for suns that would help to fuel the Allspark. These workers were the first Cybertronians. (Among which is Jetfire.)

The Fallen decides he wants the power of the Allspark for himself, but was trapped in his sarcophagus (the ancient relic discovered by the Transformers in Defiance #1), where he is to remain until the sun harvester is located and reactivated once more. [We’ve seen Devastator do something like this in the coloring book]