Transformers: Dark of the Moon Super Bowl trailer highlights fighting robot action, explosions

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As usual, last night’s Super Bowl XLV offered a rich bounty of new and first looks at some of the year’s biggest upcoming film releases. Among the highlights was a trailer for Michael Bay‘s summer-releasing Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third entry in his series of movies based on the classic transforming robots toy line from Hasbro.

The previous trailer for Dark premiered late last year, establishing some of the story with a new twist on Neil Armstrong’s moon landing but revealing little of the fighting robot action that everyone wants to see. Last night’s trailer, on the other hand, trades story for the director’s trademark “Bayhem,” opening with a high-speed, head-on car crash which transforms in slow-motion into two giant robots front-flipping into action. There are glimpses at all of the stars — Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and Megan Fox replacement Rosie Huntington-Whiteley — but this trailer is really all about the action.

There are running robots, flying robots, slithering robots, exploding robots and, to cap things off, a gracefully spinning, energy sword-wielding Optimus Prime. There’s also a glimpse of what appears to be a full-fledged alien invasion, with an armada of giant ships floating in the sky and raining down destruction on a nearby city. Awesomely, there’s also a brief look at what appears to be a soldier wearing a squirrel suit.

The last release in the series, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen fared poorly with critics, ending up with a 20-percent rating on RottenTomatoes. Despite that, Fallen managed to gross $400 million domestically and more than twice that in worldwide ticket sales, virtually guaranteeing another sequel. So far at least, the trailers for Dark have all managed to deliver on one level or another. You still have another bunch of months to make up your own mind: Transformers: Dark of the Moon comes to 2D screens and IMAX 3D screens on July 1 of this year.

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