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‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’: Behind The ‘Star Trek’ Nods

Director Michael Bay explains threequel’s many references to ‘Trek,’ including Leonard Nimoy’s voice work. By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Bumblebee in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Photo: Paramount Sometimes Easter Eggs in movies — an intentional in-joke, reference or hidden message — are hard to spot, very blink-and-you-miss-it, and thus require repeat viewings to pick up on. Not so with “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” however. Even the most casual filmgoer should pick up on at least one of the many “Star Trek” references in the film. When MTV News caught up with director Michael Bay, we asked him to address the “Trek” connections, beginning with his enlistment of beloved actor Leonard Nimoy, a.k.a. Spock, to voice the role of Sentinel Prime. “He’s actually related to me. He married Susan Bay [the director’s cousin],” Bay said. “I was scared to ask him to voice. I saw him at Thanksgiving, and my mom was like, ‘Ask him! Ask him!’ I’m like, ‘No, Mom, no!’ ” As difficult as it is to imagine Bay being afraid of anything, he eventually got over his Nimoy anxiety. Bonus factoid for the non-Transformer geeks: Nimoy also lent his vocal talents to the 1986 animated film, as the voice of Galvatron. Speaking to other “Trek” references, Bay said he didn’t have anything to do with them; they all came from the film’s screenwriter. “That was my writer, Ehren Kruger,” Bay said. “[He] is a ‘Star Trek’ geek, so that wasn’t my thing.” So how many references did you count? Here are the three we spotted ( minor spoilers ahead ): 1. When Sam (Shia LaBeouf) meets girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) at work and is introduced to her boss, Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey), he marvels at their workplace: “It’s a beautiful building you guys have. Like the Starship Enterprise in here.” 2. Refugee robots Brains and Wheelie, who are hiding out in Carly and Sam’s apartment, watch an episode of “Trek,” during which one of them says, “Hey, I like this episode. It’s the one where Spock turns evil” — which also provides for a nice bit of tongue-in-cheek foreshadowing. 3. At one point, Sentinel Prime defends certain motivations with a fun little reverse quote of Spock’s wise words to Captain Kirk in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” “Dark of the Moon” quote: “The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many.” Original: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” What did we miss? Check out everything we’ve got on “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’ Related Photos ‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’ Crashes Into New York City ‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’

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‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’: Behind The ‘Star Trek’ Nods

‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’: The Reviews Are In

Michael Bay’s summer blockbuster has critics praising his deft handling of eye-popping 3-D. By Eric Ditzian Sentinel Prime in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Photo: Paramount Pictures As even Michael Bay has admitted, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” had almost nowhere to go but up after the writers’ strike-affected, audience-alienating previous installment . And insofar as Bay and company had something to prove — and to improve — this time around, they’ve succeeded. While “Dark of the Moon” isn’t currently the highest rated film in the franchise, according to the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator, the general consensus among critics is that the new 3-D flick is best of the “Transformers” bunch. That’s not to suggest reviews have been universally positive; many have been as brutal to the film as the film’s robots have been to certain American cities. Reviewers have taken issue with poor plotting, weak characters and brain-scrambling action set pieces. But then there are a slew of reviewers utterly onboard with what Bay has created, celebrating some of the finest 3-D visuals since “Avatar” and a story that is the most fully fleshed out of the series. For those opinions and others, take a deep dive into the “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” reviews. The Story “A sweet prologue (marred only by a phony-looking digital JFK) recounts the war for Cybertron and the real reason behind the U.S.-Soviet space race of the 1960s. Cut to the present where Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) struggles to find his first post-college job, while the Autobots led by Optimus Prime and the U.S. military’s NEST team led by Lt. Col. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) work in tandem to take out the remaining Decepticons around the world. However, the evil ‘bots eventually get the upper hand and begin an invasion to conquer the Earth with Chicago as Ground Zero in this final war between the Autobots/humans and Decepticons. There’s more going on, but for the sake of spoilers we’ll keep it at that. Transformers: Dark of the Moon definitely has more of a plot than either of its predecessors. There are genuine stakes this time.” — Jim Vejvoda, IGN The 3-D “[For] the first time since ‘Avatar,’ I am going to recommend that you find the biggest and best 3-D theater you can find and buy yourself a ticket, because ‘Transformers: Dark Of the Moon,’ especially seen in IMAX 3-D, is an overwhelming sensory experience. The sound mix alone is more exciting than anything in the billion-dollar-bore of ‘Pirates 4.’ This is gigantic action we’ve never seen before, and Bay’s reaction to shooting and cutting his film for 3-D is to get better at what he does. It raised his game, and as a result, I feel like we just saw a dare thrown down by one of Hollywood’s biggest action specialists: ‘Top this.’ — Drew McWeeny, HitFix The Comparisons “Bay’s hammering technique works, in a commercial sense. Executive producer Steven Spielberg is the richer for it. But it’s telling to compare any good minute in Spielberg’s ‘War of the Worlds,’ for example, with any of the 153 minutes in ‘Dark of the Moon.’ The former, which isn’t even Spielberg at his best, offers the thrill and the uneasy, complicated spectacle of destruction you get from a first-rate entertainer. Bay’s endless love of nastiness and chrome and aggression offers less. And that’s the only ‘less’ about it.” — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune The Characters “All that matters is the long, slow slog to the Chicago-set, theater-rattling finale, which seems to last about four hours. That’s not a compliment, by the way. There’s so much potential in a Transformer, which can, after all, transform into anything. But Bay misses every opportunity to make something interesting out of his characters; instead, he’s content to spend his enormous budget on grinding destruction so generic and visually convoluted, it’s often hard to tell who we’re supposed to be rooting for.” — Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News The Final Word “More than either of the previous films, this ‘Transformers 3’ feels like an ultra-violent version of the two-dimensional cartoon it’s based on. I think I’m almost alright with that, when it’s done this well, in this kind of summer blockbuster. We’d probably all be happier watching another movie like ‘Inception,’ but as long as those movies still get made, I guess there’s nothing wrong in sitting down with a ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon,’ once in awhile.” — Josh Tyler, Cinema Blend Check out everything we’ve got on “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’ Related Photos ‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’

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‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’: The Reviews Are In

‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’ Is ‘Epic,’ Michael Bay Says

‘It takes awhile to get it right,’ director tells MTV News of ‘Dark of the Moon.’ By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Kara Warner Optimus Prime in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Photo: DreamWorks Michael Bay has been admirably open about what he — and many fans of his “Transformers” franchise — view as the second film’s failings resulting from a rushed, post-writers’-strike production schedule. And he’s promised to right those cinematic wrongs with the third installment in the series, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” Early looks at footage from the upcoming action flick — a tantalizing teaser trailer and a balletic Super Bowl spot — seem to indicate he’s accomplished that goal. “I think it takes awhile to get it right,” he explained to MTV News on Wednesday night at the red-carpet premiere of “I Am Number Four,” which he produced. “I think we did not want the third one to suck.” The problem with 2009’s “Revenge of the Fallen,” Bay once again pointed out, is that the writers’ strike left the production hardly any time to nail down a script. The filmmakers found themselves essentially trying to create a story line in the edit room, rather than on the page before shooting began. “The second one, we had a tough go,” Bay told us. “It was a very, very tough thing to make a movie under those circumstances. It affected a lot of Hollywood at that time.” This time around, Bay said, “We worked extra hard” and struck upon “a better story.” “It’s epic and it happens in a city,” he added. “It’s more accessible because you recognize stuff — it’s not in a desert. It’s kind of like ‘Black Hawk Down’ with our small group of heroes in a city.” On the carpet, Bay also briefly touched on two new alien bots set to debut in “Dark of the Moon.” “Sentinel Prime is great. He’s great,” he said. “I can’t tell you anything else, other than he’s great.” And about the villain Shockwave, Bay say, “He’s bad,” adding that compared to Megatron, “He’s got a much bigger gun [and is] a little bit more vicious.” Though Bay is certain he’s got a winner on his hands, the director maintained that “Dark of the Moon” will be his final “Transformers” film. “It does have an end, yes,” he said. “Because I am finished doing this.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos “Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen”

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‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’ Is ‘Epic,’ Michael Bay Says