While the cloak of secrecy which surrounded Michael Bay's fourth Transformers movie appears to have lifted in the past few months, the film's function as a partial reboot for the series is still somewhat convoluted. At any rate, Transformers: Age of Extinction is Bay's attempt to be "less goofy," as the director has stated. Recent set images and plot details reinforce Bay's focus on "keeping this one slick."

As for what we know of the plot: inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg, apparently not playing anyone named Flynn Vincent) accidentally unearths a buried Transformer in the wake of the devastation of Chicago which occurred in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Old favorites like Optimus Prime are returning, along with the confirmed inclusion of the Dinobots. The human cast is rounded out by Nicola Peltz (Bates Motel) as Wahlberg's daughter, Jack Reynor (Delivery Man) as her boyfriend, Kelsey Grammar (The Expendables 3) as the apparent G-man human villain, Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) as a geologist, and Sophia Myles (MI-5) as his assistant, with Li Bingbing (Resident Evil: Retribution) as “the CEO of the Chinese Transformers.” Whatever that means.

As for the production itself - it has now wrapped principal photography. The director himself confirms the end of shooting, from MichaelBay.com, with the first footage to premiere during this year's Super Bowl... and he apparently is sick of all the haters.

Read the whole release below:

It is a drag talking to reporters on sets. Why? Because often times they take your words and skew things to their liking. Then the crazy, lazy game of reporting on what other writers story’s reported me saying and suddenly it becomes skewed Internet truth. So I waste my time to restate exactly what I did say, again.

No I did not ‘apologize’ for any Transformers movies. I did not say I shot the last three movies “less cool” than the new fourth installment. I was talking specifically about camera style and tone, of the first movie compared to how I shot the new installment with a very big scale, cinematic style. I was very specific in saying the first Transformers was shot in a ‘generic suburbia’ area, not trying to be cool with any cinematic flashes. I wanted it to feel like this could happen in any backyard in the United States.

So that brings me to letting Transformers fans know that we have completed our five and half month shoot. We got back from a month long shoot in China. My crew and I had a fantastic time shooting in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It was an amazing experience, and I love the country. My cast was absolutely fantastic, and a very fun group to work with. We are working hard cutting the movie right now. I think the first piece comes out for the Super Bowl and a teaser right after that.

And yes, I’m very excited about this new movie.

Michael

Michael Bay and Mark Wahlberg on 'Transformers Age of Extinction' Set

"The first piece" Bay refers to will most likely be on par with the promised teaser: something very short, and probably quite arresting. Whatever you thought of Dark of the Moon, that first teaser was hard to shake.

As for Bay's defensiveness, while some directors have gone on record to apologize for movies they've made (such as Steven Spielberg, who admitted that he made Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to make up for Temple of Doom, which was too harsh and violent for many), viewers have come to expect the opposite from Bay. He has clearly made exactly the movies he wanted to make, and given their overwhelming financial success, who says he needs to apologize to anyone?

We have a general idea of what to expect from a Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay: recognizable human actors scrambling around delivering breathless dialogue scenes in between CGI action sequences of giant alien robots smashing into each other. On that level - if no other - the movies are enjoyable.

The inclusion of the Dinobots storyline and an all-new cast is supposed to set up its own story arc, which Bay may or may not hand off to a new creative team - time will tell if this new direction will be reflected in returning screenwriter Ehren Kruger's script. Given the decided lack of a blood valve chamber in his previous Transformers scripts, we'll have to wait and see.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction opens in 2D and 3D theaters on June 27th, 2014.

Source: Michael Bay