The Transformers Teaser Trailer Is Still One of the Best of All Time

You can call the Transformers movies many things and subtle would not be one of them. Ask any of the racially questionable caricatures in the live-action Transformers titles, ditto to the various gratuitously endless wacky bursts of comedy. This is a series known for Mark Wahlberg maintaining a thick Boston accent even while he’s playing a Texan or a gigantic robot bellowing, “I’m a fat ballerina!” while charging into battle. The towering Cybertonian forms of the titular Transformers robots would be easier to conceal than the creative instincts of these live-action features.

How ironic, then, that the very first glimpse that the general public ever got of the live-action Transformers saga was through a teaser trailer that took things in a much subtler direction. Decades later, the very first Transformers trailer is still a remarkable piece of filmmaking. A relic of a bygone era of teasers full of footage shot specifically for the teaser, the inaugural Transformers trailer may be the best thing to come out of the Michael Bay era of this franchise.

What Is the Transformers Teaser Trailer?

In the proper 2007 Transformers movie, it’s briefly mentioned to the Secretary of Defense that the 2003 Beagle 2 Rover, which supposedly went missing before hitting Mars, actually did land on the planet’s surface. Its expedition was cut short by a Decepticon and, though it’s only shown through anecdotes and grainy images in the film, the Transformers teaser trailer plays this sequence out in full. Viewers watch, through the Rover’s perspective, as it lands on Mars and begins to search for new material on this red planet.

Suddenly, a shadow falls over the Beagle 2 Rover. An unknown blurry Decepticon steps into frame, reaches out to the Rover, and then the transmission ends. On-screen text (in that famous font from the original Transformers trilogy) appears reading, “It was the only warning we would ever get.” The camera then pulls back on a wide shot of Earth before the Transformers logo assembles on-screen (complete with “A Michael Bay Film” text) before transforming further twice, once into the 7.4.07 release date and then the Autobot insignia.

In this teaser trailer, the live-action Transformers movies and their love for revising history (which would reach its apotheosis with Transformers: The Last Knight) is firmly established. However, this one’s an especially fascinating manifestation of that obsession. Elements as simple as telling this saga from low-angle point-of-view shots from the Beagle 2 Rover instill an especially terrifying presence of the Decepticons. Their scale is truly felt even in just a few blurry seconds of screentime. That final text about “the only warning” also succinctly suggests that even more ominous mayhem is on the way in the future.

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It’s an exciting teaser in how much it leaves to the imagination without lapsing into the generic malaise that plagued the infamous Venom teaser trailer. Optimus Prime and Megatron are absent here and there is no overdose of fan service meant to stoke the nostalgia of 1980s fans (beyond that Autobot insignia, of course). If you had no clue what the Transformers were before this teaser, it would still work as something impressively evocative. In an age of impenetrable franchise fare full of references to the past, the accessibility of this teaser trailer is remarkable.

Remember Standalone Teaser Trailers?

It’s especially easy to appreciate the virtues of the Transformers teaser trailer given that this style of marketing has fallen out of favor in recent years. Unless it’s a Christopher Nolan directorial effort, modern major blockbusters rarely start marketing with a special teaser trailer dropped 12 months before release. In the past, T2: Judgement Day, 1998’s Godzilla, or Spider-Man made it practically a pre-requisite to launch a mega-tentpole’s marketing a year in advance with footage shot specifically for a teaser. That practice has vanished in an era of more compressed promotional campaigns.

The absence of such teasers doesn’t suddenly elevate every instance of this marketing tactic (such as that Da Vinci Code announcement teaser) to masterpiece status. However, it does help one further appreciate the finer nuances of things like this especially well-crafted Transformers teaser trailer. It doesn’t hurt that the teaser trailer is a breath of fresh air compared to the movies it preceded. Further Michael Bay Transformers movies would be hampered by rapid-fire, incoherent editing. The teaser’s build-up and gradually increasing sense of dread is refreshing compared to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s pacing.

It’s a pity that the eventual live-action Transformers movies (save for Bumblebee) couldn’t even hope to measure up in quality and atmosphere to this strikingly assembled teaser trailer. Still, you must savor what you have, rather than mourn what’s been lost. This Transformers teaser trailer still stands as a terrific little nugget of marketing, not to mention an effective microcosm of a bygone era of promotional techniques. If only more modern blockbuster marketing campaigns dared to deliver materials as memorable as this Transformers teaser.