We’ve already covered the Avengers Super Bowl trailer, but there were a few sci-fi trailers of note from last night’s game we haven’t mentioned yet. (Sidenote: we left the Ghost Rider one off this list because it’s very similar to a trailer we posted here weeks ago.) The first video below promotes the new Transformers ride at Universal Studios. The ride includes 3D, special effects from Industrial Light & Magic, and an elaborate roaming flight simulator ride system. Yeah, but is it as cool as sitting in a cardboard box in directly in front of a big TV while watching the roller coaster scene at the end of Vacation? The moose out front told me it isn’t.

The second video below is the extended, one-minute-long version of the thirty second spot for John Carter which aired during the game. You can look forward to overhearing idiots call the story an Avatar imitator even though the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel is a century old.

The third video is the trailer for Peter Berg’s Battleship based on the board game (seriously). The highlight? Rihanna saying, “Boom.” Which was unfortunately not followed by, “goes the dynamite.” They also sorely missed an opportunity with this Battleship trailer. Liam Neeson is in this movie. You can’t convince me this Super Bowl trailer will sell more tickets than simply a video of Liam Neeson talking to the aliens over an intercom, saying, “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for resources, I can tell you we don’t have many. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my battleship go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you sink my battleship, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

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Peter Kokis of Brooklyn RobotWorks* builds exoskeletal costumes of famous robots and prop weapons out of regular household items, recycled plastic containers, hardware, pet supplies, sporting goods, and other relatively cheap stuff repurposed and repainted to make something awesome. He tells us the Terminator exoskeleton above even included parts from a toilet. I’ll refrain from saying, “This costume is the sh-t!” except for just now when I said it anyway.

That Terminator took about 300 hours to construct and weighs 120 pounds, Kokis says. He builds costumes and props to order and makes appearances at private or corporate parties, promotions, and special events, not just as the Terminator, but also as one of three Autobots from The Transformers: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Ironhide. His upcoming designs* include the Xenomorph from Alien and an Iron Man suit.

Several pictures of his four exoskeletal costumes are after the break. Slideshow, roll out.

[All images courtesy of Peter Kokis*.]

* Warning: music autoplays at link.

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Welcome to Beyond Dogfort, our original webcomic placing the Dogfort meme in the context of classic sci-fi. For more Beyond Dogfort episodes, check out the archive. For the new episode, read on:

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EXPLOSIVELY COY

The third Transformers film grossed $1.1 billion at the box office, which is the fourth-highest gross of all time and also the reason the fourth seal popped (Why hello there, pale horse). Hasbro also made $482 million in toy sales on the first movie, over $600 million on the second, and an undisclosed sum on the third. (I asked a Hasbro executive how much, but his eyes just rolled back in his head and dollar signs appeared, then his cigar fell out of his mouth and steam poured out of his ears. So that was weird.) With all this cash rolling in, it shouldn’t be surprising that the studio wants two more movies even though Shia LaBeouf already said he’s not interested and Michael Bay was supposed to have filmed his final be-mulleted, spastic, huge-nutted robot for the franchise.

Yesterday, however, Vulture reported an insider told them Bay was in final negotiations to direct a fourth Transformers film, and another insider told them the deal was “not far from closing” with an announcement coming as soon as next week. Vulture also says the fourth installment is not a prequel and will “delve deeper into the Transformers canon to mine older characters and lore”. Says one of their insiders: “Regular people might not care about bringing out a character like Sentinel Prime. But believe me, fans of the series cared.” Meh. Anything that isn’t Optimus Prime is dead to me. Dead. To. Me. YOU HEAR ME, LABEOUF?

So, is Bay really directing the fourth Transformers? Bay neither confirmed nor denied the rumor with a post on his official website:

Right now I’m not decided on Transformers 4. Studio’s are passing rumors but I’m not sure what I’m doing? I know I’m going to do Pain and Gain early spring but that’s it for right now. I’m leaving all my options on the table. I’ve got several Studio meetings in the next two weeks.

I know this is from his website, and the grammar is predictably atrocious, but I’m still not certain this is really Bay. There wasn’t a single explosion or dolly shot of people looking up in that post. I had to add all the explosion sounds with my own mouth.

So we took a look at the DVD releases this week and found most of them were, shockingly, Christmas movies.  We’re assuming you don’t really care much about “The Christmas Bunny”, so we narrowed the release list down to stuff you may actually care about.  By which we mean “giant robots”.

Voltron: The Final Battle: Pretty much what it sounds like, and mostly of interest to Voltron fans because it includes as special features a bunch of ads about upcoming Voltron products, like the video game, or the new toy line, or the new TV series.  So if you like Voltron, this is probably a good ten bucks.

Transformers Beast Wars: The Complete Series: Sorry, still having trouble getting past Optimus as a monkey.

Dragon Ball Z Movie Pack Collection 1 (Movies 1-5): I put the over/under on this set selling out at nine thousand.  Hey, what’s this angry mob doing at my door and why are they screaming “Old Meme?”

Prophecy: Uprising/Prophecy: Forsaken: You know, because your shrine to Kari Wuhrer was missing this ten-buck two-pack.

OK, not an auspicious week this week, but if you need to buy a movie today, check out Attack The Block: it’s every bit as great as you’ve heard.

It’s a little weird to say, but a British metrosexual has become the world’s favorite action star. Seriously. Jason Statham spends a lot of time starring in B-level action movies, but it’s profitable and people love him for it. So we guess “Transformers” kinda makes sense, sorta.

Except not, since neither he nor Michael Bay actually want anything to do with the franchise. Well, Statham wouldn’t turn down working for Bay, since hey, it’s all explosions anyway, right? But neither of them are doing “Transformers 4.”

This doesn’t mean “Transformers 4″ isn’t going to happen: you don’t turn out three movies that make a billion dollars in theaters alone and just walk away from the franchise. Are you kidding? Hasbro’s going to beat this into the floor. It’s just they’re going to hire another director, and probably somebody cheaper than Shia LeBoeuf, at least until he stars in a few more bombs and is willing to do anything for money.

[ via the Go-Bots at IndieWire ]