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Bay admitted the second "Transformers" movie deserved some of the negative feedback it received: "I'll take some of the criticism. It was very hard to put (the sequel) together that quickly after the writers' strike [of 2007-2008]." OK, fair enough. Now he's trying to fix the abomination that was "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" through his actions, too.

Bay revealed in an interview with USA Today two tidbits about the third Transformers film that should make fans happy. First came a decision that should surprise absolutely nobody: The third film is being shot in 3D (even though Bay had hinted in the past that it wouldn't be). In a more surprising announcement, Bay confirmed that fan-favorite Shockwave will be a featured villain.


The first step to fixing a mistake is admitting a wrong. For his part, Michael Bay has done that verbally.

Shockwave has an interesting history as a toy and as a Transformer. Shockwave's mold was originally produced by a company called ToyCo. Hasbro purchased the rights to add him to the Transformers universe, but not before quite a few other companies did the exact same thing.

Shockwave, with a different paint job, appeared in toy stores around Christmastime, confusing many young Transformers fans (including this author) by being sold under names such as "Galactic Man."

As a Transformer, Shockwave -- who could transform into a powerful laser gun -- was left in charge of the Transformer home planet Cybertron as the Autobots (the good robots) and Decepticons (the bad robots) battled against each other on Earth. Shockwave made an admirable and powerful leader in waiting.

Transformers fans will be the first to heed this warning: Don't get too excited about this announcement. Remember when Michael Bay also announced that fan-favorite Soundwave would be featured in the second film? Remember how that turned out? Soundwave, who as a toy transformed into a cassette player, spent about three minutes onscreen (if that) as some sort of spy satellite in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

These announcements were made on the set of the third "Transformers" film, where shooting has already begun without former star Megan Fox, who was dropped from the series just a few weeks before filming got underway. The other human star of the "Transformers" franchise, Shia LaBeouf, is coping without his former costar. "I love Megan and I miss the girl," LaBeouf told USA Today.