Incredible Behind The Scenes Photos From 'Transformers: Dark Of The Moon'

Love it or hate it, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was a colossal hit. Michael Bay's third film featuring the Hasbro toys has grossed about $350 million in America and $750 million internationally for a gross of well over one billion dollars. That number will only continue to grow as the film is now back on IMAX screens. Then, of course, more cash will roll in when the Blu-ray is released later this year allowing fans to delve into the behind the scenes magic that created such a visceral 3D experience. Until then, though, Michael Bay's official site has updated with 174 images taken by talented set photographer Robert Zuckerman that offer a gorgeous view of the production. This should keep fans busy until they can rip through the Blu-ray features.

Thanks to Transformers World for the heads up but the images come from Michael Bay's blog. Here are just a few:

You can see more work by Zuckerman and learn more about him at his official site and, if you head to Bay's blog, you can see almost 164 more images from the set of the film. There are great candid shots of the cast, images of how several scenes were shot practically and a whole bunch of explosions. You'll even see fully transformed robots. Oh, wait. No you won't, those were digital.

A few months removed from the Transformers hype machine, I think the film is far superior to Revenge of the Fallen but still light years behind the original film. Which is fine. Dark of the Moon does exactly it was supposed to do: offers incredible visuals and action. Unfortunately, the story and characters surrounding that are pretty forgettable and there by so is the film. But I had fun with it.

From here, my hope for the franchise is that another filmmaker will take the visual aesthetic Michael Bay has created – which I think has been perfect – and use it to make a movie that's more about the robots and less about their human counterparts. I think the human characters in this series have worn out their welcome and the robots themselves are now big enough stars to headline a film.

Where do you see this franchise going and what do you think of these images?