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Revenge: Now it’s mechanical

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To hear co-writer Alex Kurtzman describe the new “Transformers,” it sounds like a heartwarming coming-of-age tale. Except for all the giant alien robots punching one another in the face.

“The first movie was about a boy and his car and finding his adulthood and freedom. Now Sam [Shia LaBeouf] is going to college and facing both leaving home and the challenge of a long-distance relationship with Mikaela [Megan Fox],” said Kurtzman, who rejoined “Transformers” co-writers Roberto Orci and Ehren Kruger to assemble the sequel, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” which opens June 26. Meanwhile, Kurtzman said on a conference call with Orci, “The Autobots have lost the tether to their planet, so now Earth has become their home.”

There are also more mechanized bad guys who don’t find humans nearly as cute as the friendly Autobots do.

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“It’s about the return of the Decepticons and particularly a character named ‘The Fallen’ who has a deeper history with Earth than any of the Autobots knew about. He blames humanity for his fall, so he has come back to exact revenge,” said Kurtzman, neatly explaining the title.

Apart from the Fallen, fan favorites from the Saturday morning cartoon making their big-screen debuts include the one-eyed mechanical jaguar Ravage and its master, Soundwave. In keeping, however, with the super-secret security surrounding the production, when asked if Soundwave would take the microcassette-player form familiar to fans or be converted to a vehicle for the film, Kurtzman paused and said, “Neither. I cannot be more specific.”

The one thing they will say?

“It’s going to be the mother of all robot-on-robot” violence, Orci piped in, then he paused. “We should have led with that.”

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calendar@latimes.com

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