Paramount Pictures has released the first teaser trailer for director Michael Bay‘s forthcoming entry in the Transformers franchise. In the third installment, The Autobots Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide and Sideswipe led by Optimus Prime, are back in action, taking on the evil Decepticons, who are determined to avenge their defeat in 2009’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There’s new characters too, including a new villain in the form of Shockwave, a longtime Transformers character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.

Check out the teaser for Transformers: Dark of the Moon below and let us know what you think in the comments!

Teaser Trailer: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon hits theaters on July 1st, 2011 and stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey and Alan Tudyk.