Sequels are often criticized because they do nothing but set up the plot for the third film in a given franchise. Need proof?

See Back to the Future, The Matrix, and Pirates of the Caribbean. In all, the last thing said on screen during the second film was a cliffhanging new plot point. It's an unfair way to force audiences to wait a year and shell out more money to see the resolution of, essentially, two movies at once.

However, Transformers director Michael Bay told MTV News that Transformers 2 would be entirely self-contained.

"You know how those sequels they do the second one so you go see the third one? [Transformers 2] is it," he said, indicating that the sequel would be its own story. "First one was just introducing, setting up stuff, so we can go a lot farther. Let's just say [this] is not a lame sequel."

Reports have stated that that upwards of 20 robots will do battle in the blockbuster sequel. For Bay, though, it's not the number of robots present, but how they'll be more fully and individually realized that has him excited.

"The robots are going to surprise a lot of people because we go with a lot of different levels," he said.