The invisible devil and angel that reside on my left and right shoulders, respectively, have been having a bit of a row. Lil’ Angel tells me not to bother spending my cash on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It’ll only make Michael Bay richer, me poorer, and encourage more similarly mindless blockbusters in the near future, he says. Lil’ Devil, however, assures me that there will be countless scenes in which elaborately designed (translation: preposterous) robots punch the crap out of each other.

Either way, there are some undeniably cool web promotions going on.

Most interesting is the Transformers “Augmented Reality” experience at www.weareautobots.com/uk/, which defies all description, really. With but a printer and a webcam, you are able to manipulate rendered objects as if they’re actually in your hands. You, yes you! can be Optimus Prime! I’d already seen videos of similar technology used to promote an upcoming Metal Gear game, and was initially suspicion that it was a hoax. Nice to be proven wrong. It’s like living in the multi-layered reality Philip K. Dick envisioned, or summink!

Elsewhere, there’s also this equally bizarre application at www.transformersmovie.com/intl/robotize_me/uk which allows you to create your own Autobot from composite parts and then past your face on it. Quite why you’d want to is beyond me, but I guess we’re not all quite as hideous and reticent as I.

Lastly, there’s a more conventional flash game in which you take the role of everyone’s favourite backstabbing Decepticon Starscream as he roars through the sky as a plane and, um, runs along the ground in bipedal form. That can be found at www.starscreamshowdown.com.