Its based on a cheesy cartoon series from the 1980s and a major toy franchise, but this year Transformers is set to become an epic blockbuster with a few similarities to Aliens.

Speaking in an interview with SciFi Wire, actor Zack Ward -- who plays a smart-mouth solider in the movie -- has described his character as resembling Bill Paxtons Sgt. Hudson from James Camerons sequel Aliens and that filming the project was a wild experience.

"It's a $200 million movie, man," Ward said. "It was insane."

Ward takes on the role of Donnelly, a member of a Special Forces Army ranger who encounters the Transformers when they arrive on Earth in order to continue their epic war.

"We're inside Iraq, coming back from a recon mission behind enemy lines, landing in the Blackhawk helicopter," Ward said. "I basically play the Bill Paxton character from [James Cameron's 1986 sequel] 'Aliens,' but my character is a Boston smart-mouth, not a California surfer-dude smart-mouth."

The film follows five distinct stories, which all converge in a final confrontation between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons starting at Hoover Dam.

"It was an amazing film to work on," Ward said. "A lot of the robots and Transformers are actually half-robot and half-CGI, so there's a great integration between real and computer-generated things. It really creates a different platform for the audience."

"Transformers" is expected to be released in theaters July 4.