Poll: Hatred for Michael Bay

[cuddly_tomato]

Ok, here we go.

A great painter can make a simple piece of canvas come alive, but some idiot in art class painting their face and then ramming it onto a sheet of A3 paper will just make a mess. There is an artistry in making a good film. In artists eye is required. A certain feeling for style, for character. You have to know your paints, so to speak. Know how to make purple from blue and red. Not mix everything up and get a horrible greeny brown all over your shirt sleeves.

Michael Bay has been the man behind, well, a few films now. The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Transformers. All of his films have a few things in common:-

1. A complete lack of subtlety.

2. HUGE explosions.

3. Assinine plot.

4. Overly manly men who are no doubt as heroic as Michael Bay wishes he was.

5. HUGE explosions.

6. Product placement.


Here is what they all lack:-

1. Likeable characters.

2. In fact, any characters who have any character.

3. A constant 10 uninterrupted minutes of actual film without an explosion of some kind or other.

4. Academy Award nominations.

People go on about Uwe Boll and his tragic forays into film making, but here is this guy being given 200 million a time to make films. Why? Does anyone like his films?

Anyone here actually going to admit enjoying them?

 

[Galletea]

I went for the average option. They are mindless entertainment and sometimes I don't want to think or engage with a story, I just want to see stuff blow up. On those occasions I skip to the good parts though.
They're pretty good for background noise when I'm drawing.

 

[AuntyEthel]

At least Postal made me laugh. Michael Bay movies are the worst type of trash that exists: trash that's actually profitable.

 

[Ionami]

Uwe Boll makes me angry. For some reason Michael Bay does not. I just find him silly, and maybe a little delusional.

 

[Brokkr]

I went for the average option. They are mindless entertainment and sometimes I don't want to think or engage with a story, I just want to see stuff blow up. On those occasions I skip to the good parts though.
They're pretty good for background noise when I'm drawing.

Pretty much this. I enjoy some mindless fun every now and then.

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

I am going to admit that I really like his films. I loved: Pearl Harbor, Transformers, Bad Boys and Armageddon. I want to see Transformers 2 and The Island. I think the explosions are really cool and his use of special effects is well done. I especially love the fights in Transformers... I mean giant robots fighting?!?!?! Well I know it sounds nerdy but I think this movie is awesome. Furthermore Bad Boys I extremely enjoyed however I haven't watched it recently so I can't exactly remember why...probably the action again. I liked Armageddon because I thought the idea behind it is pretty cool...and because an Asteroid Deflection Team is in face real.

Also about Awards....

Armageddon: Saturn Awards for Best Direction and Best Science Fiction Film, Nominated for four Academy Awards (Best Sound, Best Special Effects, Best Effects Editing, and Best Original Song)

Transformers: 2008 MTV Music Awards - Best Film, Nominated for three Academy Awards, in the fields of Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing, and Achievement in Visual Effects, 2007 Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival - Jury Merit Award For Best Special Effects

 

[naftali1]

I am going to admit that I really like his films. I loved: Pearl Harbor, Transformers, Bad Boys and Armageddon. I want to see Transformers 2 and The Island. I think the explosions are really cool and his use of special effects is well done. I especially love the fights in Transformers... I mean giant robots fighting?!?!?! Well I know it sounds nerdy but I think this movie is awesome. Furthermore Bad Boys I extremely enjoyed however I haven't watched it recently so I can't exactly remember why...probably the action again. I liked Armageddon because I thought the idea behind it is pretty cool...and because an Asteroid Deflection Team is in face real.

Also about Awards....

Armageddon: Saturn Awards for Best Direction and Best Science Fiction Film, Nominated for four Academy Awards (Best Sound, Best Special Effects, Best Effects Editing, and Best Original Song)

Transformers: 2008 MTV Music Awards - Best Film, Nominated for three Academy Awards, in the fields of Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing, and Achievement in Visual Effects, 2007 Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival - Jury Merit Award For Best Special Effects

QFT

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

I am going to admit that I really like his films. I loved: Pearl Harbor, Transformers, Bad Boys and Armageddon. I want to see Transformers 2 and The Island. I think the explosions are really cool and his use of special effects is well done. I especially love the fights in Transformers... I mean giant robots fighting?!?!?! Well I know it sounds nerdy but I think this movie is awesome. Furthermore Bad Boys I extremely enjoyed however I haven't watched it recently so I can't exactly remember why...probably the action again. I liked Armageddon because I thought the idea behind it is pretty cool...and because an Asteroid Deflection Team is in face real.

Also about Awards....

Armageddon: Saturn Awards for Best Direction and Best Science Fiction Film, Nominated for four Academy Awards (Best Sound, Best Special Effects, Best Effects Editing, and Best Original Song)

Transformers: 2008 MTV Music Awards - Best Film, Nominated for three Academy Awards, in the fields of Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing, and Achievement in Visual Effects, 2007 Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival - Jury Merit Award For Best Special Effects

QFT

Which QFT are you applying here?

Quit Freaking Talking (polite form)
Quite Freaking True (polite form)
Quoted For Truth (website; slang

 

[mokes310]

Transformers was his ONLY decent film. Everything else was complete garbage.

Formula for a Michael Bay film:

1 part bad script + 4 bad actors * 100 over the top explosions^10 = Michael Bay film!

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Look, I don't think many people generally consider Michael Bay to be a "good" filmmaker in the way that people like Scorsese are. If you look at his movies, his action intensive films are the better ones: The Rock and Bad Boys. If Bay tries to do anything more serious, like Armageddon or Pearl Harbor (particularly this one, oh God it was terrible), he falls flat on his face because his sensibilities lie more towards creating awesome explosions.

You can't really fault a guy for being really good at making action movies. That's a niche that Michael Bay fits quite nicely. That's why his movies will, at best, be nominated for special effect awards. Here you kind of have to draw the line between good and fun filmmaking. Those movies which are really fun to watch on a Friday night or those which you watch because they're important works of film.

Oh, and why don't people hate Bay as much as Uwe Boll? Because Boll is an arrogant asshole who is absolutely convinced that he is the greatest filmmaker on the planet. Seriously. What a dick. I can't believe Dave Foley agreed to be in Postal. Why Dave, why?

 

[Zersy]

Ok, here we go.

A great painter can make a simple piece of canvas come alive, but some idiot in art class painting their face and then ramming it onto a sheet of A3 paper will just make a mess. There is an artistry in making a good film. In artists eye is required. A certain feeling for style, for character. You have to know your paints, so to speak. Know how to make purple from blue and red. Not mix everything up and get a horrible greeny brown all over your shirt sleeves.

Michael Bay has been the man behind, well, a few films now. The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Transformers. All of his films have a few things in common:-

1. A complete lack of subtlety.

2. HUGE explosions.

3. Assinine plot.

4. Overly manly men who are no doubt as heroic as Michael Bay wishes he was.

5. HUGE explosions.

6. Product placement.


Here is what they all lack:-

1. Likeable characters.

2. In fact, any characters who have any character.

3. A constant 10 uninterrupted minutes of actual film without an explosion of some kind or other.

4. Academy Award nominations.

People go on about Uwe Boll and his tragic forays into film making, but here is this guy being given 200 million a time to make films. Why? Does anyone like his films?

Anyone here actually going to admit enjoying them?

i like most of his movies although i've only seen the good ones (mailny the one where stuff blow up)

his movies don't make a big point but they are fun to watch (for me atleast) and whats so bad about stuff blowing up ?? who doesn't like seen big things go boom ??

 

[runtheplacered]

Also about Awards....

So it won some awards. Do you really believe the academy awards and MTV awards mean anything? Do you look at the top 10 music billboards and think to yourself, "These songs are great because look at how high up on the irrelevant chain they are!" Marketing departments work around the clock to con people into this line of thinking. Please, at least try to make their job somewhat difficult.

I'm with the OP on this one. Any Michael Bay movie loses all hope once he's at the helm. Uwe Boll is one of those guys you can easily ignore, because he's not wearing the disguise of somebody who has potential. That guy sucks and I'm fairly positive he understands how bad he sucks (hence the boxing escapade and some interviews I've read of his).

But Michael Bay is slightly worse because he walks around believing he's making great strides in cinema history. When in reality he can only make one movie, and he's made it about 5 different times now.

 

[Baby Tea]

I went for the average option. They are mindless entertainment and sometimes I don't want to think or engage with a story, I just want to see stuff blow up.

Seconded.

I didn't enjoy 'Transformers' because it was a deep, thought provoking movie. It was freaking Transformers. Who expected it to be any of those things?

Now if he did a remake of a serious movie (Or did a movie of a serious story) and it had all the 'cons' you listed above (*COUGH Pearl Harbour *COUGH*), then it would suck (*COUGH Pearl Harbour *COUGH*).

By the way, I hated Pearl Harbour.

 

[Uncompetative]

I actually need to turn my brain off from time to time. Bay's movies do that for me.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

his movies don't make a big point but they are fun to watch (for me atleast) and whats so bad about stuff blowing up ?? who doesn't like seen big things go boom ??

I have nothing against blowing things up. Blowing things up is a very fun thing, when done in moderation. But there is a time and a place dear boy. Films are about telling a story. Or about engaging the imagination. It is perfectly possible to do that without blowing EVERYTHING up. It is often better to do that without blowing everything up, as things blowing up leave less time for actual action (Terminator was action packed without over-doing explosions and was better for it), or characterization, or any of the other fundamental aspects of film-making that don't involve blowing stuff up.

In fact, when you disassemble his films they don't actually have much story to them. They are just one explosion after another, endlessly repeated until the ending credits.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I don't understand HOW he could have screwed up Transformers...

All he had to do was have Giant Robots Fighting and blowing stuff up...

Instead we get 30 minutes of that and 2 hours of useless side characters that aren't the transformers. They were bit players in their own movie... who does that?

 

[The_Deleted]

Transformers was awesome.
I was as cynical as all feck. Fingers crossed but expecting the worst.
But god damn if those robots did not look the tits. Absolutely convincing.
ergo: Bay is totally redeemed. Even..EVEN!!!! for Pearl Harbour.

And that is saying something.

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

Also about Awards....

So it won some awards. Do you really believe the academy awards and MTV awards mean anything? Do you look at the top 10 music billboards and think to yourself, "These songs are great because look at how high up on the irrelevant chain they are!" Marketing departments work around the clock to con people into this line of thinking. Please, at least try to make their job somewhat difficult.

No I don't care about the awards. I didn't even know that his movies won any until I checked. I'm only mentioning it since the OP mentioned. Don't automatically think I believe in that crap just because I bring it up. I brought it up to semi-counter one of the OP's comments as it was misinformed. Next time think twice before making an assumption... most of the time it will be wrong.

But Michael Bay is slightly worse because he walks around believing he's making great strides in cinema history. When in reality he can only make one movie, and he's made it about 5 different times now.

Michael Bay does make advances in cinema. It might not be with writing or especially deep but he is making advances. He tries to increase the scale of movies. As many people bring up this means upping the explosions, special effects and action. What is so bad about this?

If you are looking for depth then I agree Michael Bay is terrible. But the point of his movies aren't depth. Seriously how many people went into Transformers looking for a deep story line? How many people went into Bad Boys were expecting the same? Honestly his movies are for action...not to show the audience some deep message. If you want depth... look elsewhere, don't ***** about the director of action movies.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

No I don't care about the awards. I didn't even know that his movies won any until I checked. I'm only mentioning it since the OP mentioned. Don't automatically think I believe in that crap just because I bring it up. I brought it up to semi-counter one of the OP's comments as it was misinformed. Next time think twice before making an assumption... most of the time it will be wrong.

The guy has never got any Academy Awards [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award], AKA, Oscars. So I was entirely right.

 

[Aiden Rebirth]

your a little to extreme with you options how about "i don't like him but he doesn't need to die." for an option