The Big Picture: Leave Michael Bay Alone

MovieBob

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Leave Michael Bay Alone

MovieBob doesn't think Michael Bay is the problem.

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mrnomas

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May 17, 2010
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I feel like I should be offended but I can't bring myself to it. While I'll never pay to see a Bay movie, I must admit that I tend to stop on them when they are on cable. I blame the explosions.
 

Vivi22

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mrnomas said:
I feel like I should be offended but I can't bring myself to it. While I'll never pay to see a Bay movie, I must admit that I tend to stop on them when they are on cable. I blame the explosions.
I've been known to catch a few on TV as well, though I feel the reason is the same reason I would slow down and look at a car wreck. I have a morbid curiosity that makes me want to know how bad it will be. I knew when I watched Revenge of the Fallen on TV that it would probably be one of the worst movies I ever saw. I was right, but I was also a little surprised by how much it exceeded those expectations and was even worse than I expected.
 

brazuca

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I've paid once to see a Bay movie and it was the first Transformer. You are right about it. You hit the nail when you said the problem is the audience.
 

Keji Goto

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Been saying for a long time now that the audiences are the problem with movies today and not so much the film makers themselves. If you wanna get paid and have a career you better have something that can be marketed with a big pay out at the end.

While I'm not the biggest fan of his more recent work taken as a whole (outside of Pain and Gain which I loved) there are still great moments inside his movies which kind of make it worth seeing, Revenge of the Fallen aside that is. Moments like the battle for Chicago in Dark of the Moon where all hell is breaking loose and we're finally getting to see this all out war we've spent two other movies hearing about. While the entire film isn't the best thing ever in my opinion setups like that are definitely worth seeing the film at least once.

I've never quite understood all the hate he gets when there are far worse films out there getting far bigger followings which have far worse impacts on the industry as a whole. I mean anyone who contributed to the Twilight Saga made sure these hokey tween romance/dramas centered around supernatural nonsense will be in theaters for at least another ten years if not more if another franchise really catches on. While Revenge of the Fallen is an awful film from start to finish there are circumstances around it which kind of explain why it was so bad such as the writers' strike so filming begun before they had a script finalized or the accident during one of the scenes which forced them to re-purpose footage from The Island for the highway chase sequence. Not all of this falls on Bay's shoulders.

Doubt I will go see the new Transformers in theaters, just Redbox it later when it comes out. Seems to be the best way to enjoy his films in my opinion.
 

JPArbiter

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Oct 14, 2010
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BOB! YOU ARE! MY NUMBER ONE! GUUUUUUUUUUUUUY!

seriously a Mic drop would not have been out of place at the end of that.
 

impocalyptic

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Oct 31, 2011
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It's about time that somebody just came out and was honest about the burning of the Michael Bay effigy. I also do not remember reading pieces about the death of cinema when Pain & Gain came out. If someone is going to assert that a particular filmmaker is everything that is wrong with cinema, it would be in that person's interest to go over that person's entire filmography, not just the biggest targets.
 

ImBigBob

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I saw the first Transformers movie out of curiosity and thought it was crap. Then they kept coming out with more, and people kept going to see them. All I could think was "Why the hell are these movies popular?"

Especially in a post-Avengers world, where you can have awesome explosions combined with good characters and stories. Guardians of the Galaxy can't get here fast enough.
 

AgentLampshade

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Nov 9, 2009
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I find it seriously hard to believe that Amazing Spider-Man 2 is worse than Revenge of the Fallen. It may be a bad movie (not seen it yet, can't comment either way), but man, Revenge was so godawful.
 

PsychedelicDiamond

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I wholeheartedly agree. As far as it concerns my taste in movies I'm about as pretentious as it gets but I still can't bring myself to dislike Michael Bays work. In fact I like the basic elements of his style, I like the fast cars, the big explosions, the underwear models and the American cityscapes and I think he has a great eye for visuals. Pain and Gain war arguably one of my favourite movies of last year. The only offensively bad movies he made are the Transformers series and while these deserve all the criticism they get there's only so much even the most talented director could make out of a campy 80s cartoon about big toy robots.
 

Uriel_Hayabusa

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Definitely one of my favorite Big Picture episodes in quite some time. I got nothing against Michael Bay seeing as The Rock is one of my favorite action movies and I liked both Pain & Gain and Armageddon well enough.

Class act from Bob to rise to Bay's defense, particularly in regards to the fact that some critics slam Bay as a way to indirectly slam his audience's tastes.
 

wyldefire

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Feb 27, 2008
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I agree with Bob wholeheartedly and nothing ticks me off more than how many elites will outwardly revile Transformers, but defend New Trek, even though they operate at roughly the same level.

That said, if I had to choose a Bay specific problem that makes me hate Bay's films, it would be his penchant for excess. Bob's right to point out that plenty of other filmmakers do what Bay does, but I don't think any other director takes it to the same level. The relentless pacing that offers no mental repose, somewhat tolerable in a shorter film like Star Trek Into Darkness, becomes unbearable in Bay's overlong explosion-fests. And speaking of explosions, the sheer volume of destruction and things on screen just becomes mentally tiring. When I saw Transformers for the first time on television, I had a headache by the time the film ended.

Excess is Michael Bay's problem. Excess and the unwillingness to just take a breath.
 

RA92

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I... wow. I was rolling up my sleeves midway to post a rant, but by the end when...

JPArbiter said:
... a Mic drop would not have been out of place...
... I was left quite speechless. Bravo.
 

GamemasterAnthony

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Yes...just, yes. The viewing public has, and always will be, the problem because they would much rather watch the flashy visuals and action sequences over the slower movie with an actual story.

Also, to be fair, I have to believe that Bey is actually TRYING to make a good movie on some level. Or, at the very least, he does enough research on the established characters to try and make them not too far off from how they are known. When I saw a couple of the trailers of the new live action TMNT movie, I saw that Mikey was still a lovable goofball and Raph looked like he was going to kick someone's ass for looking at him wrong...and those weird goggles do kinda exemplify Donny's nerdiness, I must admit. So, basically the characterizations seem on par with how the Turtles are classically depicted. I only wish the Shredder armor never happened...that was a buzzkill.
 

castlewise

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Jul 18, 2010
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Heh. I went back and rewatched the Transformers 2 review. Moviebob has really mellowed over the years.

Edit: So, I'm not saying Moviebob is wrong about his rant against "the public", but I'm not sure very many people are going to really understand that they are also part of "the public". Its super easy to bash on everyone else as "dumb and ignorant" as long as you don't count yourself among them. You, noble reader, are the one voice of reason among the masses etc. etc. Moveibob does count himself among the problem at the end there. Most of the other comments in the thread above mine don't really do that though. For my part, I saw Armageddon back in the day when it was in theaters and liked it a lot and will watch anything as long as it has spaceships.
 

MowDownJoe

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Apr 8, 2009
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Heh... reminds me of Bob's Expendables review. Certainly not afraid to spit on the public there, though he certainly never attacked the film's creators.
 

Kuth

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Jan 14, 2009
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Nothing to actually argue about. The audience love to see stupid, un-intellectual movies. Michal Bay gives that out and people love it. I never really thought of him as the devil, just a assface who took childhood franchises and ruiniend the original concept. I am still going to see TMNT though.
 

gridsleep

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You remember at the end of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, where Cochran is just standing there amid the wreckage and he just starts slowly clapping, smiling wryly and applauding the hero, each clap like a thundercrack in the silence? That's me right now after watching this video.
 

Urh

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Oct 9, 2010
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So Bob's argument (as I understand it) is that Michael Bay is a cultural mirror of sorts, and the loathing for Michael Bay is in fact a loathing for the culture that he reflects. Makes sense the more that I think about it.