Why do people hate Michael Bay so much?

[Elias]

Batman says he's sick of people arguing in these threads, and has the audacity to call them tools, yet he's doing the same exact thing. Something just doesn't seem right about that.

 

But true enough, this is becoming personal. Probably be for the best if this thread was locked up.

[The Batman]

I apologized, but I do agree its getting too personal.

[Elias]

Yeah it is. I mean when I first came on these forums. I had no problems with any of the members. Everyone was pretty much respectible to the next guy or girl's opinions/views. I miss the old days of ADC. Perhaps it was always like that, but for whatever reason I felt it was a lot better then. Like there was more of a family oriented community on these forums vs. nowadays. Then again I don't frequent these forums anywhere near what I originally did back in 2002. But yeah, we all need to take a step back, including myself and realize that this a message board concerning toys.

[ARROW]

If you want to criticize Bay's Pearl Harbour ( and I do, bruthah do I ever) is a awful movie because it just doesn't know what it wants to be.

 

Scratch that, it wanted to be Titanic, but lacked the well-thought story that movie had.

 

Pearl Harbour had characters that had zero empathy ( the female lead), characters that deserved their own story ( Cuba Goddings character, cloyingly obvoius heart-string tugs, and a whole OTHER story in the last of the movie ( the Dolittle raid)

My take on the flick is that the screenwriters and the studio heads though that the the story needed some "closure"--and of course Pearl Harbour's immediate story doesn't have that, it has a feeling of impotence and galvanized resolve but there's no immieduate happy ending to it. The base was bombed, people killed and the attackers got away.

 

That's not satisfying to an American audience in a American story--so there has to be revenge.

Enter the Dolittle raid over Tokyo and you got your payback--despite the fact that the two events were some time apart.

At least that is how the film comes across.

 

Personally, I thought the last act of PH was insulting to the intelligence of most of the audience that saw the film.

The story needed to end at Pearl, not in the aftermath of the Dolittle raid.

Michael Bay had nothing to do with that aspect, IIRC, so blaming him for it........well, its like blaming a person that smiles at you for your lousy day.

 

Bay's influence is the MTV like pacing, chronic camera moves over patriotic symbols and the general edit/staging of the film.

As an action director--he can hold the audiences attention with his bag of tricks and.........like it or not, that is what the TF's need.

 

Speilberg has a different trangression though.

His addition to AI: Artificial Intelligence is pretty obvious--almost anyone can see where Stanley Kubrick would have likely left off the story. Speilberg, at the time, was needled for being on a "family" kick, doting on his kids.....its where the "no guns" idea came into the re-edit of ET.

The trite aliens in the future frozen Earth thing with the kid in AI, and reviving the "ghost" of the kid's mom is Speilberg showhorning a happy ending into a otherwise fairly cynical movie.

Cynicism is more in keeping with the kinds of films Kubrick made, so IMO, Speilberg called this one wrong..........BUT..........

 

 

But, I'm not privy to what his relationship with Kubrick was--they could have well discussed the story and Spielberg picked up the torch with Kubrick's "blessings".

Though Speilberg was brought on AFTER Kubrick died......I'm guessing there were some kinds of notes or other info that conveyed Kubricks intentions.

 

That said, Speilberg does have a streak of........"cuteness" in some of his flicks. He's got some good ideas has to what passes for hip in his films, his characters tend to be very real people thrust into unreal situations. Still, he gets criticized for that.

 

Both these guys have reps, some of it is deserved. Some of it is not.

[Chug]

Chug,both you,Don Murphy and Michael Bay can suck my balls.

Tee hee...silly Darren, you got the numbering of how many people can orally please you wrong.

 

Truth hurts though, doesn't it? @loll@

[The Batman]

3 words........(Armageddon Reference lol)

 

Optimus Flaming Prime

[gscbr]

People hate Michael Bay because he is a horrible story teller, and seems oblivious of character exposition, plot and sense. what he is, though, is a great visual director who can stage some bang-up action scenes. quite frankly, that is all it is going to take to sell a Transformers movie, so he's the right man for the job.

[Rodimus Primal]

I agree that an action man like Micheal Bay is the right man for the job, but many are skeptikal because of his past. Look at Thomas Edison when he made the light bulb. He had his fair share of failures before he finally got it right. Micheal Bay is working with BIG names to help make this movie good. His directing style will make the battles exciting. What hurts is the fact that he's probably NOT a fan. When doing a movie with an already established fanbase, its better to KNOW the source material you are working from. But with this project, we have the MOST RABID fanbase of them all and because of that, we are bickering before ANY information was even given to us.

 

Random Person: "So there's going to be a Transformers Live action movie!"

 

TF Fan: "It will blow. It won't be G1, it will have human beings in it, it will probably get some crappy director, the vehicles will look like crap, and the line will die. Why don't they understand they need to make G1!"

 

RG: "Dude they haven't even said who's directing or anything!"

 

TFfan: "IT DOESN'T MATTER! IT WILL BLOW!"

 

 

That's the way I see how we respond to much of the hype about this movie. We shoot it down before anything else. I really hope that this movie doesn't suck just as much as all of you. I want this movie to be a success. It has to be done right. We know they can't exactly do G1, but we can hope that its a good movie and the mainstream audience enjoys it and embraces it like those of us who've been a fan since 1984.

[Elias]

I personally think it will be passable, and maybe even good.

 

Don't mock me, but I enjoyed the Island.

[The Batman]

The Island was ok.........but they werent established characters like the transformers.

 

If you mess with the core characters you mess with everything.

 

I mean Tyreese is in this with Bernie Mac.......not so good so far.

[Elias]

Hey, they are both elite actors. One day they will be worthy of Oscar consideration!

[The Batman]

Right.........Oscar Meyer.

[Rodimus Primal]

I was watching on E! and they had on set with Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson. Both are fans and sung the Transformers theme song. Perhaps they might be right for the roles they are playing.

[The Batman]

That kind of stuff makes me feel better, but Bay I know doesn't care about giant robots named Optimus Prime and etc.

 

He is doing his thing, weird camera angles and lots of explosions.

[gscbr]

 

Don't mock me, but I enjoyed the Island.

no, you deserved to be mocked. @smilepunch@ the Island was horrid, Michael Bay at his worst.

[gscbr]

 

If you mess with the core characters you mess with everything.

 

my problem with this is that Transformers has evolved larger than the G1 characteristics that most fans have hung on to. the characters and stories have taken numerous forms since then, and will continue to do so, so there isn't anything wrong with them doing so for the movie. as long as the movie adheres to the overarching premise of the story and the characters, it is Transformers, which is bigger than G1. and what is that overarching story/characters? giant robots that can transform, from a planet called cybertron, and who are in the middle of an intergalactic civil-war. that is it. anything else are specifics that apply to the current incarnation of the toyline.

 

fact is the theatre is going to be filled with more children who don't care about G1 or even know about it and adults who don't remember it specifically but are there for the nostalgia because they remember playing with the diesel truck robot leader. whether he is red or not or has flames isn't going to make a difference. adhering to G1 for the sake of appeasing a specific, and probably minority segment, of the market is silly if they can make a better movie that deviates from it, and pretty egotistical of that segment to think it should.

 

now I know the response: "if kids/adults don't remember or care, what does it hurt to make it G1?" the answer is that it just may not be an interesting avenue for the filmmakers, who think they can make a better movie with a fresh idea. I know that is harsh, but this movie is obviously aimed at starting a new era/franchise for the Transformer brand, not rehashing an 80's cartoon.

[Elias]

Eat my stinky shorts!!! @smilepunch@

[The Batman]

Well, I am positive that this now has absolutely NOTHING to do with G1 with the exception of a few robot names here and there.

 

Looks like we're gonna get Bernie Mac as Optimus and Andy Dick as Megatron.

 

I am soooo looking forward to Spiderman 3.......now that is how movies should be made.....and I know the symbiote suit is different......but even the trailer shows spidey ripping it off like in the comics.....its canon......so I'll let the wardrobe thing slide this once.

[Blackheart]

*Eats hsi stinky shorts...even when he wasnt asked to... *

 

Anywho, I think what gscbr posted was well said!

 

As for my opinion on whether Bay will be good for this movie, my answer is....I have no idea. I've never seen a single movie of his! But judging from the random action clips I have seen, I kow the action will be good.

[Three Storms]

First and foremost, Michael Bay may not be anywhere close to being the best in Hollywood, but in my opinion, he is far from being the worst. Based on what i have read from imdb.com, many people hate him, to the extent of classifying him as being among the top 5 worst directors. In other words, was Pearl Harbour, Bad Boys II, and Armageddon sooooooo bad??? I mean, if they said House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark is bad, that i can easily accept, but claiming Michael Bay to be among the worst directors is like saying that Bad Boys II is as bad as House of the Dead.

 

My guess is that most of the people who hate him are just the wrong crowd for his movies. If you go to Bay's movies expecting literature, then you are way off track, but if you like action, you should be in place. The thing is, even if you were the right kind of crowd for Uwe Boll's movies, you will still think his movie sucks. That's why Uwe Boll is a bad director, and Michael Bay is not in the same league as that guy. Personally, I never found any of Bay's movies so bad that i had to change the channel or walk out of the cinema...not even close to that.

 

Or is all this hatred due to the fact that our TF movie didn't get Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, or James Cameron as the director?

 

 

The TF movie would never get someone like Spielberg as director.

 

Michael Bay's movies have typically sucked. Not Uwe Boll bad but still not exactly Oscar-worthy material. Still, in all fairness, I doubt they're going after making an Oscar-worthy movie to begin with, and want an effect-driven "summer blockbuster" that's shallow on the story side. That's what I expect of the TF movie anyway; lots of special effects with a shallow story.

[Chug]

The Island was ok.........but they werent established characters like the transformers.

 

If you mess with the core characters you mess with everything.

 

I mean Tyreese is in this with Bernie Mac.......not so good so far.

I guess an Oscar award winner like Jon Voight doesn't ring any bells then?

 

 

If you mess with the core characters you mess with everything.

 

my problem with this is that Transformers has evolved larger than the G1 characteristics that most fans have hung on to. the characters and stories have taken numerous forms since then, and will continue to do so, so there isn't anything wrong with them doing so for the movie. as long as the movie adheres to the overarching premise of the story and the characters, it is Transformers, which is bigger than G1. and what is that overarching story/characters? giant robots that can transform, from a planet called cybertron, and who are in the middle of an intergalactic civil-war. that is it. anything else are specifics that apply to the current incarnation of the toyline.

 

fact is the theatre is going to be filled with more children who don't care about G1 or even know about it and adults who don't remember it specifically but are there for the nostalgia because they remember playing with the diesel truck robot leader. whether he is red or not or has flames isn't going to make a difference. adhering to G1 for the sake of appeasing a specific, and probably minority segment, of the market is silly if they can make a better movie that deviates from it, and pretty egotistical of that segment to think it should.

 

now I know the response: "if kids/adults don't remember or care, what does it hurt to make it G1?" the answer is that it just may not be an interesting avenue for the filmmakers, who think they can make a better movie with a fresh idea. I know that is harsh, but this movie is obviously aimed at starting a new era/franchise for the Transformer brand, not rehashing an 80's cartoon.

Here here! Transformers is so much more than simply G1. A proven seller in the 80's does not necessitate a contemporary proven seller. G1 is nice, but there's not a single thing wrong with using a forward-thinking mentality and jazzing up what is essentially the story used in all of the forms of fiction seen in Transformers. G1 is not the be all, end all. Nowhere has it been said that the movie would be based on G1's storyline. Nowhere in the title of the movie does it say "Transformers: The Movie-Generation 1". Why stick with a slavish, backwards-thinking design and mentality that hasn't exactly proven itself to be a blockbuster sales hit the past few year? Contemporize, modernize, and innovate!

 

The TF movie would never get someone like Spielberg as director.

 

Michael Bay's movies have typically sucked. Not Uwe Boll bad but still not exactly Oscar-worthy material. Still, in all fairness, I doubt they're going after making an Oscar-worthy movie to begin with, and want an effect-driven "summer blockbuster" that's shallow on the story side. That's what I expect of the TF movie anyway; lots of special effects with a shallow story.

Depending a bit on which form of fiction that you prefer, that's really not too adverse of a description of G1's story.

[Darren]

Chug,both you,Don Murphy and Michael Bay can suck my balls.

Tee hee...silly Darren, you got the numbering of how many people can orally please you wrong.

 

Truth hurts though, doesn't it? @loll@

 

My bad dude,I forgot.....you,Don Murphy,Michael Bay,AND Jessica Alba....AND Jessica Simpson can suck my balls.

 

Chug,we've been friends a long time.

 

We've gone to many movies together.I know you are a movie-fanatic...

 

How many times have we gone to movies that we over-hyped ourselves and walked out just shaking our heads.I remember many nights when you,me,Alex,and Blaine (when he came along) would walk out and rip some movies apart.

 

I really think Transformers is going to be one of those movies.

 

TYRESE?LOL!

 

BTW - They showed something on ET the other night,I only caught the end.It showed Tyrese and some other actor in a desert town in army fatigues.Tyrese mentioned Transformers and "robots in disguise"...looked like they were filming a scene from when Scorponok attacks.

[The Batman]

Ok everybody, lets keep your personal sexual habbits to yourselves. You can orally pleasure eachothe by PMing.

 

I'm guessing that scene does have Scoponok. I'm still hoping Bay has the Autobots save them and not some jet that drops a bomb.

 

And the biggest reason why I hate Micheal Bay?

 

 

 

Well.........because I can, I don't think he's a good director, he's unprofessional on sets from what everyone hears, he doesn't look into the origins of the story he's making a movie about, and he cares even less about the fans and would rather make a buck than give a f... well you know what I mean.

[boff123]

the tcm remake was aweful. the orginal blows that turd right out of the water. the only redeeming quality of the film was jessica biel in a wet tshirt, hence bay sucks.

[CHA]

the tcm remake was aweful. the orginal blows that turd right out of the water. the only redeeming quality of the film was jessica biel in a wet tshirt, hence bay sucks.

 

Bay only produced it, He didn't direct it nor did he write the script etc..