No one in the industry can top Michael Bay for his epic vision when it comes to action set-pieces. No one in the industry commands as large of a salary as Bay does, and at the same time holds the least critical respect from fans and reviewers. By now you'd think people would know what to expect from Bay. He's not making the next Lawrence of Arabia, but he is making the next Transformers movie, and it should be a ton of fun.
Michael Bay, whose middle name happens to be Benjamin, started directing music videos and other random things, (such as Playboy Video Centerfold: Kerri Kendal), and then burst upon the directing scene with Bad Boys in 1995 after being taken under the wing of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson in the early 90's. (By the way, if you want to know where Bay got his style from, just look at the two guys who "spawned" his career. The production team of Bruckheimer/Simpson is responsible for Flashdance, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2, Crimson Tide, Bad Boys, Dangerous Minds and The Rock, among others.)
Michael Bay gets a lot of shit for not having anything to his movies. People dissed Transformers because it lacked a good story, which is untrue, and because it made too many cheap jokes at the robots' expence, which is partially untrue. I don't care what they say, Transformers was good. I loved the sound design, the transformation effects and the fights. Just getting all that animated must have been a sissyphean task in and of itself. I was impressed. Here are the stats from imdb.com's trivia section:
According to one of the CGI artists at the Industrial Light & Magic studio, the Transformers are composed out of a total of 60,217 pieces. Optimus Prime is composed of 10108 pieces, Megatron is composed of 2411 pieces, and Bumblebee is composed out of 7433 pieces. Ironhide is the bulkiest Transformer in the film, with both his guns composed of 10,000 pieces each.
According to one of the CGI artists at the Industrial Light & Magic studio, if you took all the polygons (CGI blocks) from all the Transformer models they created and strung them end to end, they'd reach to the moon and back and you'd still have enough left over to build the Roman Colosseum in Italy twice.
Michael Bay has said that finding a balance on the number of Autobots and Decepticons in the film was a challenge. Too few and the movie wouldn't be action-packed enough. Too many would be too difficult. They finally settled on 6 Autobots and 8 Decepticons. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen there will be 11 Autobots and 15 Decepticons. I think it's safe to say that the animation process has been streamlined quite a bit. They're now able to put a lot more moving parts into the new film.
I can't pretend to be a big fan of Michael Bay's movies themselves, although I feel that The Rock is one of the best action films of all time - it's certainly my favorite action film ever made. But Bay has given us, the movie-viewing community, action set-pieces of such grandeur and sheer awesomeness that I cannot ignore his skill. If you haven't seen the following films, rent them if only for the described sequences:
The Rock. Where to begin? The car chase is better and funnier than the one at the end of Bad Boys 2. The shootout in the Alcatraz shower room is a wonderful piece of editing achievement, and the score of the movie is perfect as well. Overall the film has a lot of hard violence between some very hardcore soldiers. Ed Harris' performance is quite deep in my opinion, too. Sean Connery plays a captured and forgotten British secret agent from the 60's. He's basically James Bond if Bond was caught by the Americans, disowned by the British, and left to rot in an American prison.
Bad Boys 2. There are two sequences in this movie that should be listed as "Need to See". The shootout with the Haitian drug dealers is very cool. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are on one side of the wall, the Haitians are on the other side. There is a fireplace in the center of the wall and a door on each end of the wall connecting the two rooms. The camera moves in a big circle to show you both sides of the fight, but in so doing it moves through the bullet holes in each of the doors. It's difficult for me to describe, so I've put it in below. Also of great cinematic quality is the car chase on the bridge in Miami. The chase scene showcases Bay's abilities with controlled chaos.
Pearl Harbor. This movie was pretty bad because of it's ridiculous length and boring love story. It's similar to Armageddon, except that it all takes place on Earth. The actual bombing of Pearl Harbor sequence is very cool though.
Transformers. Even if you never watched the cartoon, you'll still enjoy the battle sequences in this movie. Barricade is my favorite Decepticon. He transforms into a Shelby Mustang police cruiser that says "To Punish and Enslave" on the side. The opening sequence with Blackout is an adrenaline-pumping good time.
Armageddon. This movie has good characters being pushed into something they aren't able to fully come to terms with. This might have the best character depth overall of any of Bay's films. The only thing driving you to see this movie though is the destruction of cities by meteorites. And Steve Buscemi.
Michael Bay's production studio, Platinum Dunes, is responsible for a few recent horror remakes. The Hitcher, Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday 13th and the upcoming Nightmare of Elm Street reboot and The Birds and Rosemary's Baby remakes are all courtesy of Bay and his cronies. For better or worse, at least someone is trying to make scary, hard-R horror movies with some gritty style.
Give Bay a chance. Even if The Island sucked, it still had some cool shots. His movies are not the work of a hack. If I had to have you watch one Michael Bay film, it would be The Rock. Run to the store and pick it up.
I think I like Michael Bay movies because they are action packed and tense but there are always hysterical one-liners that make me laugh so hard. And I love them everytime I watch them.
And yes, Barricade was the coolest in Transformers.
Michael Bay, whose middle name happens to be Benjamin, started directing music videos and other random things, (such as Playboy Video Centerfold: Kerri Kendal), and then burst upon the directing scene with Bad Boys in 1995 after being taken under the wing of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson in the early 90's. (By the way, if you want to know where Bay got his style from, just look at the two guys who "spawned" his career. The production team of Bruckheimer/Simpson is responsible for Flashdance, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2, Crimson Tide, Bad Boys, Dangerous Minds and The Rock, among others.)
Michael Bay gets a lot of shit for not having anything to his movies. People dissed Transformers because it lacked a good story, which is untrue, and because it made too many cheap jokes at the robots' expence, which is partially untrue. I don't care what they say, Transformers was good. I loved the sound design, the transformation effects and the fights. Just getting all that animated must have been a sissyphean task in and of itself. I was impressed. Here are the stats from imdb.com's trivia section:
Michael Bay has said that finding a balance on the number of Autobots and Decepticons in the film was a challenge. Too few and the movie wouldn't be action-packed enough. Too many would be too difficult. They finally settled on 6 Autobots and 8 Decepticons. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen there will be 11 Autobots and 15 Decepticons. I think it's safe to say that the animation process has been streamlined quite a bit. They're now able to put a lot more moving parts into the new film.
I can't pretend to be a big fan of Michael Bay's movies themselves, although I feel that The Rock is one of the best action films of all time - it's certainly my favorite action film ever made. But Bay has given us, the movie-viewing community, action set-pieces of such grandeur and sheer awesomeness that I cannot ignore his skill. If you haven't seen the following films, rent them if only for the described sequences:
The Rock. Where to begin? The car chase is better and funnier than the one at the end of Bad Boys 2. The shootout in the Alcatraz shower room is a wonderful piece of editing achievement, and the score of the movie is perfect as well. Overall the film has a lot of hard violence between some very hardcore soldiers. Ed Harris' performance is quite deep in my opinion, too. Sean Connery plays a captured and forgotten British secret agent from the 60's. He's basically James Bond if Bond was caught by the Americans, disowned by the British, and left to rot in an American prison.
Armageddon. This movie has good characters being pushed into something they aren't able to fully come to terms with. This might have the best character depth overall of any of Bay's films. The only thing driving you to see this movie though is the destruction of cities by meteorites. And Steve Buscemi.
Michael Bay's production studio, Platinum Dunes, is responsible for a few recent horror remakes. The Hitcher, Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday 13th and the upcoming Nightmare of Elm Street reboot and The Birds and Rosemary's Baby remakes are all courtesy of Bay and his cronies. For better or worse, at least someone is trying to make scary, hard-R horror movies with some gritty style.
Give Bay a chance. Even if The Island sucked, it still had some cool shots. His movies are not the work of a hack. If I had to have you watch one Michael Bay film, it would be The Rock. Run to the store and pick it up.
Here's the link for the Revenge of the Fallen trailer.
1 comment:
I think I like Michael Bay movies because they are action packed and tense but there are always hysterical one-liners that make me laugh so hard. And I love them everytime I watch them.
And yes, Barricade was the coolest in Transformers.
And yes, I do want The Birds Barbie!
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