Cool News
Michael Bay Pulverizes Mr. Beaks With Amazing TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON Footage!
We're sitting in a Santa Monica screening room down the street from Bay Films. Michael Bay films. You wouldn't know it from the outside because it's not exploding.
It's an early December afternoon, and a select group of online/print journalists have been summoned for a world premiere unveiling of the teaser trailer for TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON. It's the third entry in the franchise which has rung up 1.5 billion worldwide for Paramount - and if it seems a bit early to be talking to journalists for a film that's not due to hit theaters until July 1, 2011, well, Bay's got something to say about that.
"We have a more serious story this time," he promises. "I'm trying to make up for movie two."
Bay is referring, of course, to TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, which played like a fourteen-year-old's Four Loko-fueled vision of the robot apocalypse. It was a lot of movie. Too much movie. Too much all the time. It was like a roller coaster with one perilously steep, two-and-a-half-hour-long dive. It also grossed more than the first movie, so the fact that Bay's acknowledging he perhaps went a tad overboard with this movie is encouraging. It means he's sane.
It also means that he's in the filmmaking business for the right reasons. Bay could've very easily argued for more of the same after REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, but he gets that the audience needs a break from the Bay-hem every now and then. He listened to the reactions not of the critics, but the fans, and I imagine he was bummed that they didn't have as good a time with the second movie as they did the first. I'm certain of this, actually. I've been around Bay enough to know that he's in the business because he genuinely loves giving people a great night out at the movies. When I attended a test screening of THE ISLAND several years ago, he taped off one seat for himself in a recruited audience aisle, and watched the entire movie surrounded by people who've helped make him a very rich man. In terms of judging the effectiveness of a movie - particularly a Michael Bay movie - it's a far more accurate barometer than adding up numbers from a pile of clumsily-worded scorecards.
We've also been called out to Santa Monica so Bay can shoot down once and for all the rumors about substandard 3D in DARK OF THE MOON. He's already issued a rebuttal to the "morons" making these claims, but nothing squashes a rumor more emphatically than whipping out the goods. After he's concluded his brief preamble, that's precisely what Bay does.
First up is the DARK OF THE MOON "announcement piece", which will be attached to TRON LEGACY next week. It opens with the Apollo 11 Eagle landing on the surface of the moon in 1969. A voice from mission control speaks to astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin: "We are dark on the rock. Mission is a go. You have twenty-one minutes." Armstrong and Aldrin venture off to a crater in the moon's surface where some familiar-looking (to us) alien craft is embedded. They've made first contact. Thus begins the cover-up.
The teaser succeeds at setting a serious tone. It's not "dark" per se, but one gets a sense that the stakes are going to be a little more elevated in this film, and, um, clear. Later in the day, Bay assures us that the movie will be free of "dorky" humor (though Ken Jeong will be around to do that Ken Jeong thing).
Next, Bay cues up a series of 3D shots selected to dispel any concerns about the "problems" the production has encountered. It's rough, unfinished stuff, but there are some breathtaking moments: there's a vertiginous aerial dive shot from the perspective of a soldier in a wingsuit (Bay had these guys zipping around a skyscraper-lined two-mile stretch of downtown Chicago for three weeks), a precarious-looking slide down the side of a collapsing building, Shia swinging wildly from a cable clamped to the eye of a Decepticon (who's so annoyed he has to annihilate the side of a parking structure, which means lots of flying cars!)... and it all looks spectacular because it was shot real-world rather than blue screen.
It's only three weeks into the editing process, but the 3D looks about as good as 3D can. Bay's got Vince Pace and the AVATAR gang at his disposal - and while they're having to invent a new way of shooting 3D to accommodate Bay's style, the director put them through a rigorous series of preproduction tests to make sure they could adapt. Here's how Bay explains his decision to shoot in 3D:
Contrary to opinion, the studio did not force me to do anything. They suggested, "Would you be interested in 3D?", and I'm like "Huh?" I've had [Jeffrey] Katzenberg call me all the time, Jim [Cameron] call me all the time... "You've gotta do 3D." I visited Jim on AVATAR, and I just saw all the blue screen and the big cameras and I'm like, "This is so not me." So it's kinda scary, alright? Especially 'cause I do real world stuff, [as opposed to] the blue screen stage where it's all air-conditioned, no dust, and you can manufacture so much, and you've got these big rigs that go with the umbilical cord into a lot of this brain power stuff.
So we first investigated conversion companies. It took about 5 months of investigation - I mean literally breaking it down. We had them all come pitch to us how they would do it, and so I thought, "Okay, well what if we spent a lot of time on conversion?" You can do really successful conversion, but it just takes a lot of time. And then I kept thinking, "God, I've gotta try these cameras." And we got Jim's space, his camera systems out there. This is really hard for me 'cause I'm a die-hard film guy. Anamorphic old-school lenses. There's just nothing more beautiful than anamorphic lenses to me. So going digital was like, "Ugh"; it's just kinda crass for me, and in close-up it's terrible. Just for me, that's for my taste.
So we brought the camera systems out, and you hear horror stories on all these movies: they would do 20 shots, 10 shots a day. I usually do 40-50 shots a day. So I'm like "Well this is bad on a $200 million movie. This is gonna just exponentially increase the shooting days. It's a disaster." So I went out there, with my guys and their guys - we had the AVATAR guys [because] I wanted really seasoned guys. It's like either you work with the best or you're screwed. I had the same guys that did AVATAR and have a lot of experience with that system, but they'd never done what we've done. We put it through a rigorous test. We strapped a camera on a skydiver, you know that doesn't really happen much. We put it on systems that it's never been on before. So that day of testing, I was testing with film cameras and 3D cameras, and I was trying to keep the pace and timing. I was pretending like this is a real shoot, and I'm throwing curveballs to them saying "Alright let's change this lens, do this lens" and I'm trying to time them, seeing how it would affect my day. And they were scrambling a bit, so I'm like "Ugh, it could be a disaster, but maybe we can train them better. I mean, it's the first day, you know? They gotta set the rigs up the way I like them.
But it was fun to put those glasses on and go right around to the TV [to watch the footage they just shot in 3D]. It's kinda cool." As Jim told me, "Mike, we've done everything, it's just a new toy for us." (Laughs) And that was when I finally said "Alright, you know what? I'm gonna try it." Originally I was gonna do four to five weeks of photography, and the rest we were gonna do conversion. [Bay says to do conversion right, you've got to shell out $30 million. Studios will sometimes try to get by with a $10 to $12 million conversion.] Cause they had done really hard shots from Transformers, we picked our company. We gave 'em shots that had the dust and the debris and the facial stuff, and some was quite surprising. And then I saw some stuff that ILM was doing with dual-eye rendered robots, so it's two eyes putting it into a plate, and we figured we could be very successful doing that.
Our first day, I kinda secretly told my line producer, "We're gonna keep that [3D] camera the whole show, the studio just doesn't know it yet. We're gonna take our conversion money, we're gonna put it towards our camera money, so keep that crew the whole show." I didn't wanna spill the beans to the studio; you gotta sucker punch 'em when they least expect it. (Laughs) You get 'em invested and then they're fucked, you know? (Laughs) And then they came down the first two days, they put the glasses on, and I'm like "Hook line and sinker, they're sold."
Bay seems happy with the 3D process so far, but he was quick to emphasize that he shot most of the close-ups in the movie with anamorphic film. "It's just more beautiful than the digital," he says. I'm still of the opinion that a great Michael Bay action film doesn't need 3D to blow me away, but it really does look like he's done something remarkable with that wingsuit sequence. I can only imagine how it'll play on an IMAX screen. I'm going to have a light lunch that day.
After the presentation at the screening room, Bay whisked us away from the Paramount "hall monitors" to Bay Films for lunch, conversation, and "just a little bit" of footage. Bay was eager to pick our brains about the reel he'd just shown us, as well as just shoot the shit about the troubled state of the movie industry. He parceled out some story details: after the 1969 prelude, the film is centered on Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) getting his first job after college (Shia evidently lobbied for Sam to be working with the government, but Bay wanted to keep the character grounded with real-world issues). Sam's also traded in his old brunette (Megan Fox) for a blonde (Rosie Huntington-Whitely), and while we didn't see much of her performance, we saw enough to confirm that she'll do.
Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson are also back, but they're no longer on active duty together. We know for sure that Tyrese is retired from the military. As for the combat in this movie, Bay describes it as more BLACK HAWK DOWN than the previous two. When he brought us into the editing suite to watch that "little bit" of footage, he showed us exactly what he meant.
Full-on urban warfare. Not like in TRANSFORMERS. Trashing downtown Los Angeles was one thing - and rather impressive in its own right. But what he's done with the final set piece in DARK OF THE MOON (and he really was showing us the end of the freaking movie in the editing suite) is a mix of practical and CG that, if seamlessly integrated (and Bay's the best in the business at this), will make the entirety of BAD BOYS II look like BRIEF ENCOUNTER. I can't divulge details, but even with unfinished animatics, I was giddily reacting to it like a finished movie. It's some of the most inventive, destructive, and cleanly-composed action Bay has ever staged. Almost as amazing as the footage was watching Bay work the sound board and volume like a DJ during the sequence, occasionally shouting out what the scene was missing in terms of 3D. Not that we could hear a damn thing. By the end of the presentation, Bay was literally brushing off his desk drywall that had shaken loose from the ceiling.
Bay also showed us the Capone footage, which was basically a more roughly-assembled chunk of what we'd just watched with fewer f/x. I now understand why Capone got worked up. I obviously can't speak to the rest of the movie, but as far as the action is concerned, this is Bay at his chaotic best. And, yes, you can tell what's going on at all times. That the movie already looks this entertaining in the third week of editing (with more scenes yet to be shot in Africa) is incredibly encouraging.
Bay was also sure to clarify that DARK OF THE MOON isn't crammed with nonstop destruction: he's taking more time setting up the story, and steadily escalating the scale of the set pieces. I can't speak to the quality of the screenplay, but I love the Apollo moon landing hook, which should help set the film apart from the last two (and, to be honest, the second movie was basically the first movie times a million or so). There's a lot of big-ticket competition this summer, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere near TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON. This should easily be the best of the series.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
Readers Talkback
comments powered by Disqus-
+ Expand All
-
Frost!
-
Dec. 9, 2010, 6:11 p.m. CST
Anyone have a link to the trailer that isn't the POS Quicktime?
by DrMorbius
-
Heard it before. But I will check it out cos nobody does Bayhem like Michael Bay. Just for effin sake, quit with the comedy.....
-
Dec. 9, 2010, 6:14 p.m. CST
Also, when I first posted here, it was timestamped, now it isn't!
by DrMorbius
-
I hope you get rid of the ability to see the posts. I like the old option of clicking a title that interests me instead of having to read through everything.
-
Everybody keeps acting like part 2 was such a departure from part 1. Both films were equally shit. So, when people say that this one is a return to form, I have to say that I don't give a fuck.
-
I liked the teaser, though.
-
i still won't see this....
-
Nah, it's Mr. Beaks, can't be a plant. And it might actually be good! Stranger things have happened.
-
It's the retarded attempts at humor.
-
I don't care about all the 3D conversation, he can be excited as he wants about that and I believe he's probably telling the truth.<p>However, the fact that he acknowledges that he fucked up with Transformers2, does not make him cool. It just makes him an idiot! It had to be drummed into him that it was shit and now he's admitting it! The movie is still going to star Shit Le Beef who also admitted the second movie was shit!<p>give me a break!
-
...it claimed there were no comments on this topic yet when I just posted that. Is Harry doing the programming on this thing himself?
-
...you test drive a web site. You set up the site with a private URL and have everybody involved test it out. You post test messages. You post test stories. You test the cookies, JavaScript and advertising links on the private test site. When it's ready, you flip the finalized test files to the published URL's server drive. What'cha think?
-
i have to click the subject line just to read each post!???
-
This site is fucked.
-
or are these posts speculation?
-
can't read the stories, need to click on each subject to read each post, huge screen sized ads when first coming onto site... are you paying someone for this!?
-
BASS KICK-LENS FLARE-FLYBY-GLINT-LENS FLARE-GLINT-LENS FLARE-NASA-TERRAIN-GOV-NATIONALITY-SLOW MO AWE-GOV-MORE SLOW MO AWE-BIG REVEAL-PUMP THE BASS-CLOSE-UPS-DOLLY COVERAGE-CRANE COVERAGE-HOT HEAD COVERAGE-LENS FLARE-ILM TERRAIN SIMULATION-EMULATOR-SYNTHESIZER-LENS FLARE-OBLITERATION-LENS FLARE-BAY-BAY-BA-BA-BAY. It's so nice Michael Bay has earned a living as an artist with a story to tell.
-
Bay is a complete Ass! His films are DogShit,The acting is DogShit! I really doubt this film will be good at all.
-
I guess we'll get a follow-through 3D landing onto a skyscraper to top that falling bomb shot in "Pearl Harbor". At least, i hope he's trying for nearby things, because distant, skyward, views have no interocular difference and 3D record as "flat".
-
Dec. 10, 2010, 12:31 a.m. CST
This site redesign is an EPIC FAIL of Harryesque proportions! Here's why...
by Cervantes
As I can't even access the 'The AICN Situation' topic anymore to add some thoughts, I'll just need to vent here. Apart from the fact that this whole farce should have been done offline seperately, some of the new changes implemented have totally ruined what little real attraction this site still held for me - namely, the talkbacks. For starters, the decision to REVERSE the talkback posts has fucked up the flow of the comments, with answers/responses now coming BEFORE the previous posts they were referring to! Why the hell do we have to scroll all the way down to start things off now? And it seems that we even need to click EACH and EVERY single comment title now to read them!! Life's too short for all this additional, time-consuming shit. On top of this, it seems there's a fucking 'delete' option now, which gives an easy 'get out of jail' card to anyone that's caught out being an asshole... Seriously, the previous 'talkback' layout was the main strongpoint of this site nowadays, and it's been fucked up big time. Are these your ideas Harry, or are they just the ideas of the dufus that you asked to do this for you? I sure hope that 'clickable' links are included eventually if nothing else, as it's still a pain trying to tell if someone is typing a capital i or a lower-case l in a link they type, using this font, as they look the same! That's no biggie compared to the other problems of course, but it would have been a helpful consideration. Personally, I check out the likes of the Darkhorizons sites for regular movie news updates these days along with an excellent weekly 'round-up' over at Trekmovie (who thankfully KEPT their style of 'talkback') , and then check in here for every talkback comments when you eventually catch up Harry. It wasn't pretty at times, but it had a strange attraction all of it's own, and it's been ruined now. Gotta love ya Harry, but I bet I'm not the only one who just had a feeling this was going to go tits up once again... Michael Bay would be proud.
-
Homeboy made some mad $$$
-
Bay will keep making his atrocious movies and getting richer from them because the moronic moviegoers will keep watching them while i will keep being a loser by birth for all the rest of my life. Really who gives a fuck?
-
this new talkback format sucks! wtf!
-
...of when 'Moriarty' payed a visit to the editing room of TOMB RAIDER. He came out raving about how the action scenes in the film were so impressive and coherent... when it ended up being neither of those things.
-
Does this mean I an type regular? I hit the enter key!!!
-
To reveal all talkback comments you have to click "+ expand all" up at the top of the headings a few times. Yes, it should default to ALL EXPANDED once you click a post heading so you can then begin reading the talkback flow uninterrupted. The talkback pages seem to be occupied with scripted analytics/marketing tracking & cookie setting (ads.pointroll.com, doubleclick.net, addthis.com) thirteen third-party cookie names as of this post's count.
-
You see what happened to DIGG once they changed their site format. People stopped posting, the same thing is going to happen here. Seriously, I'm sure you can monitor web-traffic and post counts, and I'll guarantee you that it's gone down since this was implemented. Why change something that was already perfect? All you had to do was add a timed editing function and you were GOLDEN! Just change it back, this new site is shitty, I know you're not happy with it.
-
Does this? <p> Let's see
-
This could be based on a true story this flick.
-
Dec. 10, 2010, 3:04 a.m. CST
Thanks justmyluck. I just noticed the 'expand all' function, but...
by Cervantes
...think it would be more noticeable if it was moved over beside the 'READERS TALKBACK' wording. Still, that's a big step forward again. Now if they'd only revert to the previous 'decending' comments for things to read better again...and get rid of that fucking 'delete' get out...
-
I can understand some artistic license since this is indeed science FICTION, but this is ridiculous. The premise implied in the trailer of them being on the dark side of the moon is not possible. The same side of the moon always faces Earth, so once they landed there they would always be facing Earth and would always have contact. Unless of course they landed on the far side, in which case we wouldn't have had any broadcasts or the "One small step..." quote because of no communications. But don't let that stop you Mr. Bay...
-
I find it rather irritating that you can't get full screen without purchasing the pro version...or without going through some insane hack. Dumb quicktime. In other news, I thoroughly despised the last Transformers and disliked the first one. I have noticed that these movies are a fair indicator of how shit the blockbuster season will be...almost like a herald of doom. I now worry for the movies in the year of this movie's release.
-
Dec. 10, 2010, 3:44 a.m. CST
Will he give the robots a FUCKING PERSONALITY this time?
by IndustryKiller!
That's always been the biggest problem with the franchise, the robots suck as characters and that was the point of the ENTIRE original show and why we're still talking about it today. I have ZERO faith in this. Part 2 was unwatchable but the first one was barely better.
-
just gotta throw my two cents out there on that. Now braindrain can just delete his idiotic posts.
-
loved the whole APOLLO 13 meets ALIEN vibe. If this is any indication of what Bay is doing w/this film, then I guess I'll give it a chance at some point.
-
Was Michael Bay being facetious when he answered the question concerning the Ferrari's voice? (A reminder, via Collider.com: http://tinyurl.com/29hchhy) Will Ferrari have an Italian accent? Bay: Yes. And Ferrari will have to approve the voice. They just want it to be not cheesy Italian. They want it to be something that fits the car.
-
I don't understand why people complains about T2. It was garbage exactly like the 1st one. Simply, as time passes, people are inclined to think that older things are beter than new ones. The 1st movie was a pile of shit. The whole story was messed up, the design of the Decepticons was horrendous and Shit le Beef was unbearable as usual. All can be applied to T2. This 3rd movie won't even have Megan Fox's incredible ass, so why bother?
-
the first transformers, had a great time at the movies, seen it once on dvd after. I was appalled at the second one though, with the Terminator rip-off and mom eating pot brownies it was horrible. Haven't seen it again since that first time, but my 1080p Pioneer Plasma & PS3 Blu-ray is making me think I want to watch it again for the pretty pictures. The forest fight with Optimus was awesome, but then again that was the last good scene I can remember in the movie...
-
Let's hope so. Michael Bay is the antichrist of big budget, mainstream cinema. Leave it to him to ruin what is still left to be ruined, taint what is left to be tainted. You can tell what's going on at all times? Yeah, right. No matter how many pieces you or any other geek site writes about TF3 I won't be sold. I'm not going giving in to battered wife syndrome anymore. I am sold on a feature length "making of TF3" though, if that ever came out. Making Bay movies is probably infinitely more fun than watching them.
-
About having to click on every title/reading comments in reverse/needing to scroll calm the fuck down. You want to see all comments? Click 'Expand All' to the right of the Readers Talkback heading. You want to read from beginning to end, instead of latest first? Read from the bottom up. You want to avoid having to scroll? Press the 'end' button on your keyboard and you won't have to. So much complaining, when you had to scroll more the way it was before when every new post ended up at the bottom. The a pill and relax, the way it was before this post would have ended up quite far down, so no one would have seen it early on and complained about the things I've just mentioned. I for one like the improvemenet. Now if only these line breaks would work I'd be satisfied.
-
Would be to have Mudflap and Skids replace Neil and Buzz. Now that would have been funny. The first jive robots on the moon is a concept I can get behind. But this T3 BS is so insulting, so moronic at all levels, what Bay and his 3-D buttheads have done to the first moon landing makes me want to scream. Ebert wrote, regarding Bad Bay's "Bad Boys II" that everyone involved with that movie should do community service. I will go beyond Ebert. My dream is to read a talkback about the untimely deaths of everyone associated with T3, and post rude and hateful comments about all involved. That there will be so much hurt and pain I cause it makes up for the hurt and pain T3 will inflict on the audience.
-
They didn't find the ship on the moon before Megatron. The All Spark and Megatron were discovered in the 1930's. So the discovery on the moon does question why would the Secretary of Defense is so shocked by Sector 7 and Megatron. Unless S7 somehow had a hand in the moon landing.
-
Okay, he's not a plant. But he's sure enamored of Michael Bay, isn't he? I think Bay's Transformer movies have been unwatchably bad. The character design, action sequence direction and storyline have all been overly complicated to the point of absurdity. I wish he would redesign the robots in a more simple way, one that allows for actual emotive expression. I had zero connection to the characters in either movie, living or animated. If he manages to rein himself in this time around and direct scenes that are actually able to be followed, I will be amazed. I think this is a PT Barnum-style promotion. I hope it's not, but Bay hasn't exactly earned my trust with his last two outings.
-
Dec. 10, 2010, 10:35 a.m. CST
Bay on filmmaking: "You get 'em invested and then they're fucked, you know? (Laughs)"
by JasonPratt
And I actually _liked_ Armageddon and The Rock. Still do.
-
Is this the second "Dark of the Moon will be great" piece on this site? When we ALL know it will be shit? I used to think AICN wasn't on the dime. We all know DotM will make $, but it will be crap. Its a blockbuster the same way fake tits are real just cause you can feel em.
-
Is this the second "Dark of the Moon will be great" piece on this site? When we ALL know it will be shit? I used to think AICN wasn't on the dime. We all know DotM will make $, but it will be crap. Its a blockbuster the same way fake tits are real just cause you can feel em.
-
Completely unparalleled in quality control when it comes to the technical side of film-making.
-
I think the whole TB has already discussed that point. Bay does make extremely polished 'products', however, the products SUCK! You know film making is never about how polished your product is, it's whether you can move an audience. The only movement I've had from a Bay movie is to never watch a Bay movie again! One more thing, don't give Bay too much credit even for that as the effects are done by some very talented companies, the stunts are done by done by some very talented people who are choreographed by some other very talented people, costumes, sets etc, all done by a very talented crew. In fact the only thing Bay is in charge of, he fucks up and screws everyone!
-
A moment of silence, and then let us move on.
-
I. Do not. Fucking. Believe you. I refuse to buy any "THIS time Bay has made a good film!" bullshit. I don't know what favors you have received to try to convince me that this time, really, for sure, Bay has made a good movie. He has proven time and again that this is simply not what he does. I will not be paying to see this movie.
-
It added a sense of mystery to how it was all presented and one thing it did right was build the action sequences in scale. TF2 just kind of started huge and went huge-er and there wasn't an emotional connection to it (aside from Optimus' death/rebirth but since he's barely in the movie it's hard to get all wrapped up in it). Bay can do solid big action scenes, but sometimes the Bayhem can overpower everything. Baby steps. In a movie with giant robots. It could work.
-
I love Chicago. I love giant fighting robots. Make it about the robots and not some tardo kid. Can't be that hard.
-
If Mr. Bay is as unsatisfied with ROTF as fans of the first movie were, what are the chances of a director's cut? There's a good movie somewhere in there, I'm sure.
-
So that's why we've had to endure all this Bay ass licking from AIC... keep him sweet for the special screening... shameful... I tell you what Transformers 3 trailer did for me... it made me want to see Apollo 18 instead...
-
Once gain, good science fiction is supposed to make you believe that the "fiction" part is grounded enough in reality that it's actually possible. This trailer fails spectacularly at that when Bay fails to grasp the fairly well-known fact that the same side of the moon always faces the earth (moon's rotation is tidally locked to earth). If Apollo 11 was in radio contact on the side facing us when they landed (which they were), then it is not possible for them to end up on the far side of the moon later. Sadly, the "Moviegoing Public" is so stupid that most probably won't know the difference. For me, it completely ruins any (slim) chance that I would want to see this movie.
-
I think I'm way past my quota of moon landing conspiracy stories (of whatever variety) thank you.
-
Michael Bay has made one semi-entertaining film, The Rock.
-
Dec. 10, 2010, 4:01 p.m. CST
Way to delete a shitload of negative posts, Beaks.
by Le Vicious Fishus
I see your authoritarian predilections are still waxing...
-
Let me edit that fifth paragraph for you Beaks. 'It also means that he's in the filmmaking business for the right reasons.......... and watched the entire movie surrounded by people who've helped make him a very rich man.' That's much better.
-
Michael Bay is as successful as he is because he takes big risks that nearly always pay off. Much like James Cameron. Taking the studio's $30 million for conversion purposes but diverting those funds into more real 3D camera time could have backfired but he pulled it off. This guy wants to truly entertain us and he deserves our respect.
-
Ah, who am I kidding? This movie will suck big bolshy yarblockos.
-
How about a cohesive story that doesn't look like it was written by a hyperactive 12 year old with ADD? At least he acknowledges the appalling last one.
-
I want this movie to be good too. I also want to spend a night with Megan Fox. Both are equally likely.
-
Always have. Always will. There's an integrity to Bay's uncompromising aesthetic that cannnot be valued enough. The fact that he's willing to put in as much forced will to accomplish his pictues instead of just sit back and pull a George Lucas speaks volumes. That Bay is technically capable of aping any filmmaker he chooses with unparalleled competency but yet still chooses to pursue his own path, damn the haters, says even more. He's obviously personally dedicated and invested to his genre even if it is meant for populous entertainment. Bay's commitment to vision is proof of a true artist as well as artisan. I believe he truely is expressing himself artistically in the meticulous imagery and crafted momentum he creates. I mean, is Michael Jackson not an artist because he made pop music? Or Norman Rockwell? Drew Struzan? Michelangelo? No, because their personal skill level, style and passion elevated them from mere panderers of popular taste to definers of it. Far too proficient to be denied. Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Oliver Stone, David Fincher and Tarsem Singh have all expressed admiration for Bay's prowess. What is it we all recognize that the glib haters cannot? Bay is a virtuoso filmmaking juggernaut. Often emulated never duplicated, nobody does it better.
-
because TF2 is totally not "too much" for me :)
-
well said, i totally agree
-
fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me. not falling for it ones more thanks.
-
What a fuckin' hack. Watching Bay try to sell himself over and over is quite hilarious. The guy just doesn't know how to make even a mediocre film, bottom line, he's better suited for music videos...and he knows it, that's why he gets so hostile. Bay is one of the biggest reasons we don't get to see GOOD films anymore. The studios know that all the kiddies and mouth-breathers love his 'splosions, and it makes them tons of money. Never confuse Bay with a real filmmaker, because he isn't. He's Ed Wood with a huge budget. But hell, at least Wood had passion, Bay lacks even this.
-
Dec. 10, 2010, 8:14 p.m. CST
beaks and michael bay together, conspiracy where are you
by Miyamoto_Musashi
we need a story here, Beaks loves watching rape, and I can see a story where Bay after snorting some coke of a thai midget is doing something to the Fox replacement and Shia with a large dildo that looks like a transformer, whilst beaks watches on sweating and drooling
-
The 2nd film was absolutely terrible. I don't have this odd fanboy hatred for Bay that seems so prevalent around here... but i don't particularly enjoy his movies either. I'll remain cautiously optimistic for this one...
-
Uwe Boll, Brett Ratner, David Goyer, Len Wiseman, Mark Steven Johnson, Paul W.S. Anderson, Roland Emmerich, Chris Columbus, Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Sommers, Joel Schumacher, Tim Story, Jonathan Mostow, Rob Cohen, GEORGE LUCAS, etc... And is in fact no worse than Zack Snyder or Joe Johnston. Yet none of these craptastic directors get NEAR the vitriol that Bay gets here. Curious...
-
/Cinematographer. And as Beaks stated, he's a fantastic action set-piece creator/choreographer... What he needs to do however, is CHALLENGE himself. He keeps going for the easy buck. He doesn't ever accept challenging material. That would be my biggest knock on the fella.
-
Bay fucked it up from the beginning... taking all the character out of the characters. Half the time, I had no idea who was on screen, and turns out it didn't matter.
-
While I'm sure you appreciate Michael Bay's globe-trotting to Egypt to stick John Turturro onto an ancient pyramid so he can remark on a CGI robot's clanking steel "testicles", viewers - like myself - see Bay's work as a workmanlike technique, not a film artist's craft. Bay is selling you a story, not telling you a story, by doing the the following: - cross-cutting mutiple moving camera coverage of the same subject so you stay interested while trying to keep-up ; - bumping up the image contrast and color saturation so the image has more punch ; - loud sound effects, especially of (items below) ; - guns, bullets, explosions, fire, particulate debris, speeding shiny cars, crashing cars, racing military planes and jets (i.e., US military toys - known in the affected areas as American WMDs) ; - yelled, terse dialogue, and lots of it ; - rock music on the score and/or bass-kicking ; - in the case of the "Transformers" franchise, a parade of CGI shiny objects breaking and re-assembling into many tiny moving bits ; - a near-complete lack of dramatic pacing, substituted by a monotone "stunning" of the viewer into submission through the running-time. Like advertising techniques that are used to keep people watching while the product name and identification is repeated over and over, Bay is selling the "Transformers" brand: toys, videos and all the other merch tie-ins. Yes, Bay is "better" at this than others and, yes, some people "hate on" him because he is successful at it. However, don't think for a minute his TECHNIQUE is anything more than that...unless he proves otherwise with a level of cinematic depth yet not seen.
-
While I'm sure you appreciate Michael Bay's globe-trotting to Egypt to stick John Turturro onto an ancient pyramid so he can remark on a CGI robot's clanking steel "testicles", viewers - like myself - see Bay's work as a workmanlike technique, not a film artist's craft. Bay is selling you a story, not telling you a story, by doing the the following: - cross-cutting mutiple moving camera coverage of the same subject so you stay interested while trying to keep-up ; - bumping up the image contrast and color saturation so the image has more punch ; - loud sound effects, especially of (items below) ; - guns, bullets, explosions, fire, particulate debris, speeding shiny cars, crashing cars, racing military planes and jets (i.e., US military toys - known in the affected areas as American WMDs) ; - yelled, terse dialogue, and lots of it ; - rock music on the score and/or bass-kicking ; - in the case of the "Transformers" franchise, a parade of CGI shiny objects breaking and re-assembling into many tiny moving bits ; - a near-complete lack of dramatic pacing, substituted by a monotone "stunning" of the viewer into submission through the running-time. Like advertising techniques that are used to keep people watching while the product name and identification is repeated over and over, Bay is selling the "Transformers" brand: toys, videos and all the other merch tie-ins. Yes, Bay is "better" at this than others and, yes, some people "hate on" him because he is successful at it. However, don't think for a minute his TECHNIQUE is anything more than that...unless he proves otherwise with a level of cinematic depth yet not seen.
-
Looks like the site has lost the "your talkback message has been sent" functionality. Fix, please! :-)
-
just look at the evidence. He fires Megan Fox and hires another hot model, NOT an actress, just a hot model. Shit Le Beef is still in it. The Dialogue is headed in the same direction. Bay is only talking about the 3D and the effects. No mention of working on the script to make it better. He's apologising for the previous movies. JEEZ what more do you need?!! This is called Formulaic Film Making. He's not going to change anything as he probably made a lot of money and that's that!
-
Did you notice you had no defense for Michael Bay or his commercial methods at all? I did. Now try watching a movie that's actually entertaining and see if you know the difference. That's my last short-n-sweet flame=troll-baited response for you...bye bye :-)
-
Talentless hack cunt who needs to understand that movie making is not just throwing $300m at the screen and then snorting drugs from a 3 year old boys naked arse as the money comes rushing in..... This twat has never had an original idea since he started making fucking movies.... even taking a seminal event in the U.S history and turning it into a love fest with all of the sexual drama of an episode of Balamory.... (a shit UK kids TV show for all of you uninitiated). But.... here's the rub...... you all know just how crap this steaming turd of an excuse for human life is...... and this has $350m US domestic written all over it, so blame yourselves for this mother fuckers success.
-
"This twat has never had an original idea since he started making fucking movies." You give Bay too much credit, since when have you begun referring to what Bay does as 'making movies.'? You ought to correct yourself and remove the continuous verb 'making' but retain 'fucking' because this is precisely what Bay is doing to motion pictures, he is not 'making' movies and is not a film maker. I even feel the word 'fucking' is inappropriate, given its depth to imply intimacy and love-making, no, I think a more suitable word to accurately describe Bay's, um, work, is raping. And this is not just your regular rapist, but one who easily resembles the rapist in 'A Serbian Film' - for the utterly, utterly deplorable things the rapists do in 'A Serbian Film' is somewhat comparable to what Bay does with film, and I type 'somewhat' because it is not entirely akin, that is to say the monstrosities committed by the characters in 'A Serbian Film' are still no where are near as disturbing and gut wrenching as those I have witnessed in a Bay feature.
-
I'm sure.
-
Explosions.<br>Loudness.<br> More explosions.<br> Chaos. <br> Loudness. <br> Huge fucking explosions. <br>Continent spanning blah blah blah.....<br> Michael Bays smug look<br> More explosions. <br><br> But it's all going to be different because you can now SEE everything that's exploding around you!!!! <br><br> I wish I had been there with the fucker as I would have done the world a favour and stabbed him in his fucking black heart!!!!!
-
for killing off Jazz in the first film!!!!
-
I saw the first one in theaters and actually really enjoyed the coming-of-age/boy-and-his-first-car story being woven into a giant SFX spectacle. But the 2nd film took any goodwill I had towards the franchise, and forcefully shoved it up my ass until I threw up. Terrible, messy fucking movie. That said, I am a person who enjoys his popcorn summer spectacle. I need to see at least one gigantic, blockbuster tentpole every single Summer, or else the Summer is lost. So I'd probably be lying if I said I wasn't going to be seeing this movie sometime down the road in July.
-
He's the same guy who compares Bay with Samuel Breckett. Beaks is the reason the very person (and american, by the way) who first told me about AICN gave up on this site and never returned.
-
How Michael Bay acesses fans reactions of his movies? First he test screens his movies by filling the audience room with retard morons who like his movies already. Then he knows that everybody loves his movies because his moronic fans delights in them. Step two: pay off a critic.
-
TRANSFORMERS are supposed to be a show for kids. Doen right it would look like THE INCREDIBLES. But Bay keeps missing the mark. He now wants to make it "serious". What? Pearl Harbor serious? This guy is completly clueless.
-
The script, however, was writen in an afternoon, and they never bothered to revise it afterwards. They must had used that "The Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman Script-O-Simulator Software". In terms of script, this movie will be like in any other Bay movie, a "that will do" type of script.
-
Dec. 13, 2010, 4:32 a.m. CST
Even if Trashfuckmers 3 is 10 times better then the first
by AsimovLives
it will still be a complete retard fucking piece of shit. I see many people here say as if only the second movie is the bad one. No, the first one was terrible as well. The second just mannaged what many though impossible: to be even worst then the first, a massive task in itself. Bay«s best movie by far is THE ISLAND, and that's still an horrible piece of retard crap. The man is beyond help. And if i was James Cameron and Bay come aroud calling me Jim, my reply would be "It's MISTER Cameron for you!".
-
They are not detractors, they are people who tell the truth.
-
You want a laugh, read the Gays For Bays coments about the wonderfulness of Mickey Bay. You'll get the best laughs since The League Of Gentlemen show stoped airing.
-
... "the evolving sensebilities of Michael Bay" in his The Island review? I once did an archeological digging and found that review, and i think it was Beaks who said that. I do remember i fell to the floor laughing after i read that. I could barely read the rest of the review.
-
I've heard rumor he was the big bad this time....Megatron was a gun in the originals and a jet and then a tanq in the last two, so what about Shockwave who was pretty much a purple gun? Purple cell phone tower maybe?
-
Dec. 13, 2010, 11:16 a.m. CST
"a fourteen-year-old's Four Loko-fueled vision of the robot apocalypse"
by Meadowe
I thinq "Four Loko" is or at least about to be taken off shelves...FDA says caffeine and alcohol together in one drinq make homer go something something. "Crazy?" "Don't mind if I do!"
-
Dec. 13, 2010, 11:16 a.m. CST
"a fourteen-year-old's Four Loko-fueled vision of the robot apocalypse"
by Meadowe
I thinq "Four Loko" is or at least about to be taken off shelves...FDA says caffeine and alcohol together in one drinq make homer go something something. "Crazy?" "Don't mind if I do!"
-
...and still thinks it has a touch of Amblin'-esque charm in places, I'm heartened at the idea that Bay is turning away from 'goofy shit'. Granted giant robots are goofy shit to start off with, but you don't have to add insult to injury. The second film is a terrible, terrible movie. The first is fairly light on its feet, even if it went too far down goofy shit road too many times. I hope this is worthwhile, I really do. I think it's a bit defeatist to wish for something to fail. I hope it's good, first.
-
...and still thinks it has a touch of Amblin'-esque charm in places, I'm heartened at the idea that Bay is turning away from 'goofy shit'. Granted giant robots are goofy shit to start off with, but you don't have to add insult to injury. The second film is a terrible, terrible movie. The first is fairly light on its feet, even if it went too far down goofy shit road too many times. I hope this is worthwhile, I really do. I think it's a bit defeatist to wish for something to fail. I hope it's good, first.
-
Apparently!
-
The "Never Say Never" song by The Fray that played when Megan Fox was wearing that leather jacket. And it sucked that old deceptiqon that defeqted died, I thought since optimus became superprime or whatever they would be able to save him....then again they didn't save Jazz in part one...
-
slip of the thumb.
-
This is the same shit repeated. It's history repeating itself. I have see all this befofe, then the second movie was about. It was the same shit. Bay saying the same thing, and the more gullible geeks going abouit with hopes in their hearts that this time Bay would nail it and make a better movie. It's the same shit again. Unbelievable! One would expect people to be wiser. But no, they aren't. If anything, they are going even dumber. Still beleiving any shit that liar Bay says. Still going mroe and more naive as the shit piles up. What will take for people to finally wise up to Michael Shit Bay? Wasn't fucking PEARL HARBOR and TRASHFUCKERS 2 enough? What more do they need? Who understands this shit?
-
News at 11.
-
I'd buy that for a dollar!
-
How goes it?
-
Hey pal, how are you? Not too bad myself, and you? Can you believe that people are actually expecting something good to come put of the latest Bay movie? People never learn.
-
All good, man--more or less. Michael Bay is to film directors what Milwaukee's Best is to beer. Me, I can't touch the stuff--while some philistines can't get enough of that swill.
-
You're comparing Bay's fans with drunkyards? You are absolutly right, they are alike.
-
Tastes like ass, but some crazy fucks can eat a quadrillion of them and still want more. Inexplicable.
-
the key line in the entire article. Bay will razzle and dazzle you in his editing room, but we dont care about that...Bay is already a proven shooter, he can shoot the shit out of a movie...whether its any good or a 200 million dollar abortion depends on the script. that key line kind of sums up the entire movie business at this points...scripts are an afterthought, a necessary evil to these guys.
-
he's a shooter...a very very good shooter, with an amazing eye, but that makes him more of a glorified cinematographer, than a born filmmaker. he's not a born storyteller which is what true filmmakers are. they can create wonderful, chaotic action sequences AND quiet dialogue scenes and have both of them put you on the edge of your seat, like Spielberg, Zemeckis, Kubrick, Jackson, Cameron, etc...Bay cannot do both...he's about as subtle as a demolition derby, he has one setting; "SLICKFASTINTENSE"...I can only imagine what someone like Neil Blomkamp or Paul Verhoven would have done with this franchise...probably would have been a shit ton better than what we got.
-
looking at each scene and figuring out the best way to express that scene to effectively tell the STORY...he ejaculates all over the page while listening to rock music, doodling storyboards and texting his next movie deal on his blackberry (like that assclown Brett Ratner who's on his cell phone during takes). Every scene in a Bay movie is a cum shot...he has no sense of pacing or dramatic storytelling ability...he shoots EVERY scene as if it's in the 3rd act of a huge action movie. I don't want to see Bay stretch himself and make a romantic comedy or heavy drama or political satire...and I know why he doesn't wanna do that either...because he knows his limitations and they are many, he knows he would embarrass himself. He's like the Floyd Gondoli character in Boogie Nights: "I'm not a complicated man. I like cinema. In particular I like to see people fuckin' on film. But I don't wanna win an oscar and I don't wanna reinvent the wheel. I like simple pleasures like butter in my ass, and lollipops in my mouth-that's just me, that's just something that I enjoy-call me crazy, call me a pervert...but there's one little thing I wanna do in this life and that is I wanna make a dollar and a cent in this business."
-
...I smell PLANT!!! Enough of this shit already! Part III will suck mightily.
-
You are too kind to Bay. Because Bay is not a good shooter. His movies are terrible looking, and his framing is ridiculous. He makes whole movie slook like poerfume commercials, regardles sof the story or setting. That's not good looking filmmaking, it's just stupid. And his overbearing use of close ups for stuff that doen't nee done, or this migrane inducing circular shots with serve no porpose whatsoever are not the product of a good shooter. It's the product of a clownass who doesn't understand the concept of proper composition for a given scene. Bay understands nothing about the real art and craftmanship of filmmaking. He knows technical stuff and that's it. He's the world's most glorified second unit director. He's a jobber who kissed the right asses and with ewn ego to rival mountains. That do not a filmmaker makes. Not evne in the look department his movies are winners. If anything, they are major losers. How people can still give this to Bay is a mystery for the ages. Bay is wholesome bad.
-
AICN going all plant on a given hack's movies is nothing new. Just check out any review of ABRAMS TREK posted in here, or any TRASHFUCKMERS 1 review that was not posted by Vern.
-
On a brighter note, did I tell you I recently re-watched ST TMP? Man, that film has aged WELL. Speaking of which, what's your take on the original TRON?
-
I really like TRON, it's a very charming movie, and for a Disney movie, it's remarkably adventurous in style and theme. But it was done at a time, the only time in disney history where they actually got a pair of balls and decided to make movies proper. Movies such as TRON and THE BLACK HOLE and DRAGONSLAYER. That Disney managed to make this 3 cool movies is suprising and unbelievable. As for ST:TMP, that movie has always been and will always be awesome. Only retards think otherwise. No, i'm not going to mince words on that regard.
Top Talkbacks
-
HERCULES ON THE RADIO!!
Learn What Ain’t It Cool’s TV Critic Thinks About The New WOLVERINE Trailer, Soderbergh’s CANDELABBRA, FURIOUS 6, HANGOVER III, EPIC, GAME OF THRONES, MAD MEN And More!! Listen And Call In LIVE Saturday 8pm PT/11pm ET!! -- 94 total posts 4 posts - New trailer for Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara's upcoming western, AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS!! -- 80 total posts 4 posts
- MAN OF STEEL TV Spot #6 - I give up, I'm just dying to see this thing! -- 196 total posts 2 posts
- Jim Jarmusch's vampire flick ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE gets picked up for U.S. distribution by Sony Pictures Classics!! -- 42 total posts 2 posts
- Capone believes that FAST & FURIOUS 6 is the best in a bizarre, crowded franchise!!! -- 138 total posts 2 posts
- The Friday Docback Revisits DOCTOR WHO Season 7!! A Fuller Review Of 'The Name of the Doctor,' And More!! -- 103 total posts 1 post
- Lance Henriksen On HANNIBAL!! Ruffalo On KIMMEL!! New WIPEOUT & ANGER!! The Premieres Of SAVE ME And HAVE TO GO!! AMERICAN BIBLE CHALLENGE And GOING TO HELL Finales!! Herc’s Thursday TV Talkback!! -- 55 total posts 1 post
- Harry dives into STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS' spoilers to reveal the truth behind the blockbuster we're seeing! -- 1507 total posts 1 post
- Tom Cruise Won’t Go Solo For MAN FROM UNCLE!! -- 138 total posts 1 post