So you're suggesting that Bay himself should go out of his way to learn to script writing... for the sake of making a Transformers movie.
To be honest, a lot of his other films would probably benefit from him learning such a skill. And this is Polycount. I think most of us are on the same page where self-improvement and training come into play. Yes, I do think it would benefit Mr. Bay to learn a little bit more about script writing. A director who can identify good scripts is probably a better director than one who can't. James Cameron wrote the scripts for The Terminator and Aliens. I'm not saying Micheal Bay should aspire to that, but he could at least put in a bit more effort along those lines.
Moreover, it is quite common for directors and even actors to make changes to the script on the fly, while shooting scenes. These sorts of changes are quite common. If the original script was lacking, they could have easily revised it while the movie was being shot. Dialog in particular is subject to these changes.
I believe you'll agree that the idea of a blockbuster movie setting out to appeal to the general audience is entirely reasonable.
Yes, I do agree. However, I don't think that is some manner of licence for making bad films. Pixar produces films every year that appeal to a general audience, they spend much less money doing it, and the movies the produce are far, far better than the Transformer films. And I'm pretty sure their movies cost less to produce than Transformers 2 did. If they can pull off that sort of achievement, why shouldn't we expect similar results from people with obscene amounts of funding?
That has little to do with Michael Bay. Man, you seem to believe Bay was personally responsible for every aspect of the production. You may want to have a look at the following link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/fullcredits
Someone has to be held responsible for the creative direction of a project like this. Someone has to be making the decisions. And as much of a collaboration as this might have been, you can't deny that Micheal Bay's fingerprints and signature style are all over it. The movie is easy to identify as a "Bay" film. With such an obvious creative influence from Bay, it is only natural that we look to him for the mistakes, as well as the overabundance of explosions, billowing smoke, slow motion shots, and shaky came during action sequences. He wasn't the only one to work on the movie, but he obviously made some of the decisions.
Where do you get the idea that I think it is, and that if I did, I would be interested in convincing you that it is?
Well, you seem to be defending the movie in general, and Micheal Bay in particular. I don't have as much of a problem with Bay as you may think. (from my arguments up to this point) I've actually enjoyed several of his films. But I think he was the wrong pick for a science-fiction film. No matter how you slice it, the Transformers will always be in the realm of science fiction. The entire franchise is about an extra-terrestrial species of giant robots.
As a genre, science fiction has always been about the exploration of ideas. Micheal Bay has always specialized in the production and direction of big-budget low-brow action films. When you combine his style of movie making with a franchise that is inherently related to science fiction, it just doesn't mesh.
To be honest, Bay would have been able to produce a better movie by ignoring the characters of the Transformers entirely. He attempted to do this to a certain degree by moving the focus off of the giant robots and onto the human characters. But for his style of film making, he didn't go far enough. He should have just portrayed the Transformers as a voiceless alien invasion, and then shot the entire movie from the perspective of the humans. The giant robots land on earth as part of their civil war, and humanity is caught in the middle. If the giant robots ever spoke it would be in machine language that humans couldn't understand.
It's Transformers. Was it ever going to be a critical success? Seriously, man, what are you even saying here?
This question is why The Dark Knight is relevant. 10 years ago, coming after the Schumacher films, you could write "Batman. Was it ever going to be a critical success?" and we'd all agree that it wasn't likely. And two years ago, we got a Batman film that received rave reviews and an Oscar win for an actor.
Transformers isn't a property that would have been easy to render a critical success from, but if a film about a man who dresses up as a bat to fight a man in clown makeup can do it, a film about robots that turn into cars doesn't strike me as any more improbable. Lord of the Rings makes a similar argument, though working from classic fiction rather than cartoons/comics does lower the bar.
Regardless of the result, the biggest gripe I have with the TF films is not that they failed to tell a good story but that they didn't even try. I'm not asking Bay to give me 'Optimus of Arabia', but I am asking him not to give me masturbation jokes and slapstick racial stereotypes.
"Shhhh giant robot!! My mommy is in the other room! No, Don't step on the family poodle you silly robot! Omg, it thinks pee is a superweapon!" Hilllarious. Nicholas Cage never would have let that in to the movie.
This argument is why The Dark Knight is relevant. 10 years ago, coming after the Schumacher films, you could write "Batman. Was it ever going to be a critical success?" and likely we'd all agree that it wasn't likely. And two years ago, we got a Batman film that received rave reviews and an Oscar win for an actor.
Transformers isn't a property that would have been easy to render a critical success from, but if a film about a man who dresses up as a bat to fight a man in clown makeup can do it, a film about robots that turn into cars doesn't strike me as any more improbable. Lord of the Rings makes a similar argument, though working from classic fiction rather than cartoons/comics does lower the bar.
Regardless of the result, the biggest gripe I have with the TF films is not that they failed to tell a good story but that they didn't even try. I'm not asking Bay to give me 'Optimus of Arabia', but I am asking him not to give me masturbation jokes and slapstick racial stereotypes.
nope as most of have a longer than five minute attention span and were brought up on the first two
I'm gonna dissagree and say, transformers is garbage. You can claim i am shallow, or have no tastes as an artist, but my opinion still stands. I know what i like and this isn't it.
You mean sit on your ass and wait for someone to write a tutorial, then when someone does, complain about the tutorial, then post a funny picture of a cat?
There are countless examples of critically acclaimed movies where the director had nothing to do with the script. What you're saying has no relevance . You're trying to blame the director for something that was not his responsibility in the first place.
So you're saying that Bay should not have spoken up to whoever WAS in charge after reading what script he was handed? Bay isn't some first-time director or no-name trying to prove himself. As you've already pointed out, he is a Hollywood success. If he thought the script was crap, he could have raised some objection, or insisted on a re-write, or even walked out on the film. This sort of thing happens all the time. With the way things happened, it seems like he either didn't read the script or didn't care if it was bad. I may not work in films or write screenplays, but I do at least take some degree of pride in my job, and value the craftsmanship that I put into it. I want to do it well, not just collect a paycheck.
You're telling one of the more experienced, successful and definitely hard-working directors in Hollywood to "put in a bit more effort". Why are you in games, you should be making blockbuster movies.
If someone gave me 200 million dollars I probably would.
They didn't want to make a movie with solid writing and good characterization? Why didn't you say so earlier? That makes everything better and completely justifies the production of "Revenge of the Fallen."
A silly amount of people make (often conflicting) decisions on such a project.
And isn't it a directors duty to work to make a good movie despite such conflicting decisions? Isn't it part of his job to juggle all of these disparate elements and various influences? Haven't other directors and producers managed to make decent big-budget action flicks while facing similar challenges? Are we to forgive the director of this film when he has clearly failed in that capacity?
Sorry, man, I don't want to be an ass, but you're discussing based on your own idealized theory of how movie making should work and it's clear that you have limited knowledge of the realities of production. Reality is far uglier and convoluted. I wish it wasn't, but it is. I don't know whether you work in games or are just a student, but if you haven't worked in games yet, you ought to check your expectations or you're going to be massively disappointed and disillusioned once you get a job.
I founded my own graphic design studio with a partner for two years fresh out of college. I don't know much about film production, but I am well acquainted with dealing with large projects where too many people have input. I know its not easy, but I always worked as hard as I could to deliver a quality product that would please the client and that I could personally be proud of. I currently have a job where I have almost no creative control, but I still work hard to make sure the final product is exceptional and works properly.
With Transformers, their specific vision was to make a retarded action movie for the masses.
And you actually like the idea of a trend like this continuing? It's okay for brain-dead, insulting, borderline racist action movies to be made as long as that was the film makers original intent?
I hope the retarded Transformers movies make a ton of money and cement the IP to the degree that as some point we can have a reboot that can be both entertaining AND intelligent. Because, if the retarded flicks failed, you could completely forget about ever seeing a more serious take on the subject matter.
It's not a matter of the movies being intelligent. We're not talking about making Transformers into "high" science-fiction or some manner of art-house film. We're just talking about raising the franchise from the pit it has been cast into. We're talking about getting back to sea level. Independence Day was a big stupid action movie. It is better than TF2. Die Hard was a big stupid action movie. It is better than TF2. Hell, even Die Hard 2 is better than TF2. I'm almost tempted to say that Aliens vs. Predator is better than TF2. (its actually not, but it is less insulting)
Richard; You quote me, but you're not addressing the ironic point I made (not a point I made ironically) or the theme of my post, which regards the weak origin of much of the Transformers bashing.
Whether someone (including myself) likes the movies or not is subjective and not something I'm interested in discussing, but I'll bring up three points, just to stir the shit and dare noobs to contradict me:
-Transformers is one of the absolute most successful film franchises in history.
-Michael Bay is one of the most successful film directors in history.
-Michael Bay is an extremely skilled film director.
And no one seems to remember just how awful the 1986 movie was, but in a funny self deprecating way. No, this is not an AMV... this is from the actual movie.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABGOXvERUiA[/ame]
Transformers was meant to be kinda stupid from the beginning. It was never meant to be too deep or too serious. It's entire point was to sell toys to children.
Transformers was meant to be kinda stupid from the beginning. It was never meant to be too deep or too serious. It's entire point was to sell toys to children.
And I still ask, how do leg humping, pot jokes, or giant robotic testicles help to sell toys to children? Frankly, anyone who took their kids to see TF2 was being an irresponsible parent. Imagine trying to explain the inexplicable attraction between Wheelie and Megan Fox's leg to your kids. Mommy, why is an alien robot from another planet so interested in a human girl? And what is it doing to her ankle?
As cheesy as the 1986 film was, it at least had some decent drama when Optimus Prime dies. And unlike TF2, he STAYS dead. (which gave his demise considerably greater gravity) As corny as the Weird-Al musical number was, I am able to overlook that. That movie was made for kids. TF2 was made for morons.
No, dear lord, it should be illegal to make movies that turn out the way they're intended to.
So, it's just fine to make horrible films, as long as you intended to make horrible films? It is unfair for me to criticize a creative effort just because it lived up to what the creator expected it to be?
Then the rest of your post you share your subjective opinions on a number of movies, which you should realize is wholly irrelevant unless you believe your personal opinion to be elevated in some way.
YES! Do you want me to admit that I'm an intellectual snob? That I genuinely believe my opinion is more relevant than the average consumer? That I am, in fact, a pretentious asshole?
No problem! I'm an elitist prick. I know it, and most of the people familiar with me know it as well. I believe I am smarter and more capable than most of the people around me, and that my opinion carries more weight because of that. This is true of most critics. And since I am critiquing someone else's effort, I'm not going to apologize for being pretentious. And I certainly won't apologize for being a little idealistic in wanting to hold other people to higher standards.
You say that I don't have the right. I would argue that if someone doesn't slap their hands over this sort of thing, lazy directors will just keep on doing this. If the market won't censure them, someone has to.
The script process, at least for the first movie, is well documented online, you might think to research what you're talking about so you won't look a fool, Will.
I'm not going to discuss movie production with you further, until you bother to educate yourself about real-world processes as opposed to just guessing.
Not only for the first! Inspired by you, Per, I had decided to make use of my exceptional Internet Investigation Skills and Google-Fu to discover the full story behind the script of Transformers 2. How surprised I was when I had found out that Michael Bay had indeed done everything in his super-human power to improve quality of the franchise; he had written one himself. You might think that it's just a joke made up by those fools from Cracked, but I assure you, a script of this brilliance couldn't have been made by any other but Michael Bay himself. It had taken me more than 20 seconds to come to this conclusion so I must be right.
Did I make any of you laugh? No? I tried
yeah, just chill out guys, the last thing you want to think of on your deathbed is that you spend more than 3 hours arguing over a Michael Bay film
Wow, you guys are still arguing about these films? Hell, I'm the biggest TF fan around and even I don't have the energy for that. You like the films or you don't.
I will chime in about the people ridiculing the 80s movie. It's very easy to make fun of it, due to the music, but cmon it was the 80s. But for its time, that movie was gorgeously animated. Killed off a lot of main characters in a very violent way too. I like the first Bay movie a lot, but the animated one was far more epic and entertaining and is still fun to watch today.
I'd have to say Uwe Boll's "In the Name of the King" was a better movie than transformers. At least an orc put himself into a catapult and let his buddies light him on fire in that movie.
I have to say. I recently saw the first film for the second time and I was shocked at how much they glamorized the US military for the first half hour. Now, during a time when the US were at war in areas of the Middle East, and those parts of the film are set in the Middle East, I thought it was a very sensitive area - and time - to be representing that subject in a mainstream blockbuster aimed at young adults/children. I couldn't help feeling a sense of propaganda. Very much "America, Fuck yeah!" (I'm not anti-American, I think it is a great country, I just think aspects of the media are poo and many follow it - please don't hate me). Thankfully the rest of the film then steered of course with all out robotic action, muscle cars, undercover secret government organisations, Area 51 style alien folklore and adolescent sexuality.
The original is a favourite of many young males I know, and I can't help feel that the representation of being in the US army is a bit too glamorized. I was a fanatic of the US and British military culture and technology as I child, so I can see know how powerful it's representation can be (don't get me wrong, I have full respect for the guys who put their lives on the line).
As long as the rest of the films stay away from Jerry Bruckheimer stylization of the military-all-action-glamour to young children, I will be OK if it's a success. Meh. Rant over.
After doing a little more research into the development of Transformers 2, I discovered that the writers' strike occurred not long after the three writers for the film had been hired. Micheal Bay knew the strike was coming, so he locked his writers in their hotel and insisted that they get cracking. They turned in a largely finished script the day before the writers' strike began.
Micheal Bay was left with a somewhat incomplete script, and thanks to the writers' strike that had just begun, he had no way of insisting on any re-writes or revisions by professional writers. This is why the plot of the film seemed cluttered and unpolished. In order to "complete" the script, Micheal Bay himself picked up a pen and worked on completing the movie. He added numerous jokes and characters to the film's script on his own.
Given this information, I will retract my previous statements. Micheal Bay is a good director. All of the actions described above are those of a solid director who is acting responsibly in order to make his film a quality product. I cannot fault the man for any of what happened, and had I been in his shoes, I would have behaved in exactly the same way. He was facing a difficult situation, and he did the only thing he could do. He rolled up his sleeves and tried to finish the script on his own.
The only problem is that Micheal Bay apparently isn't a good writer. Pretty much everything he added to the script made the movie worse. He was responsible for creating the "twins" and the numerous sequences that involve them. Most of the unnecessary and out-of-place gags were also his contribution. (midget border patrol) I strongly suspect that he also added Wheelie to the cast.
But that is all behind us now. It happened and there is no need to dwell on it further. Micheal Bay once again has the luxury of a writing staff, and seems quite determined to make the third installment entertaining. Here's hoping that Transformers 3 is worth going out to see. I am still going to wait for the reviews.
I just wish they'd stop putting out films in 3d.
I know that a film is 2d and I am quite happy with that. I do not wish for 'immersion' - I enjoy just watching and listening....and I thoroughly dislike wearing those stupid glasses.
Next I imagine they'll be bringing out 'smell-o-vision' again.
I wish they would spend more time on the story rather than the spectacle of stuff flying out of the screen at you. I'm really going to worry when it moves over to porn
Anyway, obviously just one bloke, and they won't listen, I could waffle on but I won't.
Trailer looked so so, Transformers 2 was meh, first was pretty groovy, this one I won't be rushing out to see.
Oh I know they aren't. Just hate all of the hype that goes with it, especially for something that isn't really that impressive, especially when its used as another way of masking a film with a rubbish story.
Not that I am trying to take away anything from the people that make it 3d... its just not truly that exciting - at least at the minute - its just a sales gimmic in my opinion
I know a lot of people think I talk a load of rubbish though
OK, now imagine that entire scene as an actual movie production, say Transformers: Whatever, for example. Michael Bay is Ed Harris answering to a bunch of suits who are desperately trying to find ways to make more money. Then, cue the RnD monkeys below him to actually figure out how to make robots work with the audience in the fastest, most conceivable way and have it cater to the largest group of people possible. Square pegs in round holes indeed.
With the film just 6 hours from release, (three if you are on the East coast) I think its time to necro this somewhat dated thread.
Early reviews indicate that this third installment isn't quite as offensive as the second movie, but is still a colossal turd. So basically, no surprises.
I'm suffering from some form of throat infection at the moment. (possibly nasal drainage) As such I won't be attending the midnight showing. Anyone who is please give us an appraisal of Micheal Bay's latest slow-motion train wreck.
I'll be at the theaters this weekend. I'm looking more forward to this, than I had the first one. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it looks like Bay took this one a little more seriously, and hopefully fewer dick jokes and cheese.
Replies
Moreover, it is quite common for directors and even actors to make changes to the script on the fly, while shooting scenes. These sorts of changes are quite common. If the original script was lacking, they could have easily revised it while the movie was being shot. Dialog in particular is subject to these changes.
Yes, I do agree. However, I don't think that is some manner of licence for making bad films. Pixar produces films every year that appeal to a general audience, they spend much less money doing it, and the movies the produce are far, far better than the Transformer films. And I'm pretty sure their movies cost less to produce than Transformers 2 did. If they can pull off that sort of achievement, why shouldn't we expect similar results from people with obscene amounts of funding?
Someone has to be held responsible for the creative direction of a project like this. Someone has to be making the decisions. And as much of a collaboration as this might have been, you can't deny that Micheal Bay's fingerprints and signature style are all over it. The movie is easy to identify as a "Bay" film. With such an obvious creative influence from Bay, it is only natural that we look to him for the mistakes, as well as the overabundance of explosions, billowing smoke, slow motion shots, and shaky came during action sequences. He wasn't the only one to work on the movie, but he obviously made some of the decisions.
Well, you seem to be defending the movie in general, and Micheal Bay in particular. I don't have as much of a problem with Bay as you may think. (from my arguments up to this point) I've actually enjoyed several of his films. But I think he was the wrong pick for a science-fiction film. No matter how you slice it, the Transformers will always be in the realm of science fiction. The entire franchise is about an extra-terrestrial species of giant robots.
As a genre, science fiction has always been about the exploration of ideas. Micheal Bay has always specialized in the production and direction of big-budget low-brow action films. When you combine his style of movie making with a franchise that is inherently related to science fiction, it just doesn't mesh.
To be honest, Bay would have been able to produce a better movie by ignoring the characters of the Transformers entirely. He attempted to do this to a certain degree by moving the focus off of the giant robots and onto the human characters. But for his style of film making, he didn't go far enough. He should have just portrayed the Transformers as a voiceless alien invasion, and then shot the entire movie from the perspective of the humans. The giant robots land on earth as part of their civil war, and humanity is caught in the middle. If the giant robots ever spoke it would be in machine language that humans couldn't understand.
Replace Shia with nick cage and megan fox with sean connery, and transformers would be pretty awesome too.
mmmm sean connery in booty shorts...
Only if they do a slow motion shot with his junk bouncing around, while shit explodes
This question is why The Dark Knight is relevant. 10 years ago, coming after the Schumacher films, you could write "Batman. Was it ever going to be a critical success?" and we'd all agree that it wasn't likely. And two years ago, we got a Batman film that received rave reviews and an Oscar win for an actor.
Transformers isn't a property that would have been easy to render a critical success from, but if a film about a man who dresses up as a bat to fight a man in clown makeup can do it, a film about robots that turn into cars doesn't strike me as any more improbable. Lord of the Rings makes a similar argument, though working from classic fiction rather than cartoons/comics does lower the bar.
Regardless of the result, the biggest gripe I have with the TF films is not that they failed to tell a good story but that they didn't even try. I'm not asking Bay to give me 'Optimus of Arabia', but I am asking him not to give me masturbation jokes and slapstick racial stereotypes.
nope as most of have a longer than five minute attention span and were brought up on the first two
you and I have a drastically different interpretation of Nicholas Cage
That is all.
This!
More for the sparkly-hip-hop-3D-Wow!-generation.
So you're saying that Bay should not have spoken up to whoever WAS in charge after reading what script he was handed? Bay isn't some first-time director or no-name trying to prove himself. As you've already pointed out, he is a Hollywood success. If he thought the script was crap, he could have raised some objection, or insisted on a re-write, or even walked out on the film. This sort of thing happens all the time. With the way things happened, it seems like he either didn't read the script or didn't care if it was bad. I may not work in films or write screenplays, but I do at least take some degree of pride in my job, and value the craftsmanship that I put into it. I want to do it well, not just collect a paycheck.
If someone gave me 200 million dollars I probably would.
They didn't want to make a movie with solid writing and good characterization? Why didn't you say so earlier? That makes everything better and completely justifies the production of "Revenge of the Fallen."
And isn't it a directors duty to work to make a good movie despite such conflicting decisions? Isn't it part of his job to juggle all of these disparate elements and various influences? Haven't other directors and producers managed to make decent big-budget action flicks while facing similar challenges? Are we to forgive the director of this film when he has clearly failed in that capacity?
I founded my own graphic design studio with a partner for two years fresh out of college. I don't know much about film production, but I am well acquainted with dealing with large projects where too many people have input. I know its not easy, but I always worked as hard as I could to deliver a quality product that would please the client and that I could personally be proud of. I currently have a job where I have almost no creative control, but I still work hard to make sure the final product is exceptional and works properly.
Yeah, trolling.
And you actually like the idea of a trend like this continuing? It's okay for brain-dead, insulting, borderline racist action movies to be made as long as that was the film makers original intent?
It's not a matter of the movies being intelligent. We're not talking about making Transformers into "high" science-fiction or some manner of art-house film. We're just talking about raising the franchise from the pit it has been cast into. We're talking about getting back to sea level. Independence Day was a big stupid action movie. It is better than TF2. Die Hard was a big stupid action movie. It is better than TF2. Hell, even Die Hard 2 is better than TF2. I'm almost tempted to say that Aliens vs. Predator is better than TF2. (its actually not, but it is less insulting)
?
And no one seems to remember just how awful the 1986 movie was, but in a funny self deprecating way. No, this is not an AMV... this is from the actual movie.
[ame]
Transformers was meant to be kinda stupid from the beginning. It was never meant to be too deep or too serious. It's entire point was to sell toys to children.
As cheesy as the 1986 film was, it at least had some decent drama when Optimus Prime dies. And unlike TF2, he STAYS dead. (which gave his demise considerably greater gravity) As corny as the Weird-Al musical number was, I am able to overlook that. That movie was made for kids. TF2 was made for morons.
[ame]
and this from lion haha
[ame]
YES! Do you want me to admit that I'm an intellectual snob? That I genuinely believe my opinion is more relevant than the average consumer? That I am, in fact, a pretentious asshole?
No problem! I'm an elitist prick. I know it, and most of the people familiar with me know it as well. I believe I am smarter and more capable than most of the people around me, and that my opinion carries more weight because of that. This is true of most critics. And since I am critiquing someone else's effort, I'm not going to apologize for being pretentious. And I certainly won't apologize for being a little idealistic in wanting to hold other people to higher standards.
You say that I don't have the right. I would argue that if someone doesn't slap their hands over this sort of thing, lazy directors will just keep on doing this. If the market won't censure them, someone has to.
Not only for the first! Inspired by you, Per, I had decided to make use of my exceptional Internet Investigation Skills and Google-Fu to discover the full story behind the script of Transformers 2. How surprised I was when I had found out that Michael Bay had indeed done everything in his super-human power to improve quality of the franchise; he had written one himself. You might think that it's just a joke made up by those fools from Cracked, but I assure you, a script of this brilliance couldn't have been made by any other but Michael Bay himself. It had taken me more than 20 seconds to come to this conclusion so I must be right.
Did I make any of you laugh? No? I tried
yeah, just chill out guys, the last thing you want to think of on your deathbed is that you spend more than 3 hours arguing over a Michael Bay film
I will chime in about the people ridiculing the 80s movie. It's very easy to make fun of it, due to the music, but cmon it was the 80s. But for its time, that movie was gorgeously animated. Killed off a lot of main characters in a very violent way too. I like the first Bay movie a lot, but the animated one was far more epic and entertaining and is still fun to watch today.
I think I missed my calling as a Photoshop retouch guy.
Dude. He said Nicolas Cage, not Lt. Data :S
Looks like an NPC from Fallout.
The original is a favourite of many young males I know, and I can't help feel that the representation of being in the US army is a bit too glamorized. I was a fanatic of the US and British military culture and technology as I child, so I can see know how powerful it's representation can be (don't get me wrong, I have full respect for the guys who put their lives on the line).
As long as the rest of the films stay away from Jerry Bruckheimer stylization of the military-all-action-glamour to young children, I will be OK if it's a success. Meh. Rant over.
I do apologize, it was a picture of Nic Cage but he got a bit mangled in the process
I was just going to leave this alone. Oh well.
After doing a little more research into the development of Transformers 2, I discovered that the writers' strike occurred not long after the three writers for the film had been hired. Micheal Bay knew the strike was coming, so he locked his writers in their hotel and insisted that they get cracking. They turned in a largely finished script the day before the writers' strike began.
Micheal Bay was left with a somewhat incomplete script, and thanks to the writers' strike that had just begun, he had no way of insisting on any re-writes or revisions by professional writers. This is why the plot of the film seemed cluttered and unpolished. In order to "complete" the script, Micheal Bay himself picked up a pen and worked on completing the movie. He added numerous jokes and characters to the film's script on his own.
Given this information, I will retract my previous statements. Micheal Bay is a good director. All of the actions described above are those of a solid director who is acting responsibly in order to make his film a quality product. I cannot fault the man for any of what happened, and had I been in his shoes, I would have behaved in exactly the same way. He was facing a difficult situation, and he did the only thing he could do. He rolled up his sleeves and tried to finish the script on his own.
The only problem is that Micheal Bay apparently isn't a good writer. Pretty much everything he added to the script made the movie worse. He was responsible for creating the "twins" and the numerous sequences that involve them. Most of the unnecessary and out-of-place gags were also his contribution. (midget border patrol) I strongly suspect that he also added Wheelie to the cast.
But that is all behind us now. It happened and there is no need to dwell on it further. Micheal Bay once again has the luxury of a writing staff, and seems quite determined to make the third installment entertaining. Here's hoping that Transformers 3 is worth going out to see. I am still going to wait for the reviews.
[ame]
I know that a film is 2d and I am quite happy with that. I do not wish for 'immersion' - I enjoy just watching and listening....and I thoroughly dislike wearing those stupid glasses.
Next I imagine they'll be bringing out 'smell-o-vision' again.
I wish they would spend more time on the story rather than the spectacle of stuff flying out of the screen at you. I'm really going to worry when it moves over to porn
Anyway, obviously just one bloke, and they won't listen, I could waffle on but I won't.
Trailer looked so so, Transformers 2 was meh, first was pretty groovy, this one I won't be rushing out to see.
Not that I am trying to take away anything from the people that make it 3d... its just not truly that exciting - at least at the minute - its just a sales gimmic in my opinion
I know a lot of people think I talk a load of rubbish though
From an artist/idealist standpoint, these films are shit.
From a making money standpoint, these films are the shit, yo!
OK OK, look at this clip from apollo 13 entitled "let's build a filter", [ame]
OK, now imagine that entire scene as an actual movie production, say Transformers: Whatever, for example. Michael Bay is Ed Harris answering to a bunch of suits who are desperately trying to find ways to make more money. Then, cue the RnD monkeys below him to actually figure out how to make robots work with the audience in the fastest, most conceivable way and have it cater to the largest group of people possible. Square pegs in round holes indeed.
He does a good job methinks.
Early reviews indicate that this third installment isn't quite as offensive as the second movie, but is still a colossal turd. So basically, no surprises.
I'm suffering from some form of throat infection at the moment. (possibly nasal drainage) As such I won't be attending the midnight showing. Anyone who is please give us an appraisal of Micheal Bay's latest slow-motion train wreck.