Why do people hate Michael Bay so much?
- Thread starter Richard J. Johnson
- Start date
dory_breaux
Todd Wannabe
Dude Michale Bay will kick yalls asses any day of the week.
DC
Cinematographiliac
Yes, his eagerness to be doing that to his crew all the time, is most of the reason he's so unpleasant.
HorseFilms
Look ma no hands
Bring him on. I'll kick his pansy ass blindfolded. :beer:
MattinSTL
Sound Modulator
This just made me really sad... for what might have been.:embarasse
That's his rep. Michael Mann is supposedly no picnic either.
But, that doesn't really matter at the end of the day and doesn't have any bearing on the topic unless you're one of the .1% that has to work with the guy.
I agree with all the stuff Batutta said--Bay's product is pretty much lowest common denominator stuff. I'm not a Bay basher though, check your brain at the door and meet his movies on their own terms and you'll be fine.
MM is very demanding, and doesn't look kindly on fools or their bullshit, but he is head, shoulders, chest, abdomen and groin above Bay.
He can be hell on department heads and senior staff, but he knows how to treat his crew properly.
Bay behaves as though the crew is there to be his collective (usually metaphorical) punching bag.
And, Mann actually puts together good movies. That counts for something, too.
I hate his movies because everything is massaged to the extreme. He is always overusing cliches: golden hour, slow motion, backlit american flags, etc. Every shot is plussed to the nth degree. Now I know you're saying "What's wrong with wanting to make things perfect?'. Nothing. I just feel like I'm being manipulated when I watch his movies, like it is a 2 hour Superbowl ad. Let a little realism happen Michael. You don't have to hammer your audience over the head continuously. Not EVERY shot has to be done at sunset, with the camera moving constantly at the end of a TechnoCrane. He's got a great eye, but it's exhausting watching these obvious cliches over and over: the Norman Rockwell freckled 1950's youngster, running through a golden field of wheat under a blue sky, his hand windmill turning in slow motion as the camera does 720 degrees of rotation around him.
Jared Meyer
Veteran
That's actually a great summary of Bay's style. Nice.
I agree. Good summary. Esp in that it implies that Bay could probably make good movies if he didn't always choose to go low road, lowbrow, and high exploitation.
adkimery
Veteran
But as another poster said, there are good, stand out action movies (I'd probably never get tired of watching Die Hard with a Vengeance). Personally I think The Rock and the first Bad Boys are fun flix. Everything after though is just, ugh... I didn't see The Island though and the only good thing about Transformers was the fact that I didn't have to pay to go see it. Bay has become a cliche of himself. He does the same shtick over and over again and, for variation, he'll do the same schtick x2.
For example, in the desert fight scene early in Transformers when they called in back-up the choppers had this huge, melo-dramatic, silhouetted at golden hour take off montage even though the fight was taking in the middle of the afternoon. It didn't fit the visual style, or continuity, of the scene but, hey, there it was anyway. It's like serving up a meal of steak and cookies. Yeah, people like steak and people like cookies. But that doesn't mean steak w/a side of cookies is a good meal.
-A
KyleProhaska
Veteran
Well Transformers was the most fun I have had in a theater in a long time. His films are fun to watch, that I do know. A actually like all his films in one way or another. Pearl Harbor for instance, I LOVE the attack sequence. So many of the shots in that are incredible.
Same goes for most of his films, there are always some shots in there that are worth watching over and over. The style I do like and he does it in each film but thats him I guess...he doesn't change his style. So if you hated it from Day 1, your going to hate all his films from today on...
I understand that people don't like him, his films, etc. but his films are fun to watch. Sometimes I don't want a film you have to think much during, I want a visual in your face roller-coaster. Thats not always bad.
I know for a fact the sole reason I went to go see Transformers was because the shot of the scorpion coming out of the sand. That shot had me watching the trailer many times over...
Meh, I don't mind him. No grudges here.
Same goes for most of his films, there are always some shots in there that are worth watching over and over. The style I do like and he does it in each film but thats him I guess...he doesn't change his style. So if you hated it from Day 1, your going to hate all his films from today on...
I understand that people don't like him, his films, etc. but his films are fun to watch. Sometimes I don't want a film you have to think much during, I want a visual in your face roller-coaster. Thats not always bad.
I know for a fact the sole reason I went to go see Transformers was because the shot of the scorpion coming out of the sand. That shot had me watching the trailer many times over...
Meh, I don't mind him. No grudges here.
He's a terrible director. Plain and simple. If someone who's studied film can't see that, then they need to keep studying. He doesn't understand story, he doesn't direct actors, his grasp on humor is awful (Yes, "my bad" is one of the worst summer movie lines in history). The reason he's popular is because he makes a great trailer. He obviously knows how to light and frame a shot - or at least his D.P. does - (the shot in Pearl Harbor where the kids are playing baseball and the Japanese planes fly by is amazing) and if you put enough of those shots in a trailer, the movie looks great. So everybody goes to see it.
Not coincidentally, The Island, his worst trailer, resulted in his worst box office.
oh, and here's my review of last year's worst movie: Transformers... http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=102494&highlight=transformers&page=5
Not coincidentally, The Island, his worst trailer, resulted in his worst box office.
oh, and here's my review of last year's worst movie: Transformers... http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=102494&highlight=transformers&page=5
Batutta
Major Contributor
<----- My reaction.
I think this is all true.
Although it's also true that anyone who has studied nutrition, knows that twinkies and coke are crap, too, yet once in a while I think a lot of people find themselves in the mood to eat a twinkie, or drink some coke...
Jason Adams
Section Moderator
Bay is to film what boy bands and pop stars are to music. They will always have a place in the industry because they speak to our simplest human reactions, and much as we AS WE FILM MAKERS deny it. This is want most of middle America wants out of a motion picture.
they want
-unlikely hero
-Hot Chick
-Impossible conflict
-explosions
-all the CGI you can cram in the frame
They want to go from helicopter title sequence to sunset kiss in 90 minutes or less. Without having to think so they can eat their popcorn and candy.
I think the peoples anger is not really at Mr. Bay it is at the American consumer for loving it, buying it and then buying the sequel.
So I guess what I a saying is don't hate the player hate the game.
they want
-unlikely hero
-Hot Chick
-Impossible conflict
-explosions
-all the CGI you can cram in the frame
They want to go from helicopter title sequence to sunset kiss in 90 minutes or less. Without having to think so they can eat their popcorn and candy.
I think the peoples anger is not really at Mr. Bay it is at the American consumer for loving it, buying it and then buying the sequel.
So I guess what I a saying is don't hate the player hate the game.
Trailers don't do box office. There's more to it than that. The movies themselves are entertaining--like it or not, a lot of people like his movies.
A lot of historians are saying GW Bush is the worst president in American history, but that assessment didn't keep millions of people from voting for him. So Bay is sort the GW Bush of Hollywood.