Anybody who knows this writer, knows that I remain a skeptic and a harsh critic of Michael Bay; usually when I refer to him, I do so in quote marks. Example: Michael Bay seen “ directing” actors in this behind the scenes exclusive. Anybody who has watched TRANSFORMERS 2 will understand this; where story was shamelessly scrapped in favour of big budget smoke and mirrors, fight sequences and racial stereotyping to make cheap comedy. It was the day I asked if Hollywood, responsible for some of the greatest stories ever told, had died. Bay has been a chief in this army of creative death; “directing” some of the worst films ever to grace the silver screen. PEARL HARBOR for all its attempts, remains both a crass attempt at a war movie and a half-botched attempt at a love story and THE ISLAND is an essay on remaking a film without crediting it. See LOGANS RUN if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
In fact, I question whether Bay would know what to do with a script if it wasn’t filled with explosions, gunfights or chases but there’s also no denying that his films put a great many bottoms on a great many seats across the Box Office globe. Sometimes I ask if there was a script and it seems, with Bays latest statement about TRANSFORMERS 3, that the previous film was scripted in... wait for it... POST PRODUCTION.
This summer sees the release of the 3rd film in the Box Office busting TRANSFORMERS franchise, helmed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg and despite a near universal critical drubbing for TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, the third installment looks set to be bigger than ever and will reach its audience in eye-popping 3-D.
According to MovieWeb.com, Director Michael Bay has offered some further “ insights” into the film, giving fans a photo of Shia “ Indiana Jones Jnr” Laboeuf and Rosie Huntingdon Whiteley getting their hands dirty aboard a quite frankly MASSIVE engine. Bay, dubbed by former co-star Megan Fox, as a “ dictator” can also be seen in the picture, dishing out “direction” over his megaphone. So it’s likely that we can expect a character driven, introverted story set in the midst of the Transformers apocalypse then? Don’t bet on it...
In a statement that is truly bizaare, and unheard of, Bay has promised that the third film THE DARK OF THE MOON will be the best of the three and he openly stated that he believed THE REVENGE OF THE FALLEN to have been somewhat of a mess. Interesting that a Director feels he needs to insult his own ouvre in order to regain a semblance of credibility although to hear it is refreshing... for a few sick hours while I watched it I thought I had witnessed the death of Hollywood as a creative entity, as a storytelling entity of great skill and spectacle... instead it appears to have been a blip. Even if it’s been admitted... does that make it right? When Bay, Spielberg and their respective studios knew they were sitting on a narrative turkey the decision must have been made to release it anyway. Gone then are the days of quality but then it’s probably useless to think of Hollywood as anything other than a production machine; who’s engines are so enormous that they must keep turning. My question is though; do those running the engines not have a responsibility to tell great stories? To keep us interested? Yes it’s about selling popcorn but my god why not offer a little bit of intellect?
MovieWeb have quoted the following excerpt from the statement made by Bay regarding the release of DARK OF THE MOON:
“It was kind of a mess, wasn't it? Look, the movie had some good things in it and it was entertaining and it did very well, but it also failed in some key ways. I learned from it. And now with this we're going back to basics and I absolutely believe this is going to be a much better film than the second one. I'm still having fun. Look, we got burned on the last movie. The big thing was the writers' strike, it hurt the film and it made it hard on everybody. We had three weeks to get our story and, really, we were going into the movie without a script. It's tough to do that. It was too big of a movie. There were too many endings or too many things that felt like endings. There was so much animation [in the visual effects postproduction work], too, and we ran out of time. We used the schedule of the first movie for the second movie but on the second one way more labor was needed for the animation. And then it felt like we were writing the script in the edit room, trying to put together a story."
Surely nobody shoots without a script? Especially not without a good one; finding a story in post-production happens more often than you’d like to think but really? On a major Hollywood production this farce was allowed. Embarassing and I believe we, as the movie going public, deserve better from these individuals. Steven Spielberg is responsible for some of the best Hollywood films of the last quarter century (JURASSIC PARK, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) but I’m starting to wonder if “ the beard” has gotten a bit stale and finally succumbed to the temptation of “ blowing stuff up”= fun.
Surely if the 2007/2008 writers strike was such a problem they could have waited until it was over instead of fighting to hash out a half-assed storyline and frankly I don’t buy this excuse. The Jury (me) remains out on whether Bay can rescue this dying franchise but I’ve got sequel jitters like I’ve never had them before and with talk of major problems in the editing room once more, this time with 3-D conversion, I wonder if we’re just being put back on the conveyor belt with hopes of a great turnout no matter what the product.
TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is out in America on July 1st 2011 and stars Shia Laboeuf, Rosie Huntington- Whiteley, Julie White, Kevin Dunn, Josh Duhamel, Alan Tudyk, John Malkovich and Tyrese Gibson.
Photo originally published by LA TIMES, U.S.A. With thanks to MovieWeb.
Photo originally published by LA TIMES, U.S.A. With thanks to MovieWeb.
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