First off - my E3 article is STILL in the works. Apologies for it being late but I have a proverbial bin of articles to troll through before I sit down and write.
Until then, have a laugh at this article which claims that Michael Bay recycled footage from an earlier 'Transformers' film (wouldn't be #2, would it, Mikey??) to...well...finish the film without actually working on it? Who knows. What I CAN tell you is that despite some popular acclaim, Roger Ebert did NOT like the film and the reasons he cites not only confirm what I thought of the second movie (I enjoyed the first film, for the record) but also speaks to my worries about how the third would likely suffer the same fate.
Even more hilarious is this article discussing Bay's blind defence of 3D even though he can't make 3D films worth a damn. Having said that, if it weren't for 3D then no one would have likely bothered with 'Revenge of the Fallen' although we know that many unfortunate souls who did see it in 3D ended up vomiting on their dates long before an end to the film was in sight.
Bay's Transformers trilogy is living proof that sci-fi directors, particularly those using heavy CGI, need to step back and watch their films at normal playing speed (as supposed to frame by frame) to ensure their movies are actually watch-able by anyone not hopped to the gills on crack cocaine and Redbull.
The more we see from Michael Bay, the more I ask myself: Can this seriously be the same guy who directed 'The Rock' and 'Armageddon' all those years ago? My only conclusion is that 3D has distracted Bay from producing anything of actual substance. His recent filmography as a producer reads like a horror movie remake-trainwreck: "Texas Chainsaw: The Beginning", "Friday the 13th", "The Hitcher", "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (all within 3 years or so). Bloody heck, we haven't seen a run like that since Uwe Bol licked some brown acid and attempted to translate several Playstation games into feature films earning him the title: 'Germany's answer to Ed Wood.'
If someone reading this knows Michael, please ask him to punch himself in the nuts, sit down alone with some of his 1990's films for a weekend, forget the 3D and think about doing something that people actually want to see. I would declare that his next film is make-or-break time. Please Mike, for the love of God, don't make it 'Transformers 4.'
Last movie from Bay that I really enjoyed was The Rock. Everything after that is really nothing worth mentioning (and when you think about it, even The Rock is pushing it). Except perhaps Transformers, but I'll put that more on nostalgia than the movie itself.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm lucky that I haven't seen any of his "works " in 3D. And after reading your post, I think I never will.