Michael Bay (Commentary)

Who is the worst film director in Hollywood? For me it’s this guy. The reason he’s the worst for me is because he should be one of the elite directors in Hollywood, he has the talent to be making Oscar nominated films. His gifts for visual action and composition are beautiful, most of the time. Yet all of that talent is wasted on rushed, badly written scripts meant to generate big bucks by attracting 14 year olds to the theater. He’s certainly successful at what he does. There’s no debate there. But none of what he makes will stand the test of time. No one will be watching his films fifty years from now, unless it’s to laugh at what audiences found entertaining back in the 2000s. For me this is sad. For a guy with that much clout, he could hire the best of the best in screenwriting and be making classics. Yet I don’t think he’s interested in that. He just wants to blow things up, degrade women, celebrate offensive and unwitty buffoonery and make as much money as possible. I guess he’ll go to his grave with a big smile and a pocket full of coin but how does that benefit society? What is he going to leave for future generations? Maybe he’ll grow up someday. Maybe he’ll want to prove all this critics wrong and make a great film someday (I’m hoping he does, I really do). But until then he’s the worse director out there. Now for all his fans out there, it’s time to clobber me. I’ll admit that the last film of his I saw was Transformers. I tried to watch the second one but gave up after ten minutes. I haven’t seen Transformers 3 or Pain & Gain and I will not be seeing the next Transformers mess (the trailer of which inspired me to write this blog). How is it I can measure a man without seeing all of his work? I answer that by looking at the reviews he receives which are mostly bad to awful. I also have seen many of his previous other films (though I wish I hadn’t). Bad Boys was mildly entertaining but I saw it when I was a teenager so of course I was going to enjoy it somewhat, I was his target audience. The Rock is his best film. I’ll give him that as a success. Armageddon starts off well but ends into a dreadful melodramatic disaster, The Island starts off pretty good but quickly turns into a mediocre offering. Pearl Harbor was offensively bad and for an historical event that deserved so much more. I haven’t seen Bad Boys II (because I didn’t want to see a sequel to an average action film). Then there are the trailers for his films. Transformers 4: Age of Extinction for example looks like a face plant into visual effect manure. Why are these robots defending us still? If I’m in the mood for a headache I’ll go see it. Ultimately I am begging Mr. Bay to make a movie for everyone. Make a film that empowers teenage girls instead of making them feel they have to be second fiddle to the opposite gender. Make a movie that inspires humanity and stands the test of time. It’ll make you feel pretty good, Mr. Bay. And guess what; you’ll actually make even more money.