Image via Complex Original
What’s easier than hating on Michael Bay? Hooking up with Megan Fox while on one of his sets, perhaps. But, really, throwing verbal darts at the hugely successful blockbuster director has become commonplace amongst snooty critics and cynical filmgoers.
Not that the familiar slights against Bay’s movies are without merit; since debuting with the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence buddy cop action flick Bad Boys way back in 1995, the notoriously demanding and cold-blooded filmmaker has cluttered his expensive popcorn films—The Rock, Armageddon, Transformers, and others—with excessive amounts of explosions, superfluous shots of hot women’s boobs and booties, supercharged violence, and forced “emotional” scenes usually underscored by Top 40 hard rock hits.
Granted, a couple of Bay’s films have completely sucked (i.e., Pearl Harbor and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen), but, for the most part, we here at Complex aren’t afraid to admit that we’re suckers for the guy’s over-the-top cinema. And with his latest CGI showcase, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, currently wowing audiences through its inarguably incredible effects and roaring action sequences, the time is right for some pro-Bay outcry. Thus, we’re here to counter the ongoing contempt for film’s most outlandish content provider with Eight Reasons Why You Should Love Michael Bay.
He Could Very Well Save 3D.
8. He could very well save 3D technology from an early grave, all by himself.
Ever since James Cameron’s Avatar wowed audiences in 3D, breaking damn near every box office record known to man, Hollywood’s producers and deal-makers have been obsessed with giving movies three-dimensions. Practically every flick made for more than $40 million has been released in the format, much to the growing chagrin of ripped-off ticket-buyers and critics who constantly look for new ways to bust blockbuster filmmakers’ balls.
And, after having seen the awful post-conversions and useless 3D of pics like Clash Of The Titans, The Last Airbender, and My Soul To Take, we’re just as ready to see 3D die off as any art-house purist.
Bay, on the other hand, isn’t about to let a format tailor-made for his brand of films become an abandoned tactic. Much of the scattered praise being dropped upon Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is centered on the movie’s genuinely awesome usage of 3D, namely in unbridled fashion throughout Dark Of The Moon’s relentless action blowout of a final act. Now, thanks to Bay’s masterful handling of the medium, bloggers and journalists alike are wondering if he’s the savior of 3D. If he’s not, then Dark Of The Moon should at least become the new blueprint.
He First Directed A "Playboy" Video Centerfold
7. His first non-music-video directorial effort was a Playboy Video Centerfold.
Often, successful filmmakers reflect upon their early, pre-big-studio days of independence, when they hustled throughout the film festival circuit to generate buzz for their $500,000 intimate dramas. Unsurprisingly, Bay has no such background; before he broke through with his 1995 directorial debut Bad Boys, the music video veteran (with popular clips for Aerosmith and Meat Loaf to his credit) made his first move toward longer-form features with a Playboy Video Centerfold for nudie model Kerri Kendall.
Bay receives a lot of guff for his unsubtle objectification of sexy ladies in his movies, from the gratuitous shots of Megan Fox’s cleavage in Transformers to the way he follows inches behind Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s ass, clad in teeny panties, in this weekend’s threequel. Well, come to find out that it’s not just a perverted trick used to lure sex-crazed boys into theaters—Bay’s first big look was all about smutty pleasures. Meaning, he’s only doing what comes natural.
He, Unlike Most Filmmakers, Has A Distinct Style
6. Not many filmmakers have styles that are distinctly their own, but Bay does.
If directors could choose one term they wish journalists could use to describe them in articles, it’s most likely “Academy Award winner”; coming in at a close second, though, is probably “auteur,” the word used to label a filmmaker whose movies are instantly identifiable as his or her own. Films during which, within minutes, a viewer who has never heard of IMDB can stop and say, “Oh, this is a so-and-so movie!” Obviously, that’s much more respectable than filmmakers whose flicks are interchangeable, generic copycats of some more successful directors’ box office hits.
For all of the hate that Bay receives due to his routine overuse of lavishly photographed explosions, slo-mo, and more lavishly photographed explosions, it’s precisely that superficial trickery that makes Bay one of the few true auteurs working in Hollywood today. Hate his movies or not, there’s no denying that a Michael Bay film is easily recognizable as such. Just go on YouTube and sample the dozens of homemade parodies in which mundane actions are given “Directed by Michael Bay” spins, such as the above clip, titled “Michael Bay eating a bowl of cereal.”
Though the point of videos like this one is to lampoon the guy’s excessive style, chances are Bay himself would applaud; it’s better to get clowned for having a singular approach to moviemaking than to just be another one of the hundred directors working anonymously.
Even His Lingerie Commercials Are High-Octane
5. Even the lingerie commercials he directs are high-octane.
The marketing department at Victoria’s Secret’s corporate headquarters knows exactly what they’re doing. Back in 2009, the company decided to shake their commercial game up, injecting adrenaline into the kinds of TV spots that generally show lingerie-clad hotties walking around posh apartment in slow-motion, with a random track off of Enya’s Greatest Hits. And how does a multi-billion dollar entity let loose and sell some underwear as if it were Mountain Dew? By hiring veteran commercial director Bay, of course.
Vickie’s Secret has employed the filmmaker multiple times, but their collaboration in ’09, released in time for the Christmas rush, remains Bay’s greatest achievement for small screen advertising consumption. With booming rock playing on full blast, Bay ogled—with his camera, of course—Victoria’s Secret’s best models, including a then-unknown Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, in wide open deserts, in front of explosions, and in those familiar posh apartments seen in traditional undies spots; only, in Bay’s vision, the models play extreme rules pool and throw daggers at one another for fun.
How does this all sell lingerie? Fuck if we know; nonetheless, we’re buying whatever Bay and Victoria’s Secret are selling. Which, if you give it a second’s worth of thought, is a two-for-one deal of tits and ass.
He's Not Afraid To Admit His Mistakes
4. He’s not afraid to admit his mistakes.
No stranger to critical hatred, Bay endured the worst reviews of his 16-year career back in 2009, when the sequel Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen received a vicious drubbing on its way to more than $400 million earned domestically; clearly, Bay and company had little reason to give two shits about bad reviews in light of such a box office slaughter. But, being the standup guy that he is, Bay didn’t skirt around Revenge Of The Fallen’s inferiority; in fact, he slammed it himself.
Speaking to Empire earlier this year, the Transformers shotcaller fessed up about the film’s quality, saying, “We made some mistakes… The real fault with [Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen] was that we ran into a mystical world. When I look back at it, it was crap.” Continuing on about the script, he admitted, “I was prepping a movie for 14 months where I only had 14 pages of some idea of what the movie was… It’s a BS way to make a movie.”
It’s rare for filmmakers to bash their own movies, so you’ve got to admire the man’s candor. Though, it’s easy to diss your own work after it has made $400 mil. And Bay still hasn’t apologized for the blatantly racist Transformers 'bots Mudflap and Skids, who shucked and jived like a modern-day, Hasbro version of Amos ‘n’ Andy. Oh, well—at least he had the balls to call his own flick “crap.” We’re still waiting for similar quips from Paul W.S. Anderson, Brett Ratner, Uwe Boll, Roland Emmerich, Wes Craven…. You get the point.
He Casts "Transformers" Movies Like A Horny Teenage Boy
3. He casts his Transformers movies like a horny teenage boy.
With Steven Spielberg’s backing and a foolproof summer blockbuster makeup, 2007’s Transformers must have attracted a surplus of hot young actresses to audition for the part of Shia LaBeouf’s love interest. Not concerned with such things as acting chops, Bay took a much sleazier approach to the process: Discover the sexiest piece of ass he could find, give her the part, and shoot the newbie’s legs, breasts, and midriff with little restraint. He found his girl in Megan Fox, who’d previously appeared in Bay’s Bad Boys II as “Bikini Kid Under Waterfall.” In Transformers, she was upgraded to “Smokin’ Hot Object Of Sex Appeal Without Character Development.”
After a few on-set tiffs led Fox to call Bay “Hitler” in an interview, the director’s go-to girl toy was swiftly ostracized from the Transformers franchise. So what he did he do? Learn from the drama and opt for a Jennifer Lawrence type as her replacement? Not at all—Michael Bay doesn’t have time for such loftiness. Sticking to his frat-boy sensibilities, he once again searched far and wide for the sexiest girl available despite acting abilities, limiting the search to three hot blonde frontrunners: Brooklyn Decker (a busty Sports Illustrated model), Sarah Wright (a fashion model turned actress), and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (a Victoria’s Secret model).
As our June/July 2011 cover acknowledged, Bay went with Huntington-Whiteley, a lingerie princess whose only previous “acting” experience came in a Bay-directed Victoria’s Secret commercial. The man certainly knows T&A potential when he sees it.
Hollywood's Most Powerful People Respect The Hell Out Of Him
2. The most powerful people in Hollywood respect the hell out of him.
Sure, armchair pundits and high-horsed critics can’t stand either Bay or his movies, but that hasn’t stopped the industry’s biggest names from making their admiration for the man widely known. Steven Spielberg, for example, has produced all of Bay’s Transformers flicks, entrusting the good name of his Dreamworks production company and a surefire toy-to-film franchise to one of cinema’s most hated dudes.
And then there’s Christopher Nolan, who, in addition to directing game-changers like The Dark Knight and Inception, loves to watch Michael Bay’s work. Let’s even go one step further: James Cameron, the force behind all-time box office champs Titanic and Avatar, not to mention film’s least humble participant, openly admitted to being in awe of Bay’s Transformers: Dark Of The Moon direction, as seen and heard in the above video.
Who do you think has the more important opinion about a director’s merits: An uptight critic who probably wishes he or she could make movies his or herself, or James “King of the World” Cameron? Case closed.
He Doesn't Care If You Hate Him, Anyway
1. He doesn't care if you hate him, anyway.
Michael Bay’s career has been defined by two things: a blockbuster status that’s repeatedly proven to attract audiences in droves, and a critical whipping boy status that has turned his name into a punchline of sorts. Take a guess which legacy he cares most about.
Nothing about his movies has changed since 1995’s Bad Boys, an auspicious debut stuffed with stylish action, snappy humor, extreme violence, and other shallow pleasures. If anything, he’s gotten even more outlandish, and, as proven by the fact that Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is his biggest extravaganza yet, he’s not going to stop any time soon. As he recently told GQ, “I don’t change my style for anybody. Pussies do that.”
So what’s the point of publicly disliking him, then? At this point, it’s a complete waste of energy, not to mention time that could be spent watching Bay’s camera hone in on Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s curves throughout Dark Of The Moon. After all, he does it for men like us—how can you not love that?
