Comments on: Michael Bay: A Quantitative Comparative Analysis

By: Gurtrude

Gurtrude — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:55:14 +0000

The comparisons made for this article seem valid. I do agree that maybe Bay’s films should be sized up against competition in his genre. But then again even skilled directors like John Woo and Tarentino have had crap films also,”Bullet Proof Monk” & “Grind House”. The main argument that im hearing is that Bay’s movies suck because the cant compare to Nolan’s Batman. Well lets get real here. Nolan’s Batman exist in the world of reality. Its only been in the last few years that Batman and everything he can do has become exceptable in the mind of average viewers because the technologies that Batman uses exist, for the most part. People will have a hard time excepting giant robots turning into other stuff until some scietist makes transformation a reality. What other film has Nolan done besides Batman that critics also rate as high as Batman. Bay’s films deliver the goods. Action, suspence, scantily clad women, explosions and everything else that gets you glued to the screen. Whoever says they feel guilty after watching a Bay film has some serious issues. Its a movie, it isnt actually porn that your watching. To me the true judge of wether a director has made a decent movie is by the box office. Bay’s films always gross 3, 4, 5 times its budget. I think that tells you right there people will spend money to see his films even you haters so you can later bash on it. But guess what nobody goes to see Capote, or Brokeback Mountain. Check out their Box office earnings, yeah the movies get great reviews from critics and win awards but it doesnt put money in the pockets. And when it is all said and done Hollywood is a business a money businees and Bay delivers the goods.

By: Gab

Gab — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:43:55 +0000

RT averages out the scores of its staff with fan submissions, right?

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:27:08 +0000

I’d like to see this done with RT ratings instead of IMDB… THAT would be a more accurate graph IMO.

By: martinfrancisco

martinfrancisco — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:11:44 +0000

michael mann?

ali 6,5
Heat 8,2
The Insider 8
The Last of the Mohicans 7,7
Manhunter 7,2
The Keep 5,7
Thief 7,2

7,21

Collateral 7,8
Miami Vice 6

By: evan

evan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:34:13 +0000

When your script has Optimus Prime proclaim “my, bad” like he was some sort of teenie-bop that listens to blink 182 instead of a badass gigantic hero bot, then you are open to massive hatred by anyone who grew up having Mr. Prime as a role model.

By: zaws!

zaws! — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:30:35 +0000

you don’t have the same mindset when you see a Bay’s film than when you see a Welles’ one (unless you’re a moron), you really can’t compare them more than you can compare apples and Toto’s 1982 classic “Africa”. There is no point in arguing if, say, The Lady from Shangay is better or worse than Independence Day, because they are both great films, for quite different reasons. So the only rational way to tell wether Bay is a good director or not is to rank it against the people who make the same kind of movies he makes

…AND, looks like i have way too much free time in my hands and i enjoy working with spreadsheets way too much, so i just spent a couple hours or so filling one with the ratings of movies from “comparable” directors from metacritic, rotten tomatoes and imdb. Here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0As5IcsU1RSDVcjRFNnR6czB2M1E5ZHBDUVRrdl9tS2c&hl=en
(it’s open to edit, so if anyone have as little social life as i do and wants to add something, go ahead)

…AAND looks like, while Bay is usually ranked slightly better than Roland Emmerich, he is still behind people like Brett Ratner, Paul Verhoeven or John Woo. So i’d say that, at least before Internet’s eyes, Michael Bay is a pretty bad director

By: Gab

Gab — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:06:22 +0000

@mlwaski: I do the same thing in comparison, but I still enjoy Bay’s movies, if only because I EXPECT them to be so awful. If I am not in a theater, I tend to make peanut gallery comments the whole time because it’s not a “serious” experience.

By: Michael Bay Sucks | Kill Inks

Michael Bay Sucks | Kill Inks — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:27:24 +0000

[...] by Overthinking, via [...]

By: mlawski

mlawski — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:15:40 +0000

@Laurence: I don’t know about everyone else, but when I bash Michael Bay, it’s not because his movies are bad in comparison to Capote. When I bash Michael Bay, it’s because his movies are bad in comparison to, for instance, Chris Nolan’s. The fact is, you can make a big action spectacle that’s hugely entertaining but that also makes sense. The Michael Bay movies I’ve seen are confusing, overlong, and falsely dramatic. It’s not about comparing Transformers to Capote. It’s about comparing Transformers to Batman Begins, Die Hard, or Independence Day.

By: Laurence

Laurence — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:29:46 +0000

I don’t get why people bash Michael Bay so much. They say his films are loud and brash etc… Isn’t that the point?

Don’t we have enough of serious,character study,atmospheric films out there already? Enough directors who are so far up their own arse?

Sometimes it’s good to go to the cinema and just lose yourself in a story which has no real relevance other than to entertain you. The sole purpose of Micheal Bay films are to entertain you, both with flashy stunts, good casts and excellent CGI.

Tell me who dosn’t want to see Bruce Willis give up his job as an oil driller, get trained by NASA, Narrowlly escape an explosion on a space station, land on an astaroid, forgive his soon-in-law to be then blow up the aforementioned astaroid, killing himself in the porcess in order to save the human race and earth?

Yea it sounds ridiculous, and it is, but thats why it’s good. I recently watched Capote (because I think Phillip Seymour Hoffman is an excellent actor) and yes, it’s a very good character study with excellent acting, but my god it is boring. After watching it I literally felt as if I had wasted my time with it. Now this films rating is 7.6 on IMDB, .2 more than Bay’s best.

Tell me, what film would you rather watch? Bays OTT CGI Filed ’summer hit’ Tranformers or the amazingly beige Capote?

I say thank god for the Michael Bay and other action directors, they provide the entertainment while we are waiting on the next serious, oscar nominated for best screenplay, film.