Michael Bay is the devil.
-Common belief among a lot of film buffs.
Michael Bay is an American movie director. He's known for an incredibly energetic direction style that some claim is impossible to follow, while a lot of other filmgoers don't seem to mind.
Bay started out directing commercials and music videos. He directed the very first
"Got Milk?" ad. As a teenager he also worked as a clerk for Lucasfilm in the early '80s, and even recalled thinking that
Indiana Jones was
going to fail.
Then Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer hired him to direct
Bad Boys. The film was a modest hit and kicked off Bay's film career. When
The Rock came out it solidified him as someone capable of making energetic, entertaining and profitable action films. Around the time
Armageddon rolled around he gained a very vocal
hatedom among film fans, it seems for mostly the same reasons. The fact that every film has been a substantial hit (although
The Island was significantly less than expected) suggests that they might just be a
Vocal Minority. If you look over his interviews, especially for
Transformers, you'll see that he is more than aware of it, and even makes
fun of the fact.
He is also well known for being a tough General on set, because he is aggressive and moves at a very fast pace. The movies he makes would cost probably about 30% more with another director. Despite a belief that everyone in Hollywood hates him, because of his ability to work within a budget and demanding a strong work ethic from his crew and actors has earn him a great deal of supporters just for turning filmmaking an actual work experience. He is ranked up among the most elite directors in Hollywood today, with strong relationships with friends
James Cameron and
Steven Spielberg.
But his
aggressive directing style and occasional
jerkass behavior has earned him some enemies. People like
Bruce Willis,
Scarlett Johansson,
Megan Fox (who
compared him to
Hitler and
Napoleon in a recent interview) and Kate Beckinsale (who claimed that Bay made her feel "ugly" on the set) have spoken out against Bay and refuse to work with him again.
In 2008, possibly to hype
Postal,
Uwe Boll called out Bay (among others) for his supposed lack of talent (at least from Boll's point-of-view) while insisting he's "the only real genius in the whole fucking business." Bay's
response
qualifies as his own personal
Crowning Moment of Awesome.
While he may be hated by film critics everywhere, you should always remember one thing:
You mess with Michael Bay and you mess with America!His films to date:
Tropes about him or his works:
- Adam Westing: See Self-Deprecation.
- America Saves the Day: He uses this a lot—as noted below, he likes the US Military, and they like him because they always look good in his movies. One exception is The Rock which was a major aversion—Sean Connery Saves The Day instead.
- Author Appeal: BAYSPLOSIONS
- Awesomeness Is Volatile: "Michael Bay presents EXPLOSIONS!!!!!" - Robot Chicken
- Backed by the Pentagon: He has a direct line to Film Correspondent at the Pentagon. "The military likes me because they look good in my movies." and "I am a world class ass-kisser."
- Bad Boss: If Bruce Willis is to be believed.
- Chase Scene: Which, at least in three movies, always involved a truck/semi, usually with stuff flying off. Simply dodging traffic at high speeds just isn't enough.
- He did Transformers partially because he felt that he had done plenty of chase scenes, but none that had giant robots transforming at 80 mph.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Apparently they're so thick his assistants have to translate for the special effects people.
- For the movies themselves, both Bad Boys films.
- Concept Video: His video for "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", by Meat Loaf, features Loaf and Dana Patrick as a motorcycle-riding Beauty and the Beast.
- Creator Backlash: He admitted that Revenge of the Fallen deserved some of the hate it got.
- Creator Cameo: He's a NASA Scientist in Armageddon, has his car nearly taken in Bad Boys II, and is in the airplane carrying Optimus Prime in Revenge of the Fallen.
- Death by Cameo: That random bystander who Megatron flicked like an insect with his finger in the first Transformers? Yep, that was Mr. Bay himself. Oh and in Mystery Men, he plays the leader of The Frat Boys (his line: "Dude, can we bring the brewskis?"), who are all killed by the movie's Big Bad, For the Evulz.
- Creator Thumbprint: Helicopters or planes flying into sunset are very commonly found.
- Cue the Sun: All of the Big Damn Dramatic Scenes in his movies are set at sunset. Sometimes, if the scene is dramatic enough, then it will magically become sunset at the same time all over the world.
- Everything's Better With Spinning: He has a 360 Steadicam® shot in almost all his films, including when Optimus Prime transforms in the climax of Transformers.
- Explosive Instrumentation: Devastator, the most complex of the Transformers in the films, melting the computer being used to render him is probably as close as you'll get to this trope in real life.
- Fan Nickname: His Signature Style is called "Bayhem."
- Follow the Leader: Bay admitted that his quick-cutting style was to bring more energy to the relatively low budget Bad Boys, which couldn't afford the same scale of actions sequences his later movies would offer. He also said that since then action movies have become more like his style and sometimes include even more cuts than even he would do.
- Godwin's Law: Megan Fox compared him (unfavorably) to Hitler in an interview, although in the dictator sense than anything else.
- Goodlooking Privates: Pearl Harbor and Transformers (2007)
- Gun Porn
- Hidden Depths: Bay is a lot more intelligent and observant than people give him credit for. He normally doesn't care much about the critical hatred he gets, but he did once make a poignant observation that movie critics have their own fandom and thus will often say things that would make them popular, and hating Michael Bay is pretty popular. And while not mentioning Roger Ebert specifically, he noted that some critics take the industry so serious they alienate their readers (Ebert basically said that anyone who like ROTF is stupid, which is something that will guarantee an angry response from people who didn't even like the movie).
- Honor Before Reason: The defining attribute of a Heroic Male in a Michael Bay movie.
- I Take Offense To That Last One: In regarding his use of 3-D in Transformers 3, he stated outright that people may hate his movies, bashing the characters, storyline and plot holes, but you cannot fault the technical side of things. The special effects, camera work and sound design are all "technically precise."
- It's Always Sunny In Miami: And it is also always sunset. With big clouds of steam (or something else) coming out of the manholes.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The quality or lack thereof of his movies is rather debatable, and he has a reputation as an absolutely tyrannical director, but when he's not actually doing anything regarding movies he's reportedly quite nice, and he's shown himself to have quite a sense of humor on a number of occasions.
- Jitter Cam
- Mad Bomber: Not in any of his films... the man himself. He's a nutcase pyromaniac. When you consider that his films are probably 80% practical effects, and that most of those explosions are real?
- Made of Explodium: Seemingly everything...in all of his films...
- Ms. Fanservice: He usually has more than one in each of his movies.
- Ominous Multiple Screens: Multiple screens showing same thing. Best example is when Bruce Willis is talking to his daughter and every screen in NASA shows his face.
- Precision F-Strike: When demonstrating Devastator he got the normally reserved Steven Spielberg to use one. He considered it a high honor.
- Prima Donna Director: Infamous for his maniacal style of direction, with many stories of actors collapsing from exhaustion and Bay throwing temper tantrums.
- Rule Of Sean Connery: It's usually considered that Bay has made just one good movie, The Rock (his only 'Fresh' at Rotten Tomatoes). Guess who stars in that?
- Self-Deprecation: He's known to poke fun at himself, like in this ad.
- Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon: A deal of coincidences, his cousin Susan Bay is married to Leonard Nimoy and it was their influence (due to being frequent donors) that got them to film at the Observatory in the first film. This lead to Nimoy being cast as Sentinel Prime in the third movie as well.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Heavily slanted towards the Idealistic side.
- Stuff Blowing Up: "Awesome barbecue!" *BOOM!* "Awesome pool!" *BOOM! Why doesn't he just marry explosions?
- Summer Blockbuster
- Technology Porn
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: If it's not awesome already, Bay will likely make it so.
Awesome STINGER! *BOOM!*
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