Archive for Michael Bay
I think we can all agree that Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a suprisingly good film this year. And a lot of the buzz has come from motion capture actor extrodinare Andy Serkis’ performance as the lead ape, Caesar. There has even been buzz and a small Oscar campaign for his “revolutionary” performance and ability to use physicality to convey emotioin and create compelling drama. Well, comedians Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer are poking fun at Serkis with this new Funny or Die video that shows the real-life artistry and dedication of inanimate object motion capture acting. Check out the video after the break.
Unless you have lived under a rock or somehow stayed away from the reach of the media in the past weeks, you know the Transformers franchise grew to three films recently. The third installment opened to incredible opening weekend numbers. To be more specific, the film actually opened on Wednesday, June 29th – Dark of the Moon has also grossed over $400 million dollars at the Worldwide Box Office since then. Simply, ridiculous. The film was not very good at all, aside from the 3D — see my full thoughts here.
Bay was even caught reusing shots from one of his previous films, The Island, and inserting the clip into Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Watch this video. Bay probably loved the shot from The Island so much and was pissed no one really got to enjoy it — The Island only grossed $36 million total at the U.S. Box Office, while Transformers rolled out $37 million its opening day. Why not do a little recycling? The shot was so good. People won’t notice. We did — and I’ve gotta say, I’m disappointed… but not surprised. I’ve always said Bay is usually just re-packaging his old movies to make new ones. To see the full Box Office top ten and to read a little more, hit the jump.
GRADE: C-
Awhile back when I saw a trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon I was very worried the title of this review would come true. The action looked great in the preview, but I wondered, was there an adequate storyline to link the action and characters together? Or was it going to be another series of plot points simply leading to action sequences like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen? When I saw Revenge of the Fallen, I didn’t hate it. I won’t bother watching it twice though. It was a mindless sequel that forced action down my throat and then expected me to invest in the rest of the film. It was good for what it was — unreal action with robots beating one another down.
After the second effort, both Director Michael Bay and Shia Labeouf said Revenge of the Fallen was not worthy of praise (duh), and the third time around would be different. Well, it wasn’t any different, at all. Bay and Shia lied to us, and my distaste for this film partly stems from the fact Dark of the Moon was the same product as the second one. But if this formula works to make millions, why change? How many times can you successfully glorify robot warfare without a top notch screenplay? The answer is one. The song and dance gets weary the third time around.
Funny AND True: ‘Every Michael Bay Movie In Under A Minute’
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Matt and I saw Transformers: Dark of the Moon a couple days ago. His full review will be up here tomorrow. For my quick thoughts on the film, it was definitely better than ROTF, but had some nagging elements that are present in all of Bay’s films, which can become tiresome. One being length; TF3 is over two and a half hours. Another being the non-stop action, explosions, car chases, etc., which has made Bay the filmmaker that he is, but doesn’t mean that it isn’t super exhausting to endure a 45-minute battle scene. In echoing this sentiment towards Bay’s staples as a filmmaker, I came across this very funny College Humor video on Twitter titled, Every Michael Bay Movie In Under A Minute – which is pretty much just how it sounds.
New ‘Dark of the Moon’ Trailer Full of Action, But Does This Film Have a Story?
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As for the question posed in the headline, who knows? That is yet to be seen. We have seen the robot vendetta against Earth before due to the all-spark landing here. So what now? Why do the robots want to destroy Earth this time? If you can’t make the story interesting Michael Bay, you are just splicing action scenes together. I like the historical angle involving Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong — consider that a good start. I won’t pretend for a second the action does not look pristine, but let’s hope it all has a purpose.
Trailer Trash MASH: Dreamworks Robot Edition
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Some may think the Transformers: Dark of the Moon teaser trailer deserves its own post, but I thought the correlation between the Michael Bay sequel and Real Steel was too strong not to combine them. Not only are both movies concocted by Dreamworks, both feature gigantic machines squaring off in epic robotic duels. Hit the jump to see the two teaser trailers for the films.
‘Transformers 3D’ Gets an Official Title: ‘The Dark of the Moon’
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Transformers 3 news has not been scarce lately as on set photos surfaced all over the web in recent months. This was especially apparent when the project was filming on location in Chicago and fans flocked the streets to get a look at the new Transformers action. However, bad news also came from the set. You can learn more by reading the piece Abby wrote a month ago about how an extra got seriously injured during filming. Well, now there is some positive news about the film in the form of an official movie title.
First Look at Transformers 3 On Set
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JustJared.com has come across set photos from the shoot of Transformers 3. The shoot was occurring just outside of Los Angeles, and by description is a pretty intense scene. The biggest Transformers news obviously comes from the recasting of the love interest for Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) when it was reported Megan Fox would not be rejoining the team for the third installment. In the picture above you can see the Fox replacement, the uber-hot Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, paired with the equally hot (for women of course) Shia LaBeouf.
Whoa! Michael Bay Boots Megan Fox from Transformers 3
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Wowzers! This is pretty big. After earning over $1.6 billion worldwide, you’d think that the mentality for the future of the Transformers franchise would be, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well, that certainly seems not be be the case with the upcoming Transformers 3, as Deadline reports that Paramount has officially denied to pick up Megan Fox’ option to return for a third film. Here’s the kicker though, it was director Michael Bay’s decision.
The third installment of Transformers has been a topic of discussion around the movie world in recent months. First on the plate was Paramount’s announcement that the unnamed third film would be released July 1st, 2011. Funny enough, this was news to the film’s director Michael Bay as he surprisingly responded on his official website:
Wait a minute!
I said I was taking off a year from Transformers. Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3 – they asked me on the phone – I said yes to July 4 – but for 2012 – whoops! Not 2011!!! That would mean I would have to start prep in September. No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots.
Michael
