Breaking Down "Bayhem"

Is there currently a more widely lambasted director on this planet than Michael Bay? Though critics softened slightly for his last film, the dark true-crime comedy Pain and Gain, the knives are out once again -- perhaps even sharper than before -- with the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth entry in the blockbuster franchise that has continued to stuff Bay's pockets with ridiculous amounts of moolah. So is there anything more to Bay than what we already know, i.e. fast cuts, sexy chicks and explosions? In this video essay, Tony Zhou incisively analyses what makes Bay, essentially Bay, and love or hate him, there's no question that the man's a step above the the blander, hack-ier likes of McG or Brett Ratner, at least on an aesthetic level:
Meanwhile, the critical mauling of Age of Extinction has been so bad that talk show host Jimmy Kimmel decided to get a few critics together to say something nice about Bay:

Everything Wrong with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I say this every time -- but I'm oddly excited about the new Transformers movie coming out in a week's time. Of course, I will most likely live to regret it, as it always happens, once Michael Bay has obliterated my senses two-and-a-half hours later (according to IMDB, Age of Extinction clocks in at 166 minutes). It stands to reason that after being burned by three consecutive movies of the same moronic, depressingly soul-draining ilk, I don't imagine the game changing all that much -- and the dudes at Cinema Sins have just done an amusingly snarky job of reminding me everything that's wrong with the franchise by ripping apart the 2009 sequel Revenge of the Fallen. The plot's even more mind-bending than I remembered:

Super Bowl Teaser: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Although Michael Bay has given us a few reassurances that Transformers: Age of Extinction might be an improvement over the previous series entries (didn't he say Transformers 3 would be less goofy too?), watching this Super Bowl teaser makes me think otherwise. It looks pretty much like robot Bay-hem as usual, albeit with Mark Wahlberg hammin' up a storm in the lead instead of Shia LeBeouf. And wait, is that Optimus Prime riding on a dinosaur...? Admittedly I loved the Dinobots when I was a kid, so I'm curious to see what Bay does with those characters, but yeah, I'm keeping my expectations extremely low. Who's hyped?

"Hello I'm Michael Bay, Director of Transformers"

Say what you will about Michael Bay's films, but you gotta give the man some credit for going the extra mile to make sure the 3D presentation of Transformers: Dark of the Moon is primo. This letter written by Bay to projectionists was posted on American Cinematographer's facebook page and details his wishes for how his film should be presented (I wonder if the letter will be posted for tonight's IMAX screening?). It's an interesting insight to a process that's rarely acknowledged or done these days. Click here to see some more letters to projectionists from visionary directors such as Terrence Malick, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch.

PS. I'll report back on the movie tomorrow (not a fan of the films, but I'm strangely hyped for this one; will I ever learn?). Until then, here's a glowing review by Harry Knowles.

FilmGeek: Best CosPlay Evaaa!

Oh man, I hate the 'Bayformers' franchise and Camaro Bumble-Bee is a big reason for that. This guy in his Transformers CosPlay outfit may just have turned me around however (watch till the awesome end):



It is with great regret, as a former Gateway employee, that this supersedes my previous Transformers Cosplay favourite: Cardoard Box Transformer.

Robocalypse

Just when you think that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen looked like it could be the Ultimate Michael Bay Movie, comes along this hilariously inspired, quite brilliant marriage of the latter's trailer and Terminator: Salvation's, resulting in a 'bot-mad epic that plays like Bay's hardware fetish at its most grossly excessive. If only it were real. Best line: "And worst of all... they're eating all our sand..."