Michael Bay is a good director. I have always had this opinion and its a controversial one but when has anything I said been a popular opinion but Bay is a good director who chooses bad scripts. In this piece I will be discuss what it is about Michael Bay that sets him apart from the rest and why I can look past the awful scripts.
Has Bay made good movies? Yeah I would have to say that Michael Bay has made good films, for example I would put 13 Hours as one of the best films of 2016 but the same film maker made Transformers Age of Extinction which is a steaming mess. So lets go through the filmography and see what film work and the ones that don't.
Bad Boys is a good film and a strong debut from Bay, this is a great action comedy where the action really stands head and shoulders above the rest, I am going to be saying this a lot during this piece but Michael Bay knows how to craft an action scene. The humour is fine with some parts being actually funny but for me this is more about the action and being thrown into this police thriller. It also helps that Bad Boys has a very strong opening scene. Not Bay's best but nowhere near his worst, this is a solid film that should be watched or re-watched.
The Rock is the best film Michael Bay has made, not the most visceral nor the biggest but the best and is a must in any action film fan's collection. The film just works and its just so fun to watch, of course it has its dumb moments but nearly every film has a silly moment, but in action films a little bit of dumb can mean a hell of a lot of fun. This is where Bay started to really develop his visual style and making every shot look a million dollars. Bay has a great way of making his films feel expensive, from the visual effects down to the score everything is grande which is funny seeing how "small" the plot is. Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery make an excellent team and they play off each other very well. Objectively this is the best Michael Bay film and I don't think I am alone in that school of thought, is it my favourite? probably but it has been some time since I have seen it so a second viewing is imminent.
Armageddon is where Bay starts to deteriorate and sowed the seeds for the hatred towards Michael Bay, for me this film is fun but I do understand that it is a bad film, but not the worst film ever made but compared to his first two films this one feels different. I think Bay wanted to make Titanic in space and to his credit it sort of worked but not in a good way, Titanic is a brilliant film whereas Armageddon is an average film that clearly has taken elements from Titanic and forced them into a strange thriller/action/romance comedy its a strange blend with an even stranger cast. I have no idea where to start with the cast. I'm not talking about Bruce Willis or Ben Affleck but Steve Buscemi and Owen Wilson and this all ties in with the problem of too many characters, its so hard to talk about this film because honestly it just has to be seen to be believed. Overall a fun film but has many problems and it drags.
Is Pearl Harbor a bad film? Yes. Does Pearl Harbor have a solid film buried within? Yes. If Armageddon was an attempt to copy Titanic then this is is Bay taking the blueprint shredding it up and attempting to piece it back together. This is a hard one to talk about because I do think that buried deep within this film is a solid action film that runs around 120 mins. Its a shame because this film does have some really engaging action scenes and a decent cast but its shrouded in this poor attempt at a love story that just slows the film down and running at 183 mins its just too long. I think my thoughts on Pearl Harbor could make its own post which would come later down the line. In short this was the first big problem people had with Michael Bay on a quality level.
Next up is Bad Boys II which to be perfectly honest is one of the dumbest big budget action film to grace our screens and I love every minute of it. This is an example of why Bay is one of the best at directing action scenes, this film is just excessive in the best way possible. Running at just under two and a half hours this film has fun with itself and my god does it just work. Of course if you were to look at the film objectively it is a bad movie, not as bad as Pearl Harbor or Armageddon but its ridiculous but for some reason it just works. Its seriously fun and dumb which makes it amazing for me because if a film is fun enough to distract me from poor writing then its doing its job well. The film starts with a KKK meeting in which Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are undercover as klan members, and a musical score supervised by Dr Dre I don't understand how people cant enjoy this film for what it is, if this screenplay was directing by anyone else it would be one of the worst, unbearable films ever made but Bay is so adept at directing action scenes and keeping the energy levels up that you are along for the ride. Is it better than the first one? No but on the other hand they are two separate films, the only thing that relates the movies are the characters, name and director. Bad Boys II is certainly worth watching for any action fan and is the perfect example for this argument that Bay is a good director but just has dreadful scripts. Defiantly worth watching at least once to experience it.
Now The Island is a strange one to talk about because it has been a long time since I seen this one and from what I remember I liked it but in recent years I have started to notice a lot of hatred towards this film which I can neither confirm or deny. This is a slight departure from Bad Boys II in the fact that it was attempting more of a Minority Report feel than a typical Bay film. So I can't really talk about this film in detail but this is not the worst Bay film but certainly not the best its fine. I would recommend watch it but don't expect anything too special.
2007 is where the modern reception towards Michael Bay began and Transformers is the film that brought about this opinion. I will be talking about the four Transformers in one segment because to be honest they are all the same but with varying degrees of quality. The first Transformers is a decent film and in terms of big budget blockbusters it was fantastic and to be fair in terms of direction and visuals, the Transformers films are the better blockbusters in recent times. The Transformers series has gone too far into silly territory but in terms of action spectacle they have not been topped. With The Last Knight coming out rather soon and looking like a hot mess I am excited to see how Michael Bay can use this franchise to top himself.
Lastly we have to talk about Pain and Gain and 13 Hours, these two films are really good and they should be seen, especially Pain and Gain which is one of the most energetic films from Bay and completely caught me off guard by how engaging it is. 13 Hours is a solid action film, enough said, but seriously both of these films should be watched and are closer to The Rock and as far away from the Transformer movies as possible, which goes to show that Bay will do a fantastic directing job whether the script is good or bad. The man loves spectacle and in recent times we have lost that.
Michael Bay is never going down in history as one of the greats, but I feel as if more people should acknowledge that as a director he is very good at what he does, its only the guys writing the scripts that are letting him down. Please watch his good films to see that the same director is there using all the same methods but using a far better script. I will always love Michael Bay, he knows what he likes and he knows how to get me excited to watch a film. Most filmmakers these days all blur into one but Bay stands out.
Written By
Ashley Harvey
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