Look, he's got potential, he always did, I actually loved 'The Rock' to bits and thought 'The Island' was really interesting -until they broke out- my main beef with him is his total lack of self control. His action sequences lately get so caught up with an attitude of 'look at this scene- everything's exploding! isn't that COOL!' at the cost of decent dialogue and us knowing what is going on. Sure if we were there it would be hectic, hard to keep track of, but we're NOT- we're relying on the camera angle to tell us this story- there's sure as hell no other way we'll get to see it. That's why I hate Quantum of Solace. If someone else was in charge of camera and editing, that film might have been half decent.
Another thing is he does all the same gimmicky tricks all the time. Most people especially hate the 'zoomed in just a bit too far to see what's happening till it's over' thing, but the one that stands out the most for me is whenever someone's driving a car above the speed limit (or flying a plane or any other vehicle) and they have to be seen saying something, the camera is literally waving all over the goddamn place so their face is a blur all over the damn screen. Films like Star Wars and Ronin have shown that you don't lose any intensity of a situation if the driver/pilot is shown with a fixed camera, so why the hell does Bay keep doing it?
Just watch the car chase in The Rock and see the bit where Sean Connery is driving that Hummer, and is surprised by the car phone going off. There's no dialogue, the music even knows to get a bit softer so we hear the ringing clearly, but the camera still waves all over the shop like the Hummer has no tyres on a cobbled street.
It's just such a shame that when he actually tried to do something a bit deeper and more meaningful with 'The Island', he couldn't help himself and halfway through resorted to his nonstop chase ways. People didn't like that one bit, but you know what his Rep said when asked why it didn't sell? 'The movie title was misleading, because audiences never got to see an island' Oh. My. God. Now he'll think THAT'S what's wrong, and will keep everything else just the same as always. Damn you Michael Bay!
Another thing is he does all the same gimmicky tricks all the time. Most people especially hate the 'zoomed in just a bit too far to see what's happening till it's over' thing, but the one that stands out the most for me is whenever someone's driving a car above the speed limit (or flying a plane or any other vehicle) and they have to be seen saying something, the camera is literally waving all over the goddamn place so their face is a blur all over the damn screen. Films like Star Wars and Ronin have shown that you don't lose any intensity of a situation if the driver/pilot is shown with a fixed camera, so why the hell does Bay keep doing it?
Just watch the car chase in The Rock and see the bit where Sean Connery is driving that Hummer, and is surprised by the car phone going off. There's no dialogue, the music even knows to get a bit softer so we hear the ringing clearly, but the camera still waves all over the shop like the Hummer has no tyres on a cobbled street.
It's just such a shame that when he actually tried to do something a bit deeper and more meaningful with 'The Island', he couldn't help himself and halfway through resorted to his nonstop chase ways. People didn't like that one bit, but you know what his Rep said when asked why it didn't sell? 'The movie title was misleading, because audiences never got to see an island' Oh. My. God. Now he'll think THAT'S what's wrong, and will keep everything else just the same as always. Damn you Michael Bay!
