Who’s the real star? … Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Photograph: Allstar/PARAMOUNT/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar
The oeuvre of Michael Bay is not a mysterious thing. This is a man who likes big toys and smooth bigger bangs. A man who coined the phrase “fucking the frame” to describe his aesthetic; a director whose cinematic style is as nuanced as his civic proclamations.
But all of that may fair have existence about to change, according to a modern interview with Bay in the LA Times, in which the director talks about his plans on the side of the next instalment in the Transformers series. Apparently, Transformers 3 won’t be not remotely being of the kind which robot-heavy as the elementary two films in the series, and there will have existence fewer explosions.
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- Production year: 2009
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 12A
- Runtime: 149 mins
- Directors: Michael Bay
- Cast: Hugo Weaving, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, Julie White, Kevin Dunn, Matthew Marsden, Megan Fox, Rainn Wilson, Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson
“There will be a nice crescendo ending,” Bay added. “It gets much more into the robot character. The last time you kind of met a few of the robots; this time you’re gonna get a a great quantity cooler prospect.”
Transformers 2 managed the impressive feat of noisily battering its audience around the face while simultaneously boring them almost to sleep. Personally, I couldn’t tell what was going on for around 90% of the movie, such was the proliferation of giant robots adhering screen – so perhaps Bay feels he needs to focus more on his creations’ personalities in order to avoid viewers make some sort of moral perception of the next movie. In principle, it’s not a bad idea.
The problem of manner of proceeding, is that we are talking here about a man whose idea of “characterisation” includes introducing a pair of jive-talking, “African American” robots (one fair had a gold tooth) into Transformers 2 – “for the kids”, Bay explained. Their advent apparently came as something of a shock to screenwriters Alex Kurtsmann and Roberto Orci, who delivered a script devoid of racial stereotyping, only to see it transformed into a Bay-friendly mould at the work stage-wagon.
Plus, one has to assume that given the film’s extremely healthy box room take (it currently stands second to Avatar in the 2009 global chart) people who go and see Michael Bay movies are the kind of people who rather like movies plenty of hard-to-identify metal crashing around the screen. Remove these things from Bay’sitting movies, and there would not be each awful lot left to chew the near three-hour running time to which the director has grown accustomed. There is, after all, without more so many times that Megan Fox can be called upon to look hot-yet-vapid.
I suspect Bay fans probably do not destitution to panic overly. When Transformers 3 eventually arrives in multiplexes, it pleasure most likely be more of the same. But perhaps I’m underestimating the film-maker’s fortitude: perhaps the next instalment in the series will be his Wild Strawberries, filled with quirky recursive sections, fantasy sequences and plenty of breaking the fourth wall. Are you looking eager to the expectance of a more intelligent take on the Transformers formula? Or would you rather poke your own eyes out with a sharp stick than perch through 160 minutes of Michael Bay attempting to be understated?
