Critics Favorite Whipping Boy, Director Michael Bay, has Made a Movie that Begs for Reconsideration. At Least for the Moment. The Always Overblown Style is Here Combined with a Good, if Derivative Story. The Timeless Trope of Dystopia, Deception, and Big Brother Sins that Have Become a Fertile Film Farm for Animals on the Hack.
Sure, Some of Bay's Sins are Here and to be Kind let's call them Auteur Flourishes. Blowing Stuff Up in a Really Cool Way, Hyper-Active and Fun Chase Scenes, Product Placement, and a Sophomoric Screenplay.
This is One of the Director's Best Movies. Maybe The Best. It is Completely Watchable and Virtually Cringe-Free. He Makes Everything Come Together in Such a Pretty Package with Mega-Budget Madness and Beautiful Stars and Beautiful Sets and Beautiful Cinematography. He Places All that Beauty in Front of Some Horrific and Modern Concerns About Cloning, and Even Manages to Ask Some Good Questions.
Do these Manufactured Products, Insurance Policies for the Ultra-Rich, have Souls, for Example. Not New or Deep Questions but Relevant Questions Nonetheless. So this is Michael Bay at His Most Philosophical and Michael Bay at His Most Contemplative. That May be Like Seeing a Drive Through Shrink or a Mail Order Preacher but At Least its Better than No Counsel at All.
The Irony is that when the Director Finally Decides to Make a Movie that is Deeper than Usual and Thinks Just a Little Bit...Surprise...It's a Big Flop. So there You Go. His Mindless, Cringe-Fests Make Oodles of Money and the One Where He Borrows from Some Deep Thinkers and When He Tries the Least Little Bit to have Some Substance, No One Cares.
That's a Shame Really, Because this is a Highly Entertaining Movie and is Some Food for Thought for the "Fun With Dick and Jane" Crowd.
Sure, Some of Bay's Sins are Here and to be Kind let's call them Auteur Flourishes. Blowing Stuff Up in a Really Cool Way, Hyper-Active and Fun Chase Scenes, Product Placement, and a Sophomoric Screenplay.
This is One of the Director's Best Movies. Maybe The Best. It is Completely Watchable and Virtually Cringe-Free. He Makes Everything Come Together in Such a Pretty Package with Mega-Budget Madness and Beautiful Stars and Beautiful Sets and Beautiful Cinematography. He Places All that Beauty in Front of Some Horrific and Modern Concerns About Cloning, and Even Manages to Ask Some Good Questions.
Do these Manufactured Products, Insurance Policies for the Ultra-Rich, have Souls, for Example. Not New or Deep Questions but Relevant Questions Nonetheless. So this is Michael Bay at His Most Philosophical and Michael Bay at His Most Contemplative. That May be Like Seeing a Drive Through Shrink or a Mail Order Preacher but At Least its Better than No Counsel at All.
The Irony is that when the Director Finally Decides to Make a Movie that is Deeper than Usual and Thinks Just a Little Bit...Surprise...It's a Big Flop. So there You Go. His Mindless, Cringe-Fests Make Oodles of Money and the One Where He Borrows from Some Deep Thinkers and When He Tries the Least Little Bit to have Some Substance, No One Cares.
That's a Shame Really, Because this is a Highly Entertaining Movie and is Some Food for Thought for the "Fun With Dick and Jane" Crowd.