Look, let's all agree from the outset that Transformers -- as a concept -- is absolutely asinine. It's a race of advanced alien super machines disturbingly taking on traits of human behavior and cultural affectation whilst mostly rolling around in the guise of various performance vehicles fawned over by philistines. There's no rationale where this isn't a mind-numbing conceit born from a toy line aimed at the aggressive fantasy synapses of immature brains. And that's a perfect sandbox for Michael Bay to build his arena and wallow with gluttonous abandon.
So now that that's established, let me declare the main thesis point for advocacy here: He's a genius! That's right -- Michael Bay is a genius!
Because Bay is one of the few commonly known filmmakers in the zeitgeist, certain glib hipster constituencies lazily feign credibility in cinematic knowledge by dropping his name in loathing as a pathetic synonym shortcut for superiority though snark. In deed, any faint praise toward Bay is often immediately shot down with hyperbolic aghast and equated to justifying Hitler by his work as a painter, or musing on the songwriting merit of Charles Manson. Now I won't dispute that Bay has an inclination for silly sophomoric humor and vapid glamorization of excess. Nor will I gloss over his propensity to indulge in stereotypes and cliché. One may not be simpatico to his fetishizations, but it's sort of pointless to criticize the very essence of the art form, especially when it's done with such gusto. At lest Bay seems to have a knowing wryness that can take a joke at expense of his brash reputation. As an artist working in the medium of moving visuals, Michael Bay is nothing short of brilliant. If he plays to the lowest common denominator, that denominator in nonetheless true to a passionate perspective set by him. These raucous boyhood reveries aren't just mercenary exploits, but expressions of what Bay truly loves and wants to revisit. Intimately personal to a singular psyche, these are massive experimental art films that happen to align with commerce as their principled dogma. If nothing else, being cognizant that what you're getting is being given with a verisimilitude that absolutely attends to the authentic aura of its own axiom, ought to eek some appreciation -- however begrudging. Just because Bay makes movies with the sensibilities of a thirteen-year-old boy, doesn't mean he ought to be demonized as though guilty of atrocities.
It's fairly true that Bay's spectacular extravaganzas cater to simpletons, but the dense amount of information breathlessly presented through pure cinematic terms within them is anything but simple. The fact that most of the breakneck exposition being blasted at an audience actually sticks, is proof that Bay is profoundly competent beyond eye-popping exhilarations. It should be noted that before his feature debut with "Bad Boys", Michael Bay was already one of the most sought after and acclaimed commercial directors of all time, having amassed an astounding amount of advertising awards for his ability to pack viscerally entertaining stories into thirty-second to a minute-and-a-half short form films.
Unlike the majority of filmmakers credited on complicated productions of vast proportion, Bay (quite uniquely) doesn't shirk responsibilities off to 2nd-Unit crews and department heads to autonomously realize aspects or sequences, but rather personally micromanages all divisions to his specified fruition. With a wicked efficiency in speed and breadth, Bay generals hugely intricate on- set sequences involving simultaneous camera setups of stunning aesthetic composition involving impressive precision in kinetics, frame- rates, lighting, lens augmentations, stunt work and practical effects rigging -- with actors performing in frame – and orchestrates all this "Bayhem" safely. Then without missing a beat carries that energy over to lording over every minute aspect of post-production; from the incredibly layered complexities of editing, effects, sound design, music, and even marketing. Bay is no gun-for-hire hack, he is a specific visionary of immense skill set. Although some may be bewildered by the styled nature of its non-stop sensory bombardment -- and regardless as to its vulgar pronouncement, no one can claim it's not often astonishingly beautiful and does somehow express a cohesive whole. That's an extraordinary exhaustive task that only a handful of the most adept and composed directors in the world could even dare attempt, which Bay confidently mounts on a frequent basis, to a degree perhaps unequaled.
There is a reason why the often emulated, never replication, bigger than life spectacle that Bay routinely accomplishes has garnered proper recognition, accolade, and defense over the years from peers such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Edgar Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Quentin Tarantino; Because they know that action and montage is the purest form of cinema and Michael Bay is a master of that discipline -- and the fact that it seems so undisciplined is maybe even a testament too. Also they understand the overwhelming workload required to definitively command such gargantuan ventures, and the fact that Bay does it time and again with virtuoso vision of auteur aesthetic is a totally impressive feat -- even if you don't care for it.
Opposing the consensus dismissal that Bay is an unsophisticated abomination that merely makes incoherent populace bombasts that lack any semblance of subtly or nuance in pensive development -- I would counter that perhaps the purveyors of that notion simply lack capacity in comprehending communication through super sophisticated rapid sensorial stimulation. Bay may be stuck in arrested development in his childish proclivities, but that child is nonetheless a supreme savant in cinematic verse.
As for "Transformers: The Last Knight", it has the same expected virtues I've detailed as well as those defects of being excessively loud and shallow. Sure, I'd prefer Bay tone down the bro banter, silly stoicism, and frenetic editing – but such criticisms can only go so deep when what is presented is so staggeringly authentic to its aspiration. Anyway, Anthony Hopkins seems to be having a helluva time!
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