Michael Bay Apologizes for Armageddon

[Quintus 6,494]

I like Michael Bay, he's an auteur with an instantly recognizable style, which isn't something that can be said for a lot of directors. The Rock is still one of the best action movies ever made. I'm looking forward to Pain & Gain, which looks like Bad Boys without Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

Vintage Koray Savas!

[Brónach 1,330]

Films are heightened depictions of reality. There are certain things in real life that are quite ordinary and mundane that wouldn't translate to exiting cinema.

Every bank robbery on film is severely exaggerated. Banks don't carry more than tens of thousands of dollars. All of a branch's money could fit in one backpack.

If you mean that a realistic asteroid mission wouldn't make exciting cinema, you're terribly mistaken.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,386]

Films are heightened depictions of reality. There are certain things in real life that are quite ordinary and mundane that wouldn't translate to exiting cinema.

Every bank robbery on film is severely exaggerated. Banks don't carry more than tens of thousands of dollars. All of a branch's money could fit in one backpack.

The reverse is true for Die Hard With A Vengeance.

It would have taken hundreds of trucks to take out all the gold from the Federal Reserve, not 14....

[Jay 46,242]

I still maintain that the last 40 minutes of Transformers is action moviemaking at its finest.

[Brónach 1,330]

I read NASA uses this film to test people on how much stupid can they detect in it.

They also do this with The Core no? Now that was a stupid movie...

I haven't seen the core (and I probably don't want to) but Armageddon contains about 168 things that are simply impossible. Not counting the improbable ones. So they use it to test people, asking them to differenciate the impossible from the improbable and so on. Makes for an original test for sure.

[Richard P 5,302]

I still maintain that the last 40 minutes of Transformers is action moviemaking at its finest.

+1

Preaching against Zimmer haters is one thing but.... this?

[Quintus 6,494]

Not to be contrary for the sake of it, but I honestly thought the action packed climax of that movie was horribly directed. I couldn't tell what the FUCK was going on. In no universe is that mess of cgi and explosions textbook, unless you look like a fucking arachnid from the nose up.

Lee - who otherwise quite liked Transformers: The Movie. Hasn't seen the sequels

[Jay 46,242]

Exactly - Transformers is action movie making at its worst! The way it is shot and edited, it becomes impossible to tell what's going on.

[Wojo 2,458]

Lee, wasn't The Movie the animated classic?

[Quintus 6,494]

I have no idea. I'm talking about the one with the tanned midriff.

[Jay 46,242]

Wojo is referring to the fact that the title of the 1986 animated movie is titled "The Transformers: The Movie"; The 2007 Michael Bay directed live action Transformers movie is simply titled "Transformers"

[Wojo 2,458]

Jay just wants a gold star. That movie came out when Megan Fox's midriff was three months old.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

like Wojo, it's a guilty pleasure,

but Deep Impact is a much better film to me.

[publicist 4,650]

DEEP IMPACT is mushy christian propaganda with a really despiceable ideology behind it. It was dethroned by I AM LEGEND nine years later, though.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

DEEP IMPACT is mushy christian propaganda with a really despiceable ideology behind it. It was dethroned by I AM LEGEND nine years later, though.

LOL, that's so funny.

Christian propaganda??? It was directed and produced by Jewish filmmakers.

[Brónach 1,330]

Almost the same in practice.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

perhaps you found that Morgan Freeman as President praying as a Christian to be propaganda but considering that every president professes to be a Christian is just the way it is.

I think that Deep Impact portrayed the events more real than Armageddon and more real emotion.

[Brónach 1,330]

In simply thought it was BOOORING. I was a bit inmature at that point to tear it apart, scientifically speaking, so I can't go into that.

I don't think I've ever seen a good asteroid disaster film. Another one in cinema's to do list, and it's been how many? And then you get people saying everything has been done.

[Quintus 6,494]

The father/daughter death scene on the beach is the one highlight - it's absolutely hilarious!

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Not to be contrary for the sake of it, but I honestly thought the action packed climax of that movie was horribly directed. I couldn't tell what the FUCK was going on. In no universe is that mess of cgi and explosions textbook, unless you look like a fucking arachnid from the nose up.

Lee - who otherwise quite liked Transformers: The Movie. Hasn't seen the sequels

If you have a problem keeping up, isn't that a problem with you and not necessarily with the film? Editing in action films is very important, so don't immediately disregard my point. I understand if there are thousands of cuts in a scene that there's only so much you can expect out of the audience, but I never had a problem with Bay's editing. There's definitely more breathing room in a Bay production than in Paul Greengrass' movies or Quantum Of Solace.

The marriage of visuals, music, and story is perfect in the last act of Transformers. Don't read story as in script or dialogue, but rather as action and movement, progression. It's hair-raising stuff. I despise pretty much everything that came before, with the exception of the Skorponok attack. I also despise Revenge Of The Fallen and haven't bothered with Dark Of The Moon.

[Jay 46,242]

Wow.

[Wojo 2,458]

Every time I kill a house centipede, I feel like Will Smith in I Am Legend.

[Quintus 6,494]

Yeah it's probably old age at fault. Old people haven't the coordination they once had for these movies.

Holding my piss in for two hours is difficult enough as it is.

[Brónach 1,330]

Don't read story as in script or dialogue, but rather as action and movement, progression.

Wouldn't script and dialogue be part of that by definition?

I gaven't been able to get past the first half the film, the one time I tried to see it with people.

[publicist 4,650]

perhaps you found that Morgan Freeman as President praying as a Christian to be propaganda but considering that every president professes to be a Christian is just the way it is.

Joey, for GOD'S sake, all the Adam & Eve stuff, the ark, proper american teenagers standing atop a mountain at the end with their newly adopted child (finally one without having actually to indulge in dirty sex - a garden eden without sin) - all this in aid of the thought that mankind has to be wiped out to be redeemed and should damn well be happy about it because the right ones will survive (as the film clearly takes sides who should live or die). DEEP IMPACT is, when i start thinking about it again, a repulsive movie.

[Quintus 6,494]

Lol, for a movie to be considered actually repulsive by some it usually means its divisive, like art. You're investing too much analytical thought into it pub, because Deep Impact is just soap opera dreck and not even worth being repulsed by. Taking your own critique a bit too seriously again, perhaps?

[JoeinAR 1,957]

perhaps you found that Morgan Freeman as President praying as a Christian to be propaganda but considering that every president professes to be a Christian is just the way it is.

Joey, for GOD'S sake, all the Adam & Eve stuff, the ark, proper american teenagers standing atop a mountain at the end with their newly adopted child (finally one without having actually to indulge in dirty sex - a garden eden without sin) - all this in aid of the thought that mankind has to be wiped out to be redeemed and should damn well be happy about it because the right ones will survive (as the film clearly takes sides who should live or die). DEEP IMPACT is, when i start thinking about it again, a repulsive movie.

thanks for the chuckles, seriously you should put that in your comedy act.

[Wojo 2,458]

Wow, if Deep Impact's implied agenda is that repulsive, how do you feel about a less subtle film like Ben-Hur? Or conversely, Dogma or South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut?

[publicist 4,650]

I think it stands to reason that being subjected to those little ideological pills over the years of course is a) a mirror of society at large and b) a subtle way of introducing certain 'realities' to people feeding on them. I know that most will chuckle at the thought that TWILIGHT, TRANSFORMERS & Co. and their implied subtexts have any bearing on society as a whole - i'm sure it does although i admit i'm not sure in what way, exactly.

If anything, this belongs in a thread devoted to Michael Bay, who is one of the number one sledgehammer salesmen for this line of stuff.

@Wojo: stop being facetious. BEN HUR's subtitle is 'A TALE OF THE CHRIST', not OCEAN'S RISE, CITIES FALL, HOPE SURVIVES'

[JoeinAR 1,957]

Wow, if Deep Impact's implied agenda is that repulsive, how do you feel about a less subtle film like Ben-Hur? Or conversely, Dogma or South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut?

don't get him thinking.

next he'll latch onto the idea of Jorel sending Earth his only son.

[publicist 4,650]

At least this one doesn't use christian analogy in aid of a rotten worldview.

[Brónach 1,330]

next he'll latch onto the idea of Jorel sending Earth his only son.

As if that stuff was only Christian.

Leaving aside the "American Way" silliness, Superman has a positive world view. Superman can be the opposite of what publicist is saying about Deep Impact.

[Wojo 2,458]

Jorel again. I don't know who this is.

[publicist 4,650]

A Liberace impersonator.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

so in the next 15-16 years will Bay be apologizing for Pain and Gain?

[publicist 4,650]

Not to an audience like you.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

he has no need to apologize to me. I am not his audience.

I hear Mimi Leder has apologized to all the heathens of the world.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,386]

who?

[Wojo 2,458]

That's Jor-El.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Don't read story as in script or dialogue, but rather as action and movement, progression.

Wouldn't script and dialogue be part of that by definition?

I gaven't been able to get past the first half the film, the one time I tried to see it with people.

Well then you can't really relate to what I'm talking about if you haven't seen the whole movie. I meant it as staging the action. There's a great sense of ebb and flow in Bay's directing and how he goes from point A to B. one only needs to watch something like the car chase in The Rock.

[Brónach 1,330]

I remember seeing that when I was a kid. I remember actually thinking that it was messy.

Actually, I just saw it again on youtube. You can call me spoiled by Cameron and Spielberg and things like Children of Men and Tintin and what not, but this just feels messy. Some shots are a bit wtf for me.

Here's something with vehicles that I enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0JMVal0cdY

It feels cleaner, like there's room to breathe and a greater sense of scale. And it puts some nicely angled, "iconic" looking shots in there that add badassery to the situation.

As for what you said of Bay being an author, which I think has others laughing, I'm going to agree with you. Regardless of quality, the films of the guy contain a lot of clear repeating patterns and a clear personal mark. If one likes it or not, that's another story.

[Trent B 354]

The others I could really care about but ya I too don't mind Armageddon. It's definitely a popcorn (almost typed poopcorn) flick.

[Marian Schedenig 11,694]

I read NASA uses this film to test people on how much stupid can they detect in it.

They also do this with The Core no? Now that was a stupid movie...

I haven't seen The Core, but at least it had a good score.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

I remember seeing that when I was a kid. I remember actually thinking that it was messy.

Actually, I just saw it again on youtube. You can call me spoiled by Cameron and Spielberg and things like Children of Men and Tintin and what not, but this just feels messy. Some shots are a bit wtf for me.

Here's something with vehicles that I enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0JMVal0cdY

It feels cleaner, like there's room to breathe and a greater sense of scale. And it puts some nicely angled, "iconic" looking shots in there that add badassery to the situation.

As for what you said of Bay being an author, which I think has others laughing, I'm going to agree with you. Regardless of quality, the films of the guy contain a lot of clear repeating patterns and a clear personal mark. If one likes it or not, that's another story.

Absolutely. There are signature filmic elements that Bay uses in every film. I actually think there's a YouTube video that compiles all the repeating camera movements from each of his films. The first thing in the Pain & Gain trailer is a plane flying over the MIAMI sign, which is in both Bad Boys films and I think something else.

I love Children Of Men and Terminator 2, so I wouldn't argue that those aren't brilliantly directed films. Perhaps I'm "spoiled" by growing up on The Rock and Con Air and the Bruckheimer/Simpson era.

[ZackR 187]

Armageddon is a guilt pleasure favorite.

If it were on TV right now, I'd be watching it.

[Matt C 605]

Exactly - Transformers is action movie making at its worst! The way it is shot and edited, it becomes impossible to tell what's going on.

That's why I like the third one, just because Bay was forced to shoot and edit the action scenes differently for 3D. Especially the last 35 minutes of Dark of the Moon allow viewers to soak in the detail and enjoy the action for once. It's refreshing to see.

You are right on the money about the first two Transformers films. The action was badly shot and edited, especially the last 20 minutes of the first one. It also nearly put me to sleep several times.

[Ollie 1,375]

so in the next 15-16 years will Bay be apologizing for Pain and Gain?

Actually that film looks somewhat amusing.

The Transformer films are awful, which is a shame because the first hour of the first film feels like Bay had it under control with guidance from Spielberg.

After that it went to crap. I still have no clue WTF was happening in the last hour of that film.

[A24 5,156]

Armageddon is a guilt pleasure favorite.

If it were on TV right now, I'd be watching it.

It seems to be mandatory for being a good JWfan.

[Naïve Old Fart 13,021]

Did he really have just sixteen weeks to prep., shoot, edit, and release a film?! That's got to be some sort of a record, hasn't it?

I might get rapped in the mouth for this, but...is there an extended version of "Armageddon"? I just feel that it is far too fast, like everyone had a bus to catch, or something.

A bit of slowing down, coupled with more character development, would have helped the film. "Armageddon" had the spectable, but "Deep Impact" had emotion...plus it had Vanessa Redgrave, and that's always a good thing...Thank the maker that the owners of the rights to "The Glass Inferno", and "The Tower" pooled their resources.

P.s. I've never registered the Christian allegory in "Deep Impact". Personally, I think that there is more Christian allegory in "The Abyss", but that is a whole other story...

[Jay 46,242]

The originally posted quote was taken out of context, what he was actually saying was he only had 16 weeks to edit the film.

The Criterion DVD of Armageddon is an extended cut.