He certainly embodies America’s excess violence, xenophobia, and misogyny (said as someone who loves the spectacle of Armageddon and enjoyed Pain & Gain)
The worst part about the takeover of superhero movies is that people are looking back to people like Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich as artists when they were just hacks of the day with their own brand instead of today's anonymous hacks with no brand.
Actually what am I saying. Roland Emmerich made Independence Day. He’s no hack. I was a little mean there
Anyway now that I have seen them all here’s my transformers ranking: 1) Dark of the Moon 2) The Last Knight 3) Transformers 4) Age of Extinction 5) Rise of the Beasts 6) Bumblebee 7) Revenge of the Fallen
Yeah, da fuck? Emmerich is miles ahead of Bay in every possible way. ID4, Patriot, 2012, White House Down. These are all my level of schlock. I love me some Armagedon don't get me wrong, but bad boys isn't enough to eleveate the rest of his career (wasted on transformers crap)
This is exactly it. The definition of "good" is variable (I wouldn't go higher than 8/10 on any of their movies) but there are some enjoyable ones and some garbage. I'll grant Bay actual stylistic hallmarks and a desire to make things visually interesting (sometimes too much). Emmerich not so much.
It's the only one with anything approaching a coherent story or an actual heart. Insane not to have it at the top.
Michael Bay is historical significant. I dont enjoy Bay films, when i switch the lens to art as an expression of culture he is the best at expressing and executing the feeling of 'Merica!
The worst moment in his whole filmography though is when Josh Hartnett says into the phone "Hang on...I think World War II just started!" I had to pause. I was crying laughing. Edit: Actually, I lied. Robot Heaven is as bad.
The Rock, Armageddon, Bad Boys II, Transformers 1, 3 & 5, Pain and Gain, and Ambulance are the movies I will die on a hill defending as incredible works of action filmmaking. The rest whatever there’s cool stuff in them but the bad kinda outweighs the good. The man is an auteur.
Of course I don’t think “auteur” automatically means “bow down its good” but he deserves more credit as an image maker with a singular recognizable vision