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The great tragedy of this discussion is that you are all raising ideas. 'Ideas' are not really Bay's thing.
Bay's film production is about 2 words - NEW and MORE. Never mind that old or less might produce a better story, that's not what it's about for Bay.
SofaMan - Occasionally Battling Evil with his Mighty Powers of Indolence
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A point that has been raised many times in South ParkOriginally Posted by SofaMan
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Like this?
Unless the ideas are coming from teenage boys. According to Bay in the ROTF DVD Special Features, he got the idea of shooting Mikaela straddling over the motorbike after a conversation with some teenagers at a store.
Unfortunately appealing to the lowest common denominator works really well for Bay. My brother's fiancée told me that when they saw ROTF in a London cinema, almost every guy wolf-whistled really loudly at that scene. (-_-)
Of course, a good director is able to make a film that is _both_ entertaining (without needing to be crass) *and* have a really interesting story. e.g.: Miyazaki Hayao. I love how movies like Spirited Away, seemingly simple, is actually incredibly deep and meaningful.
Funny when you compare the original Star Wars trilogy with the prequel trilogy. The original movies, made with miniatures and puppets, are widely considered to be vastly superior to the prequels that were made with state-of-the-art digital effects.
Special effects are nothing more than a tool to tell a story. A lot of great stories have been told with nothing more then words printed on paper, and were already quite successful in their own right as books long before film adaptations were made (e.g.: William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, C.S. Lewis, Edgar Allan Poe, Harper Lee, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells et al.) -- Homer's Odyssey and the Iliad were written some 28 centuries ago yet are still widely considered to be literary classics today.
Having said all that, I find the special effects in Transformers and ROTF to be really well done!
Umm... there's already been some influence between Transformers and Avatar with that "roaming 3D virtual capture camera" -- I dunno what the real name for it is, but both Michael Bay and James Cameron used it for ROTF and Avatar. It's about the size of a steering wheel with a screen in the middle and two handles on either side. They hold it like the Matrix and walk around an empty space while the camera tracks the movement and allows the director to move the camera in virtual space.Of course, it wouldn't be a chat about an upcoming effects-heavy blockbuster without some discussion of 3-D. Anyone who doesn't think "Avatar" changed the game needs to pay more attention: everyone's been talking about it, considering it, putting plans into action, Bay included.
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I call it a James Camera!
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Another thought: when you mention achieving a better story with less, the first director that came to my mind was Miyazaki Hayao. Movies like Spirited Away seem simple enough but are really quite deep and complex. I love how the most pivotal moment in Princess Mononoke was just a single word* whispered by the protagonist (Ashitaka) in under one second. It's so quick and subtle that if you blinked you would have missed it.
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*(massive Mononoke spoiler) As San plunges her knife toward Ashitaka's throat he weakly whispers, 生きろ ("live") which halts San's attack and drives a river of emotions into her (and the audience)
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But this is an issue with all modern blockbusters, which assume everyone wants more, more explosions more gun cam, more kung fu, fist fights. Much as I enjoyed the new Star Trek movie (with it's crash the time ship into the badguys ship climax), I though the ancient Star trek 2 (with it's 1 on 1 submarine inspired star ship battle) and the not quite as venerable Star trek 6 (with that one torpedo) had more tense climaxes. Generally the pivotal moment in most block busters always boils down to a long winded fist fight or other battle between the protagonist and antagonist, and just when it seems the protagonist is on the back foot they use that tricky move to win. I guess we all crave it and need it, but this formulaic approach does get kinda dull after a while, particularly in the subsequent viewings.Another thought: when you mention achieving a better story with less, the first director that came to my mind was Miyazaki Hayao. Movies like Spirited Away seem simple enough but are really quite deep and complex. I love how the most pivotal moment in Princess Mononoke was just a single word* whispered by the protagonist (Ashitaka) in under one second. It's so quick and subtle that if you blinked you would have missed it.
Of late I thought The Dark Knight, Watchmen and District 9 broke away from the standard Formula a bit, most other recent block busters (while some were quite good) to me were just going through the motions.
+1
I thought that movie was very much going through the motions, and it also seemed to lack the visceral energy of the first 2 films.
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I still haven't seen Watchmen yet (someone insisted that they'd lend me the comic to read first before viewing it *cough*
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