Quote Originally Posted by Smint View Post
2 reasons. Li Bing Bing and Hong Kong. Its partially a business decision when film makers court international stars and shoot overseas.


Flames on optimus, bumblebee peeing, ethnic stereotype robots etc are all Bay's idea. Even the designs are his.

Bay always loves saying he has a great relationship with the us military because he always makes them look good which he does. This is the kind of power a director has.

In the end it's always the director's call. He doesn't shoot if he's not happy with the script and writing. How much input is his only they know but I'm pretty certain all those obnoxious humans, those awful personalities are all his idea.

Do we all know why we fell in love with g1 and still remember them fondly. It's was because of the characters not the action.

Think about what defines magnus, starscream, megatron, rodimus, optimus. Now think about the movie characters ..yes I'm drawing a blank too.

I can remember the hash cookie eating parents, Ken jeong, John Malkovich why the fuck can't I remember any of the tf's?
I'm all for the globalisation of the franchise. They under-utilised Hong Kong (most of the fighting scenes are Detroit/Chicago staged to look like a Chinatown which is NOTHING like real HK) and bowed a bit to other powers to gain favour with their large emerging movie market... which kind of sucks.
Personally I would LOVE to see Optimus as a road-train in the outback... it's desolate, barren and really lends itself to secret isolated bases and epic high speed battles without having the drama of buildings, etc... but Bay is all about explosions and city destruction so it ain't gunna happen. And... Oz just doesn't have the population pull (even if you include those of us from those little isle on the east) for the $$ needed to make the movie a success.

Another issue with Bay is he dumbs it down for his American audiences. How many times do we need to be told Cade is an inventor? Why do we need to be told that a) Lockdowns ship is sucking things up and then b) it's a big magnet.... The reuse of scenes from earlier movies REALLY bugs me.
The spaceship chase scenes in Chicago in AoE didn't make any sense (other than convenience of advertising Bud Light, cgi models and previously filmed footage).

I don't mind Michael Bay. I actually like his cinematic style and his overuse of extreme angles and explosions. It's his storyline, lack of character development and cutting corners that really lets him down.