It has been a while since we last heard from director Michael Bay. Whalebone Magazine sat down with the former Transformers director, for an interview regarding his career throughout the years.
“How do you know that, well, this all works, this is it, this is making people happy?
MB: I love when I’m doing a very vocal kind of movie, like Bad Boys would be a vocal movie or I guess the first Transformers was a vocal movie, Armageddon was a vocal move. Where the audience is very involved and big laughs and applause and stuff like that. I would love to go to theaters and watch people, watch the movie. And to me that was the joy of it. And you do it about four times and then it’s over, then you’ve got to go to your next thing. So it’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears the whole crew puts in.”
But, he was less than pleased to talk about an accident which destroyed a historic window at Winston Churchill’s house.
“If we’re talking about explosions, there’s one that, the one that I feel the worst about, is Churchill’s house— Winston Churchill’s house, Blenheim Palace in England. We did an explosion there. I feel the worst about that one because it survived the whole Hitler onslaught and the windows, everything survived. But my explosion on [Transformers: The Last Knight] three years ago blew out one of those windows. So that really sucks. And original Coke bottle type glass. They don’t make that anymore.”
thegoldendisc66
I do appreciate on what Michael Bay has done. You did great Michael Bay and I support you, despite of negative reviews from others. DOTM has been a poignant story of loss and betrayal. In my own story, I would\'ve make a direct sequel to DOTM where forgiveness and making amends between Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime centers there. So, the story took fifteen years later after the events of Chicago, disregarding Cade\'s timeline where Sam wasn\'t there. Sam Witwicky has been an iconic character last 2007, played by Shia Labeouf. It starts with a girl who has been a victim of Laserbeak\'s murders since DOTM, searching for Optimus Prime on where is he and why he\'s gone. They could\'ve just repair Sentinel Prime. It was a set up of Optimus Prime\'s banishment since the death of Sentinel Prime. How poignant it is, together with Ironhide\'s death. About Ironhide, it could never be undone. RIP Ironhide. That wasn\'t Sentinel Prime. I promise.
Matty
Veer it back folks or take the conversation to PMs.
Caminus Prime
unless you have evidence to prove my "assumptions" and opinions are wrong, I meant what I said.
Chris Bot
Caminus, bro, stop. You keep digging a deeper hole with every post. You're making some very big assumptions and generalizations.
Caminus Prime
Smasher
I would say there are lots of people who could prove you wrong, but then I would feel bad for them if I had them talk to you.
Thanks for being even more insulting, something I had not thought possible.
I've decided I'm only engaging in intelligent conversation for the remainder of the day so I shall comment no further.
Caminus Prime
I made it clear as a "take it or leave it" advice.
It's just brutal honesty.
No one. Not even a die-hard fan remembers (or knows) who they are. Cullen's more relevant and recognizable.
Smasher
You can't define what a gamer is nor can you define what makes a fan.
I could easily say you're not a gamer because you didn't like the game, don't like action games that are not shooters, or don't like games from what I consider to be one of the premiere development houses in the world, Platimum Games.
But I didn't say any of that because neither of us can quantify what makes a gamer nor what makes a fan.
All I said was the game is not for everyone, I would say you fall in that category but instead of just accepting that you make some list of demands for your ideal game while at the same time being profoundly insulting.
Categorically incorrect.
Again -not for everyone.
This type of PC MASTER RACE noise isn't helpful either.
SPLIT LIP
Bay is so weird he's fascinating.
RazorclawX
Actually there are reasons and the for the same reasons why you STILL can't get those kind of graphics on a PS4– because it's too expensive.
You want that kind of graphics, you need to shell out the money. That's not just on the development end– you need to stop paying for these underpowered CONSOLE games like the PS4 (graphics cards have far surpassed consoles like the PS4 uses that the PS4 was four years out of date when it came out).
In the meantime, there is absolutely no reason to make the kind of graphics you're asking in a video game.
Caminus Prime
You're speaking from a "fans" point of view. I'm speaking from a gamers point of view.
Devastation is a rebooted game that had no desire to take it slow for newcomers, instead they threw all the big 80s nods at you at once and made all the interesting bosses into punching bags. Everything was random, the fighting combat system feels meaningless when you realize that all your adversaries don't die, the 2004 Armada game did not hold back like this one did.
Story made no attempts to start from the beginning on how the hell everyone came to earth and thus roaming around without human interventions. In this game, these 5 playable autobots are your one dimentional characters. You attack Literally EVERYBODY that's not one of your 5 protagonists throughout the entirety of this game, making the enviornment a lifeless, hostile territory.
The graphics are awful, it's 2015 and we're still looking for excuses to not modernize Transformers into a more detailed, realistic approach on a CONSOLE. This is a PS(3)4/Xbox one title, NOT a Nintendo game.
DLC is complete horse shit, what's the point in making preorders if all you're gonna do is give us lame weapons/skins that we can easily buy later from the PlayStation Store?
Back to the reboot aspect, this game should've been self-contained with their characters introductions and how everything wen't down between Autobots and Decepticons being enemies, not to mention Megatron having an Insecticon/Battlecharger/Seeker army all at once. This also brings back the logic of 5 autobots just magically showing up to the party lacking and somehow STILL managing to manhandle the whole legion of cons. It would've also been a lot more interesting if they just admitted all the other autobots are dead and this is all that remains.
They should've never spoiled all the Decepticons in the trailers, otherwise there'd be reasonable amount of shock value when you're new to this and constantly get blindsided by villains you've never seen before. Either that or just pure shock value when you discover how powerful and terrifying each is when they attack.
Speaking of which, I've lost MORE respects for Megatron than before when I realized that I can beat the piss out of him and the combiners with ease as Bumblebee, making Superion and Defensors presence in the ending just… pointless. If Platinum games REALLY putted that much care in this game, then they would've saved him for an anticipating "you are not ready" for this last.
"Original" cast don't mean anything these days. Apart from Peter Cullen, you could easily remove all of them and no one would care.
I'm baffled that this games whole outlook is just a 30+ cartoon show reminisce for you guys. A perfect explanation for why it didn't sell well, welcome to the 21st century. You're lucky they didn't release the soundtracks separately, that was the only saving grace for Devastation.
Here's a reasonable "take it or leave it" advice for Certain Affinity or whoever's behind the next console game: STOP TRYING TO IMPRESS THE G1 FANS. You have a story to tell that you have to make as coherent and fresh as possible from scratch. Don't throw us in the middle of the chaos, walk us slowly through it's origins first and when the dust settles, make a satisfying ending that'll help us encourage you to make another.
Put more innovations in your enviornments. Picking objects up to throw or fight with, climbing building, being able to cause collateral damages, etc. should NOT trouble you in the slightest. Let us be resourceful when we decide our weapons and brawns aren't enough. Make your bosses into characters with more substance, drive, dialouges and know-hows against you and what you're standing for. Make your graphics "Next Gen" worthy and leave Activisions stench behind. Let us KILL our enemies, don't let "fan favorites" stop you from letting us put our weapons and brawns to brutal/creative uses. Second and third rounds are unacceptable, If we beat em they're DONE for, move on to the next con.
Take small notes from DOOM/Skyrim and give us more varieties on the enemy AIs. Give them the luxury to either change tactics or have self-preservations for a no-win situation. Lose the 80s references and DON'T appeal to just kids, it's not cute and you have absolutely NOTHING to accomplish from this. Nothing can be further from the truth that Kids are grown, dark and immature when it comes to console games, it's just the way it is. If you can't make it Mature 17+, meet in the middle between that and E for Everyone. Put in more contents with more meaningful side quests that rewards either new maps to explore, weapons, upgrades, health boosts, collectibles, easter eggs, or secret baddie bosses like Overlord or Scorponok. Make and Pick the multiplayers that's more popular to gamers. And lastly, give us a better marketing campaign with a GOOD reason to pre-order. Make a limited collectors, legendary (or whatever) edition that makes the release date even more exciting.
This is not to be mean, nitpicking, or wishful thinking; it's just brutal honesty from someone who's had more exploring/experience with other titles and expects the next developer to be at the top of their game, especially with PS5 on the horizon.
I don't EVER want to see another Transformers game like Activisions again.
SideswipeFriend2005
I meant to say he wanted them to be fun and exciting. But as we all know, that's not Bay's strong suit, is it?
Cliffjumper
This is nice to hear from him again
SilverOptimus
I'm agreeing with Inception. I know that a lot of people consider Michael Bay as a meany, but he's quite the opposite. TFW Staff met him during set visits and he's just a super cool dude who loves everything about the work he's doing. Sure his work is not the cup of tea for everyone, but he's got his heart in the right place.
TLK broke the franchise in many countries including mine. A lot of bad decisions went into it. But what happened, happened. We can only look to the future with hope.
Incepticon
But again, not really. I mean, the full quote is sitting right there on the front page and in the interview:
"If we’re talking about explosions, there’s one that, the one that I feel the worst about, is Churchill’s house— Winston Churchill’s house, Blenheim Palace in England. We did an explosion there. I feel the worst about that one because it survived the whole Hitler onslaught and the windows, everything survived. But my explosion on [Transformers: The Last Knight] three years ago blew out one of those windows. So that really sucks. And original Coke bottle type glass. They don’t make that anymore.”
I'm just not understanding the selective cherry-pick quoting is all. Whether people want to believe him or not is up to them, but based on those words sitting right in front of everyone, in proper context, he actually is expressing remorse/regret about it.
Lovecraft
Optimus Prime's description of "Decepticons….in human skin" rings true for me when it comes to the nature of most people in power and their loyalists among the masses….
oo a toi
Humanity is terrible, so it is an accurate portrayal. This quote from Megatron has really stuck with me for the last several years: "Humans don't deserve to live."
He is right, we don't.
Lovecraft
Sometimes I feel like Bay might honestly be a little sociopathic.
It makes the TF movies a lot more interesting viewed through the lense of them being made by a man with visceral contempt for the human condition. The human race SUCKS in these movies between the government and selfish individuals like Sam or Cade (at first, at least he grew a smidge) All the cathartic revenge violence between robots comes off as someone FINALLY being able to paint the shit they can't stop seeing when they close their eyes.
AND I LIKE the Bayverse for what it is, but a lot of that comes from the real life perplexing nature of Micheal Bay.
Who exactly has a young woman audition for a movie by washing a car in lingerie on a weird old 35mm camera (what other strange black and white home movies has he made or acquired?), deliberately portrays his 'greatest champion' as a broken reflection of himself carrying on with a growing sense of ruthlessness and bloodlust, or just decides to dress up Winston Churchill's mansion like a NAZI ENCAMPMENT and accidentally BLOWS UP A WINDOW THAT SURVIVED WWII and basically brags about it in an interview with an additional 'it sucked that I did that'.
A strange angry man who loves to flip off the world, that's who.
Maybe I'm a little strange for finding it so damn fascinating.