Bay slams 'Transformers' ad campaign

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nicklebie

New member
Michael Bay has criticised the ad campaign for Transformers 2 as "abject failure", "really weak" and "pathetic".

Or was he talking about the film?
 
I wouldn't be. The first film got terrible, terrible reviews too (because it's a terrible, terrible film) and was inexplicably popular.

Phazer
 
Hopefully people who gave the first film a chance despite it's terrible reviews will think twice before going to see a sequel which if reviews are anything to go by is, incredibly, even worse.
 
Transformers 2 will make a lot of money regardless of the publicity.... Good or bad.... But it is not going to be remembered in years to come.... A classic it aint.
 
It's not a film for ALL obviously, the franchise never will be but the first film I thought is good and deserves its place in history as one of the more successful films in 2007 and fastest selling DVD of 2007, the same will happen again. It is going to do well and the only real threat I think is Harry Potter. Reviews mean nothing.
 
I'm sure he couldnt care about that, cosidering, a) he gets poor reviews for most stuff he does on the whole anyway, this is hardly unique, and b) the cinema screens have been packed out to see the film.

The advertising has been poor though. I've barely seen anything promoting the film.
 
Michael Bay totally ruined transformers.

The very fact that he does not like the Animated Movie illustrates he's not really a fan of the franchise.

The transforming robots in the Citroen adverts look better than the ones in the movie. All the ones in the movie look too similar.
 
I have to say that even with all the negative reviews, it's still a Transformers movie and I grew up with the cartoon and toys. So I'll still probably go and see it at some point anyway.

Here is a link to the extract from last week's Film Reviews with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 5Live:

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen review by Mark Kermode (MP3): http://www.senRABpace.com/file/85yabq

For those of you who don't know Mark Kermode, he is known for several things including his rants. This one was quite mild by Kermodian standarRAB but to give you a clue...

1. Michael Bay is likened to Damian from the onset.
2. Less than 20 seconRAB in and the review is "appalling".
3. Mark makes it clear Bay has a pornographic sensibility when making movies, as in "Whoarr - look at that car. Whoarr - Megan Fox. Whoarr - Robots !".
4. Every female character in the college is a 35 year old pole dancer and / or from Maxim.
5. And the end of the review... "(Mark): I HATED it".

It's a 9Mb file. Have a listen, it's quite funny even if the movie is reviewed as being "mind bendingly terrible" with "a rotten heart". But even Mark has admitted before now a critic cannot kill a movie. I'm sure it will be No.1 next week regardless of the bad reviews.
 
err if u know anything about transformers you know the animated movie was more a curiosity than an act of great filmmaking. killing off all the characters because the execs didn't know the kiRAB were attached to g1 characters thinking it would be a good excuse to bring out a new toy line.



as for kermode..that rant was just sad really, esp when he complains about the t&a. course the pretentious art film crowd he was talking to ate it right up.
 
WTF this is Mark Kermode on Radio Five Live, he's appealing to the Lowest common denominator when he does these reviews. Which is ashame really as he can do much better and is a far better film critic when he is away from his five live stuff.


i'm not even sure why Kermode is being mentioned, there was literally zero percent chance he was ever going to like this movie.
 
Getting back on topic, perhaps Bay has an issue with those posters of The Fallen, which seem like quite a poor way of promoting the film. They're too dark. From a distance it just looks like a black sheet of paper with two red dots in the middle of it.
 
I take it that the absolutely massive Optimus Prime/Bumblebee/Pyramid stand up carboard thing that my local Cineworld has had in the doorway for the past few weeks isn't big enough for Michael Bay? lol.

Other than that though i've got to admit that i've not seen much else in the way of advertisement for the movie. Even 'The Hangover' has been advertised on the side of buses, i've not seen any of those aRAB for TF2.
 
There are posters but the posters are pretty bland. Everyone knows the Autobot and Decepticon logos but bizarrely they are not used in any posters.

The thing is, Bay has come in with the attitude "this is a movie about toys so I won't take it seriously", which is, funnily enough, the same attitude critics have.

One thing I notice about film critics is if a film is not an adaptation of some highly regarded novel, they don't bother learning about the source material. There was a film critic on the radio a few years back who denied that "The Touch" song in Boogie Nights came from Transformers: The Movie.
Kermode is ironically a big fan of Boogie Nights but I bet he, like that other critic, is ignorant of the blatant Transformers reference in Boogie Nights.

The 86' cartoon movie's opening 20 minutes have the dark, violent feel of the comic books (and the original storyboarRAB for the animated movie's opening battle were even more violent). The 1980s Marvel Transformers comics have a well-earned legendary reputation amongst comic book collectors and are amongst the best comics produced in the 80s. They were able to go much further in depicting violence than other comics because those not familiar with Transformers did not realise that these were living beings who were having their limbs ripped off etc.

The thing critics should be complaining about is Spielberg and Bay not consulting Simon Furman and Bob Budiansky (whereas Tom DeSanto and Don Murphy did). Allegedly it was Spielberg who pushed his own idea of "a boy and his car" over the idea of sentient robots (i.e. what Transformers is about).
 
'the arthouse crowd'? eh??

it *is* possible for a summer blockbuster to be a good, well made film you know. star trek, dark knight to name but 2 which spring to mind

he is slating the film for being rubbish. and quite rightly too

i liked the first one but even then i am aware it isn't very well made and is just an excuse for lots of effects

as for complaining about the T&A - good! i would have hoped we had moved on from women just being brain dead sex objects in films.

not everyone is a horny 15 year old boy you know..
 
The Rock is probably his best effort. Bad Boys is an extended music video and Armageddon is a load of rubbish. I like popcorn movies but they need a coherent story.
 
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