I think it looks cocking AW-FUL, but each to his own. In many ways I hope it's a success and Mr Bay spends the rest of his days producing endless sequels to it and leaves all the big sci-fi franchises well alone. Incidentally somebody on AICN recommended reading the original press articles about the actual people involved in the events this story is based on and suggested that they are so bizarre and violent it would have made a much more interesting 'realistic' film than the haphazardly edited collection of bland action footage and juvenile penis gags this trailer represents. If you gave Mikey B the script to Goodfellas this is exactly what he'd make of it.
Come on dude, Michael Bay has been making movies for quite a while now and we all know what to expect long before we push those dollars over the ticket office counter. It's always possible that the man has done a complete 180 with this film, but there's absolutely nothing in either of the trailers to suggest he's approaching the material in any other way than his usual style. You either like that, or you don't. Personally speaking I loathe everything about how he makes films, from the photography right down to his much celebrated action chops. Not everyone will agree with me.
To each their own, but personally speaking, I think it's exactly movies like this (ie: Bad Boys & The Rock) that Michael Bay does extremely well and what he should just stick with. You know what you're getting as soon as you walk into them: action, banter, lowbrow comedy that actually works in the context, hot chicks, sexy cars, an over saturated color palette, cool shots & angles, more action, an obligatory 'spinning Bay shot', etc. And to be fair, if this true story was as awesome or seriously compelling as you're making it sound, someone else would have gotten to it long before Bay, of all people, did. The only thing I find funny is how often Bay referred to this movie as his "indie" passion project that he's been wanting to do, but everything about the trailer makes it look every bit as decently budgeted and akin to Bad Boys. I suppose after stuff like Transformers, it *is* "indie" by comparison.
Personally I can live happily without all the mans revolting cinematic habits in any project, though in this context at least he's confining them to his 'hobby' movies rather than foisting them on things like 'Transformers' (till TF4 of course). What is somewhat depressing is that his particular 'style' - and I use that in the the loosest sense of the word - seems to be bleeding into the rest of mainstream cinema. If you think that the quality of a script, or how interesting a concept is has any bearing on it's successful path to the screen, then you are misconstruing how the current Hollywood machine works. Plenty of fantastic stories took years to make their way to theaters. Even more still languish in development hell or simply sit on office shelves. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that it was only at MB's insistence that this production was greenlit, and I bet even he had a hard time of it... But indeed, each to his own particular poison.
that's all nice, but the point you originally made was that the subject matter of the articles was better than what was in this film. i wasn't defending Bay's style, nor was I calling you out for criticizing it. I was calling you out because you were criticizing the differences between the inspiration for the film and the film itself.... based on the trailer.
Bay indulges his inner Coen/Hitchcock. Never thought he could be classified with Hitchcock in terms of black humor (at least not CLASSY black humor), but he seems to be pulling it off well with this film.
Actually, the point I was making was that the subject matter in the articles is interesting enough to make a pretty fabulous film in a style light years away from how Mr Bay likes to do things, and y'know, based on his previous form, that would be the film I'd rather see. It isn't about what might or might not be 'left out', but the whole tone of the piece. And that tone is abundantly clear from the trailer. Whether that is to your particular taste is for you to decide. If you want to hack at me for blasting a film based on a short clip, then that's fair enough, but I think it's pretty obvious what we are getting here...
LOL! a michael bay movie based on a true story. i'll see it for the LOL factor, i guess. not laughing at bay's humor, but laughing at the "fact" of this film being based on a true story.
