This is what I'm talkin' about! Who says James Cameron would WANT to do Transformers? Nobody is saying he couldn't do a good job at it, but would he even care to do a project based off a popular childrens show? I'm sure of all the guys willing to do it, if any, Bay was the absolute best choice.

 

I still stand by my claim that Bay was on his way out after Pearl Harbor and Transformers saved his career. Granted, he had his F-You money at that point, but he was NOT going to be in demand had TF not come along and fell into his lap.

Pearl Harbor, while not a bomb was a disappointment critically and box office wise as far as the studios go. They were hoping for more. Then Bad Boys 2 came and that just BARELY made it out of the box office in the positive domestically ($130mm budget, made $138MM domestically). THEN came the grand daddy of all bombs with The Island. $126mm budget, made $12mm domestically.

As Ebert pointed out, he's a relic from the late 90s. Bloated disaster movies with stuff blowing up is his forte. I don't think he's suited at all to do movies with heavy computer graphics. He's an analog director, CGI movies are not in his area of expertise.

Say what you want, downplay the popularity of TF, but this is a franchise that has been around in some capacity for 30 years. Badmouth G1 all you want, but the characters had rich, varied personalities from the toon to the comics. The death of Optimus Prime in the animated movie changed a generation of kids forever. There hasn't been a kids series that's had the death of THE main character like that since. That's something nobody my age has forgotten. It's not something that you can explain, it's just something you had to have lived through. Seeing it after the fact is like watching a football game on DVR that you know the score of, it's just not the same unless you lived through it.