The Invisible Counterpoint

"Go! Go! Go!" "Incoming!" "Hit the deck!" WwwwwsshhhhhhhhSSHSHSHSHSH---KER-BLOOOOOM! "Lock and load!" 'Get some!" BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA! Bleee-OWWW! BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA! "Aim for the gas tank!" BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA! Ker-BLANG! Splut! Gooooooshhh -- KER-BLOOOOOOM! "Yeahhhh!" "Woooo-hoooo!" What Michael Bay movie is that from? In spirit, all of them. But to truly experience the above you'd need to read it while riding a roller coaster. The car would have to be equipped with strobe lights, sparklers, a half-dozen monkeys battering you about the head and shoulders with ping-pong paddles and a boombox blasting the "Here comes the cavalry!" orchestral stylings of Bay's court composer, Hans Zimmer. The director of "Pearl Harbor" (2001), "Bad Boys II" (2003), "The Island" (2005), "Transformers" (2007) and "Transformers: Revenge of th...

One of the things Micheael Bay does well in both Transformer films is convince you that the battle would go on, even if you weren't there to observe/experience it. This differs from LOTR, where too often you sensed that the battles were conceived with you in mind--are the halflings going to "get it"?! No, for just as you begin to wince in anticipation of the falling sword, comes whomever to save the day. The feeling you get is as if Bay asked the CGI dudes/lasses to forget about the viewer and concentrate on what whatever particular robot would do in the situation he found himself in. The result of this immersion, interest in something other than making you feel a certain way, integrity of the art form, even, is that the battles (for the most part--there is a bit of the nick-of-time stuff here) feel uncontrived, unpredictable, outside (not the projection of someone's inner world) -- really happening, and incredibly immersive and exciting. These films are not just lo...