Were you perchance on Ecstasy when you watched Transformers 2? Even though doesn’t seem like it would be enough to make it bearable…
This post is a bit spur of the moment, but I just wanted to comment on something I just discovered from several years ago that completely baffles me. The thing that I am referring to is that, during an interview with the Huffington Post affiliated movie blog Cinematical, Wally Pfister (An Oscar winning cinematographer who has worked with Nolan on nearly all of his films) revealed that Nolan is a pretty big fan of Michael Bay movies. Here’s the quote from the interview.
“…there are the movies out there that he loves and I hate. I’m not a big Michael Bay fan. Chris loves Michael Bay’s movies. And so I’m always like come on, dude! But he sees something in it, and I don’t see it.”
Mr. Bay’s film career is essentially one long, extended face palm
If you’re not familiar with Michael Bay, think of him as the Nickelback of directors. If you’re not familiar with either Nickelback or Michael Bay, you may need to get out more. In any case, Michael Bay (Transformers series, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon) is the quintessential dumbed down blockbuster machine that critics love to hate and studios love to cash in on. His movies’ lack of substance and over-reliance on hot women, shiny cars and big explosions have earned the director huge amounts of derision from critics across the board, so it is even more confusing that a director so widely acclaimed as Nolan would “see something” in any of the man’s work. (I should point out that to the best of my knowledge Nolan has never addressed this himself in any interview, and it may be the case that he appreciates Bay’s films from a business standpoint or as guilty pleasures, both of which are somewhat understandable)
In any case though I thought I might make a list of situations that compare to the idea of Christopher Nolan loving Michael Bay movies.
It would be like…
1. If Anthony Bourdain said that his favorite restaurant was McDonalds
2. If Freddy Mercury came back to life and proclaimed his admiration of Justin Bieber
3. If Jesus returned at the Rapture and announced that Scientologists have had it right all along
4. If Olivia Wilde admitted that she had a huge crush on me
5. If JK Rowling declared that she was inspired by Twilight
6. If Colin Firth signed up for acting lessons from Hayden Christiansen
7. If every country in the world revealed that they actually love the USA
The Academy Award’s biggest ongoing snub of all
I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Luckily, whatever warm fuzzy feelings Nolan inexplicable has towards Bay it has not shown in his recent work, and so as long as that continues to be the case I don’t care if he watches Two and a Half Men or knows all of the lyrics to “Boyfriend”.
Actually scratch that, if that last one is true that’s a deal breaker no matter what way you spin it.
Chris Nolan’s one of my favorite directors of all time, and although it’s strange to see that he likes MB’s films, it doesn’t offset me all too much. It’s like how I’m a sucker for romantic comedies: I know how they’re going to play out, but they’re fun to watch. I dunno, all I know now is that I want to rewatch some Nolan and Bay films.
I alwasy get crap for it from friends of mine who prefer classic cinema, but I’d have to say that at the moment Nolan is my favorite director and the fact that he likes Michael bay doesn’t diminish his films for me at all, I just find it curious.
I think the most Bayishness I’ve seen in a Nolan movie would have to be The Dark Knight Rises, there were a few one-liner scenes that felt a bit more blockbuster-y than his usual style and that’s what Bay essentially constructs his movies out of
I agree with r361n4. There were moments during TDKR where I could have been easily convinced that I was watching a “great” Michael Bay film and not a Nolan film.
THAT SHOWS A LOT IN TDKR THE CITY LOCKDOWN THE FLYING BAT VERRY SIMILAR TO DARK OF THE MOON BTW IM HUGE FAN OF BOTH NOLAN AND BAY NOLAN IS A GENIUS WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING AND BAY IS A GOD WHEN IT COMES TO DIRECTING THUS A MOVIE WRITEN BY NOLAN AND DIRECTED BY BAY WILL BE LEGENDARY