Burn wrote:You say get rid of Bay and hire different writers, wouldn't you want to get rid of the current writer first?
It's always Bay Bay Bay with you "Bayformer haters", but rarely do I encounter someone who acknowledges the writer is more to blame.
I'll say this much on the matter. Bay might not be solely to blame, but he is more or less one of the main causes. Frankly, Spielberg, the writers, the military, even Paramount itself...they all played a part in the kind of TF movies we got since ROTF.
Spielberg: Roped Bay in to directing Transformers in 2007, despite Bay's self-consciousness and undisguised dislike of the TF franchise. Bay was just following orders without passion or enthusiasm when filming the first movie, and did it for the paychecks in the following ones.
Military: They know Bay makes them look good, and are willing to exchange their cooperation and free manpower for looking good in his movies. That's partly the reason why the Decepticons look like incompetent chumps while the army can seemingly kickass all on their own without the Autobots doing much.
Paramount: While perfectly understandable, they won't want to change a thing as long as TF movies still make a decent buck. While they don't make as many ticket sales in the US, China has become their new target audience, which keeps the wheels spinning.
Bay: I used to loathe him. But now, I just feel bad for him (or rather, I would if the lucky bast@rd didn't make so much money). He never wanted to make these TF movies, and he still doesn't. Poor f**ker's just doing his job (though I wish he'd stop), and if the critics had little respect for him before, they have even less respect for him now.
And as of AoE, he's showing signs of creative exhaustion. Despite the explosions and the flashy cars, it's just feels hollow.
Writers: Part of the cause lies with Bay's attitude towards the TF movies, which "infects" the mindset of the writers. Kruger made it pretty clear in his infamous "you make your peace with the fact that logic isn't the be all end all" line. If the director doesn't take a movie's universe seriously, the rest will start asking themselves, "why should we?"
That said, it's no excuse to slack off just because the director does.
TL;DR, Bay is indeed responsible for a lot of the things that are wrong with the TF movies, but circumstances and higher ups are equally to blame.
