Tony Zhou is back with another great video essay, this time taking a look at the work of Michael Bay in an attempt to understand just what exactly is “Bayhem“?
Bay has been dragged over the coals once again with his latest movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction with reviews, I’d argue, many of which were written before the critic even stepped into the theater. I’ve done my best to try and explain what I found so fascinating about the latest Transformers film and what I was able to appreciate about it’s Bay-ness, but Zhou takes it a step further and examines the whole of Bay’s filmography with looks at Bad Boys, Pain & Gain, the Transformers films and The Rock and offers up comparisons to films such as Hot Fuzz, Battleship and even Fargo.
Here’s his description followed by the video itself. Enjoy.
There are filmmakers we love and then there’s Michael Bay. Even if you dislike him (as I do), Bay has something valuable to teach us about visual perception. This is an exploration of “Bayhem” — his style of camera movement, composition and editing that creates something overblown, dynamic and distinct.
