Michael Bay has too much money. I know this because he stopped giving a damn about what fans think and started using films as a way to reflect his increasingly warped and isolated world view. To quote a Maane Khatchatourian article on yahoo movies, “They love to hate and I don’t care; let them hate,” he told MTV’s Josh Horowitz. “They’re still going to see the movie! I think it’s good to get a little tension. Very good.”
Who can blame him for the attitude. Unlike the work of fellow director, M. Night Shyamalan, no matter what Bay puts out there we are still going to see his crap. TMNT? I’m seeing it. I’d really rather not, but I have kids and even they (if reluctantly) want to see his lens-flare enhanced take on the turtles. What worries me the most is that my kids will look at his films and think, why does he always make women look that way? Why does he always portray races that way? Here’s the problem: Transformers 4 is a epically dysfunctional crapstorm that exists in a reality so far from the racial realism of the real world that Carl Jung might possibly rise from the grave to point at the screen and moan, “See, I was fucking right about archetypes!” Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Bay is a genius who plays to the largest possible crowd, and sensing the shifting financial fortunes of a Chinese audience, pandered to said audience in such a way that it pleased the groups he felt needed pleasing.
Or, maybe he’s just an old-school idiot.
I’m going with old-school idiot. It would be too limiting to call him racist. That would mean ignoring his strange obsession with trios of women. Heck, even the classic Arcee bot was transformed into a trio of hot crotch rockets that happened to hologram sexy female triplets. This trio motif continues on in Transformers 4 where we are greeted by three secretaries in matching heels (displayed in a typically lingering shot). Women are scantily clad (and stupid) all over this film. To make matters worse, the only stand up woman in the entire film is portrayed by an Asian woman who winds up being a kung-fu master. That isn’t the ‘matters worse’ part. The ‘matters worse’ part is when she is saved by some random Asian dude who was waiting in the elevator watching her being beat to death. At some point the dude decides she can no longer handle herself and, because he is also a jung-fu master, beats a top-notch CIA assassin into unconsciousness in under 15 seconds.
Yeah, that happened.
Sadly, nothing much more positive than that happened. I spent most of the film playing find-the-plot between senseless battles and mourning the disappointing appearance of iconic transformers in the most underwhelming way possible. At one point I stopped and wondered how there were suddenly no hispanics in Texas (where the film starts), no black people anywhere, and why for an extreme stretch of time the film turns into a PSA for how much China loves Hong Kong. I get the last part. The last transformers film grossed $165 million in China. I mean, filmmakers gotta eat. Filmmakers also gotta remember, when catering to the Chinese, it is important to give mention to how much China protects Hong Kong. It is also important to have key product placements (a number of which were chinese–in addition to the reality show that help cast many of the chinese extras).
Transformers 4 has an awful lot of cool special effects. As a visual effects junkie, I love that. On the other hand, I love plot a lot more and Transformers 4 is lacking that completely. But who cares? Bay certainly doesn’t. He’s getting paid regardless.