Michael Bay and the Never Ending Sequel

Some people have asked me questions lately in reference to my first post  in which I stated that I was disappointed at the amount of sequels that there were upcoming in 2014. Now, first off, I don’t hate all sequels. I dislike most of them however, for being uncreative cash-ins on the the earlier movie’s success. Directors and producers see a successful movie as an opportunity to make a quick buck on a sequel. Sequels, in my opinion, limit creativity and when you have a group of directors that are focused on making sub-par sequels to their previously successful films, we are missing out on the opportunity for new fantastic films. Just take a look at the upcoming summer movie season. There are a lot of big budget sequels coming out, but less brand new titles. It’s a bit of a let down. However, not all sequels are bad news. Some sequels are necessary to finish the story that they started in the first film. The overarching story is too long and too complex to be limited by one movie (i.e. Lord of the Rings). Some directors are more at fault for making unnecessary sequels than others. So we will look at a man who needs no introduction, Michael Bay.

Michael Bay is a Wesleyan University graduate who starting his directing career by directing music videos for several artists such Meatloaf, Tina Turner, and Lionel Richie. After receiving several awards from MTV for some of his music videos, he turned his attention to the big screen.  Some of his earlier films included the Rock, and Bad Boys, the later which incidentally has one sequel already out and another which may or may not be on the way. It was on July 3, 2007 when the first of the many Transformers movies was released. The thing about this first movie, is that it wasn’t all that bad. It was nominated for 3 Oscars and many other awards for its special effects and sound design. Granted Shia LaBeouf isn’t exactly the best actor in the world, it didn’t take away from a somewhat satisfying action movie. However, things got worse from there. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon were bad, unnecessary, and ruined what they started. The first film gave many Transformers fans what they wanted, an action-packed Transformers movie that did the franchise justice. The next two however, were terrible cash-ins by Michael Bay and Paramount Pictures. Movies like these Transformers movies are the reasons why I am unhappy to see more and more sequels being released every year. Good movies that become tarnished by some garbage sequels. Please, please, please let 2015 bring something new to the table, other than the same crap we have seen over and over again.