The Cinema of Michael Bay: Technology, Transformation, and Spectacle in the ‘Post-Cinematic’ Era Bruce Bennett - Leon Gurevitch - Bruce Isaacs June 2015 Michael Bay Dossier Special Dossier edited by Bruce Bennett, Leon Gurevitch and Bruce Isaacs Michael Bay occupies a curious place in contemporary culture. The films he has directed, including the Transformers franchise (2007-2014...
Rotational Aesthetics: Michael Bay and Contemporary Cinema’s Machine Movement Lisa Purse June 2015 Michael Bay Dossier It is no exaggeration to say that the Transformers franchise has occasioned the fiercest disparagements of Michael Bay’s audio-visual style. The films are viewed by many as the apotheosis of the director’s much...
The Mechanics of Continuity in Michael Bay’s Transformers Franchise Bruce Isaacs June 2015 Michael Bay Dossier In perhaps the most scathing review in the mainstream media of Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) – the fourth release in the franchise in seven years – Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine...
The Transforming Face of Industrial Spectacle: A Media Archaeology of Machinic Mobility Leon Gurevitch June 2015 Michael Bay Dossier Introduction In 2004 an advertisement featuring a car that transformed into a dancing robot appeared on US and European television. At thirty seconds in length and powerfully reminiscent of the filmed vaudevil...
The Cinema of Michael Bay: An Aesthetic of Excess Bruce Bennett June 2015 Michael Bay Dossier Fig 1: The spectacle of destruction in Bad Boys II Introduction Michael Bay’s films offer us some of the clearest examples of technically complex, emotionally direct, entertaining contemporary cinema. He has...
The Cinema Within: spectacle, labour and utopia in Michael Bay’s The Island Brian Baker June 2015 Michael Bay Dossier In this article, I will analyse Michael Bay’s The Island (2005) as a cinematic spectacle which, through its imaginating of a particular dystopian future, lays bare the machinery of spectacular visuality that is...
