14 DAY TRIAL // Michael Bay is neither a particularly talented nor a very original director, but even so, his movies are always blockbusters because he provides a type of entertainment we all seem to crave for every once in a while: the mindless kind.
As it turns out, even a movie only produced by Bay is just as stamped with his trademark style (named Bayhem) as one that he directs. And of course, just as unoriginal and nonsensical.
The Wrap did a mashup of the trailers for “Transformers” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” to prove that they’re basically one and the same even though the former is directed by Bay and the latter by Jonathan Liebesman but produced by Bay.
The similarities are too many to count, but just for the sake of argument, I will name a few: things collapse in the same manner and are presented from the same angle, the editing is similar and just as nausea-inducing, shots in slow-mo are alike, with just minor differences. Also, Megan Fox: she appeared in the first 2 “Transformers” films and is back for “TMNT.”
Besides being a lazy director, Bay is also famous for the way he cannibalizes his previous work, to the point where his most recent “Transformers” installment, “Age of Extinction,” is a rehashing of the scenes and elements used in the previous three.
That said, are we really that surprised that “TMNT” is just another instance of Bayhem in all its glory? No, probably not.