Writing a character who resonates (what Michael Bay missed in the Transformers Movie)
How Michael Bay missed on writing a character that resonates with the audience is what bugs me the most about watching this enjoyable Transformers Movie. And even though I love-hate the film for this miss, there’s something unexpectedly good I took away from it, the element of grounded horror.
Michael Bay tried to connect the presence of Decepticons with the feeling of being trapped in a spot and genuinely feeling that fear for your life.
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The scene at 6 minutes and 40 seconds, where the unknown helicopter lands upon the military base and turns out to be a Decepticon, the most effective technique Michael Bay used to infuse horror is how he held off the music and focused solely on sounds ranging from gunfire to screams and explosions!
The impact of these sounds is further heightened by the presence of the unleashing Transformer. You can genuinely feel the fear of being on the location.
Michael Bay confidently uses the technique again at 30 minutes: 49 seconds where a scorpion-like Decepticon attacks the soldiers who survived the first hit on the military base.
We receive a third and the final dosage of horror at 1 hour: 46 minutes into the movie where Megatron finally rises. But a key difference here compared to the previous two scenes is that Michael Bay didn’t hold off the music here. This didn’t really diminish the effect that Michael Bay was going for, but it didn’t either have the punch delivered by the previous two scenes.
Watch some of the behind the scenes for how they put together the Transformers Movie, you’ll come to appreciate the level of detail Michael Bay & team invested into bringing the Transformers Movie to life. It’s no wonder how he thought carefully about the effect aimed at the audience.
But in all of Michael Bay’s effort to bring this vision to life, he absolutely missed out on writing a character able to infuse the storytelling with much-needed relatability, seamlessly tying the grounded horror and the Transformers story.
Michael Bay tried to fit in a lot of different themes here, like the presence of a family. He used the soldier character played by Josh Duhamel to convey how deeply you’re connected to your loved ones and how this soldier can’t wait to get back home to feel that connection again. Michael also successfully fits in some well-timed comedic punches with his signature momentum and jam-packed action sequences, but the one thing that divorced everything here was the absence of a great Main Character.
Our Main Character here is Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf. Shia has given an absolutely entertaining performance, you can feel how he adds these subtle comedic gestures delighting you at every beat. Shia took the role seriously and infused as much imagination as he possibly could have.
Michael Bay certainly tried to build a great character and Shia Labouf definitely tried to convey a brilliant persona with the scene where Sam tries to talk his way into getting what he wants from his teacher, which was an ‘A Grade’ on his family’s geology report.
But that was it! There were no further attempts for giving us an incredible character with whom we could stick around for the full story.
Why is that Michael Bay with all his imagination gave us an enjoyable Transformers Movie, but completely missed out on giving us a memorable Main Character?
I began watching Michael Bay’s interviews about the Transformers Movie to put together 2 and 2. After watching them tirelessly again and again, the answer I got was Michael Bay’s mind just doesn’t work this way.
He‘s genuinely and subconsciously just not interested in writing a character who rises above the spectacle of the film. The closest I came to find out his thoughts about the lead actor was where he doesn’t even mention Shia Labeouf's performance in the film, he simply mentions what a great actor Shia is generally.
Watch these interviews, you will realize the three things Michael genuinely cared the most about having in the movie, was a huge scope with realistic visual effects and big explosions!
Among all the focus he puts on the 3 elements, he just genuinely missed out putting focus on writing a character who resonates.
But even with all the missing out, it was scenes like where Sam Witwicky successfully talks his way into getting what he wants, tells us that somewhere in the back of Michael Bay’s mind, there was this delightful character he missed out on extracting from his head and onto the script.
Nevertheless, Michael was still able to hold our attention until the final frame and give us a genuinely enjoyable experience. Transformers Movie will be studied extensively in the time to come due to the brilliance of its scope and visual effects.
If you’re a film lover, watching the Transformers Movie is well worth your time. Let me know in the comments if you find it fascinating enough for a re-watch?
Until then, follow me on Medium to stay tuned for some storytelling goodness every now and then. In the hopes of connecting with story lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story.
