It's the rare filmmaker who can admit when his movie doesn't turn out so well, and Michael Bay has joined that club -- sort of.
In a recent interview promoting his latest project, “Pain and Gain,” Bay responded to a question about the contrast in his editing style on that film and his earlier work, including 1998's much-maligned “Armageddon.”
“I will apologize for ‘Armageddon,' because we had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks,” Bay told The Miami Herald. “It was a massive undertaking. That was not fair to the movie. I would redo the entire third act if I could. But the studio literally took the movie away from us. It was terrible. My visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown, so I had to be in charge of that. I called James Cameron and asked ‘What do you do when you're doing all the effects yourself?' But the movie did fine.”
Indeed, despite the negative critical response, the film raked in a worldwide total of $553 million. And while Bay's not claiming all responsibility for the film's shortcomings -- “It was the studio's fault” seems to be a popular excuse in Hollywood -- at least he owned up to their existence.
Plus, he's right about “Armageddon”'s third act. If we had a chance to rewrite it, you can bet it would include Bruce Willis facing down the asteroid with a defiant “Yippe-ki-yay, motherf*cker.” But maybe that's just us.
[via The Miami Herald h/w EW]
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