10 Most Important Directors Of The 21st Century (So Far)

Michael Bay? The trash-peddling instigator of the godawful Transformers movies? On the same list that disqualified Spielberg and Tarantino?

Although it’s difficult to name many genuinely great (or even good) films Bay has made since the turn of the century, it’s impossible to deny the influence he’s had on blockbuster film-making.

Having inherited a love of spectacle and special effects wizardry from frequent producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Bay shares a great deal of the blame for Hollywood’s current fascination with CGI-heavy sequels, reboots and adaptations. Such things might have existed before Bay’s career began, but they didn’t gain the same kind of traction until his movies about cars turning into robots started making upwards of $700 million.

The closest thing Bay has made to an actual human movie was 2013’s Pain and Gain, a sun-drenched black comedy about body-building criminals that was (somewhat ironically) about as polarising as Roman Reigns. But in a world in which money speaks louder than artistic flair, it hardly matters that Bay’s films aren’t scooping up Oscars or being received with standing ovations.

He’s important, purely because of how much his film making philosophies have so thoroughly infected Hollywood from head to toe. When we look back on the movies that defined this generation in fifty years’ time, you can guarantee Transformers will be shamefully high on the list.