10 Movies Everyone Wanted To Hate Before They Even Came Out

Critics have never loved the work of action auteur Michael Bay, with even his better efforts like 1996’s fun Nic Cage vehicle The Rock written off as mindless trash cinema. For his part, Bay has never given much notice to critics either, and so for a decade or so, the director and his haters existed in a sort of symbiotic relationship. Bay would provide a flashy, substance-free bit of action movie spectacle for film fans and critics would provide vicious sharp-tongued critiques thereof, with both parties benefitting from the free publicity.

Then Bay had to go and screw up this comfortable setup by making 2007’s Transformers, a coming-of-age dramedy/ propulsive action thriller which was… well, actually pretty good. Thus critics had to admit the director had found his niche, Bay became just another pretty well-liked blockbuster director, and the natural balance was thrown.

Sure, critics could have gone after then-rising star of dumb fun cinema Zack Snyder, but the easier option was to wait on Bay’s next move and pounce—which is exactly what critics opted to do when 2009’s Revenge of the Fallen was announced, with the eventual sequel providing all the overlong exposition-heavy plot, pointless ill-judged comic relief, and embarrassing attempts at drama which critics hoped it would.