8 Subtle Ways Michael Bay's Movies Are Even Worse Than You Thought

6. Characters Explain Everything Early

Michael Bay's movies are never about the plot. That's how you can have a bunch of drillers trained up to be astronauts rather than the other way round (Bay told Ben Affleck to shut up when the actor pointed that out) and a Transformer having to teleport the characters around the world despite being a plane. And he really doesn't want the minimal exposition and development that is required by a century of cinematic convention getting in the way of his Bayhem. So what does he do? Why, he has the characters explain everything that is going to happen ahead of time, meaning that when the action hits it can be nothing but explosions. It's the epitome of the "Turn you brain off" school of thought, with the film actively making it so there's no way to create any emotional, thematic or narrative connection with any of the carefully orchestrated fireworks exploding on screen. 13 Hours does this to an obscene extent, with every ambush and attack repeatedly and explicitly explained. You almost expect something different to happen because the unfolding events have been so over-explained, yet things go almost exactly as predicted, with the only minor "surprises" barely followable thanks to how inept the incomprehensible action is at conveying anything.