150 minute trailer...So if you like watching movie trailers, this flicks for you.

Rating: 1/10 (19 January 2005)

I'm sure somewhere inside this jumbled mess of a movie there's a decent film to be found. But alas, somewhere in the editing room, this film was hacked up & slaughtered & another notch was added to Mr. Bay's movie-shotgun of death.
This movie had everything going for it. Bombastic end-of-the-world storyline; awesome, state-of-the-art visual effects; amazing cast of actors that can actually act; and Michael Bay.... oh, & there's the rub.
I hate to take part with all the overblown Bay-bashing, but-... and it's not that the guy's a hack per se. He actually knows how to stage a frame & shoot a camera. I was even a Bay fan when he first came out with "Bad Boys", which had lots of style, laughs and action. I enjoyed "The Rock" even more. But it's here with this overlong movie trailer that Bay lost me. And subsequently with "Pearl Harbor" & "Bad Boys II". And my feeling is that it's with the editing.
I know he comes from TV commercials and music videos, and we do live in an MTV world, but come on. It's like, if they let a shot last longer than 5 seconds they would be afraid of losing the audience somehow. Dramatic scenes have no effect because of this, and the amazing digital fx aren't on screen long enough for the audience to enjoy. And the action sequences are too messy to follow. And I know this ain't the fault of the editors because they know too much to cut film in this style. So whether it be Bay making these choices, or the studio heads, it'd be nice for the editors to stand their ground & make the films halfway tolerable to watch.
Anyways, with a film like this, you either love it or hate it. And nothing anyone says will deter you either way. (1/2* out of *****)