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Bay vs. Snyder: The ultimate King of Bombast

Who is the best at over-the-top, over-hyped action flicks?

  • Zack “Slo-mo attack” Snyder

    Votes: 12 37.5%
  • Michael “Blow-you-away” Bay

    Votes: 20 62.5%

  • Total voters
    32

Hulk_Smash

Banned
Zack Snyder

sU04T9a.jpg


Number of movies directed: 10
Box office gross: $3.7 Billion
Personal net worth: 60 million

Movies directed:
Dawn of the Dead
300
Watchmen
Legend of the Guardians
Suckerpunch
Man of Steel
Batman vs Superman
Justice League
Army of the Dead


Michael Bay

ojvqet6.jpg


Number of movies directed: 14
Box office gross: 7.8 Billion
Personal net worth: $450 million

Movies directed:
Bad Boys 1&2
The Rock
The Island
Pearl Harbor
Armageddon
Transformers 1-5
13 Hours
Pain & Gain
6 Underground

They both have good movies. They both have major stinkers. But who comes out better according to GAF?
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Bay cant direct for shit. His transformers movies are some of the worst shot and edited movies of all time. If he was a film student, he would fail every single course.

At least, Snyder can shoot an action scene and make it look coherent.
 

Cravis

Member
Bay wins easily for his early output of The Rock, Armageddon, Bad Boys 1 & 2.

Coincidentally that also shows that you need a good producer to keep you in check since they all happen to be Jerry Bruckheimer produced films.
 
Until Army of the Dead I've enjoyed all of Snyder's films. Most of them are super flawed but fun and a couple are almost brilliant. Dawn of the Dead must be up there with the best horror remakes. I hated Army and I think it was even more disappointing because Zach has a track record of making entertaining movies despite their many flaws.

Michael Bay I'm 50/50 on and prefer his earlier stuff for sure but I always enjoy his response to Ben Affleck asking why they wouldn't just train astronauts to drill in Armageddon (which seems to range from 'shut up' to 'go fuck yourself' depending on who you ask) so maybe that pushes it to 60/40. He's a no-nonsense guy that likes to blow shit up and that much at least I can respect.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Watched Army of the Dead yesterday. By far one of the worst films I've ever seen. Incoherent story with plot holes my cat could see through.

On that note, Bay gets my vote.
 
Bay cant direct for shit. His transformers movies are some of the worst shot and edited movies of all time. If he was a film student, he would fail every single course.

At least, Snyder can shoot an action scene and make it look coherent.
That about wraps it up.

Nothing Michael Bay does will make up for what he did to Transformers.

Thank God we got Bumblebee.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
The Rock is a god-tier action movie. I hated the first Transformers and never watched the others, but The Rock alone puts Bay above Snyder for me.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
The Rock is a god-tier action movie. I hated the first Transformers and never watched the others, but The Rock alone puts Bay above Snyder for me.
The Rock, Bad Boys 2, Armageddon and even Pearl Harbor are peak Bay, but hes been a shell of himself since. Transformers had the best CGi of its time with ILM knocking the transitions out of the park, but Bay fucked up the framing in every single shot. I had no idea what I was looking at.

The action in 13 Hours was surprisingly easy to follow but its a very average movie.

Snyder has made two bombs. Sucker Punch and BvS. And BvS had some great action scenes. JL is his best movie.

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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Bombast? It's Bay and it's not even close.

Snyder just thinks he's deeper and edgier than he really is. Bay is exactly what you see on the screen.

They're both kinda terrible overall.
 
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Corpsepyre

Banned
Snyder made Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen (one of my top 5 comic book adaptations, even if it's wildly different in tone to the comic), Man of Steel (another of my favourites, showcasing the best superhero action sequence ever in Smallville), Justice League, and I quite enjoyed 300 and BvS as well (with all their faults).

Michael Bay made a really solid action film with Nicolas Cage in 1997, and that's it. Guy's a horrible director 99 % of the time.
 

TheGrat1

Member
Snyder and it really is not even close. Man of Steel set a bar for live-action superpowered action that has yet to be met, let alone surpassed, 8 years later (have not seen Snyder Cut yet). Bay makes some damn solid movies (I think I am higher on Bad Boys 1, Transformers 1, 4 and 5 than most) but he has run the overdone pyrotechnics shtick into the ground so far it is coming out of the other side.

So many people are hyping The Rock as a masterpiece action film and I can not even recall one impressive action set piece from it. I always saw it more as a thriller. Can someone post the best action scene?
 

Blade2.0

Member
While I dislike most movies from both, the good films from Snyder are infinitely more watchable than the best of Bay.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Snyder and it really is not even close. Man of Steel set a bar for live-action superpowered action that has yet to be met, let alone surpassed, 8 years later (have not seen Snyder Cut yet). Bay makes some damn solid movies (I think I am higher on Bad Boys 1, Transformers 1, 4 and 5 than most) but he has run the overdone pyrotechnics shtick into the ground so far it is coming out of the other side.

So many people are hyping The Rock as a masterpiece action film and I can not even recall one impressive action set piece from it. I always saw it more as a thriller. Can someone post the best action scene?
The chase scene through San Francisco in the hummer comes to mind. No cgi in those days either so it's all the more impressive.
 
Snyder:

Movies directed:
Dawn of the Dead banger
300 banger
Watchmen eh
Legend of the Guardians who cares
Suckerpunch sucked ass
Man of Steel dope intro, one cool setpiece
Batman vs Superman one cool scene
Justice League shit
Army of the Dead dogshit


Bay
Movies directed:

Bad Boys 1&2 bangers
The Rock banger
The Island shit
Pearl Harbor underrated
Armageddon insane banger
Transformers 1-5 mostly bangers fuck you
13 Hours didnt see
Pain & Gain banger
6 Underground eh


bay wins
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Dawn of the Dead - prefer the original
300 - great
Watchmen - haven't seen
LotG - haven't seen
Suckerpunch - extended cut is alright
Man of Steel - great
BvS UC - pretty good
Justice League SC - great
Army of the Dead - haven't seen

vs

Bad Boys - great
Bad Boys 2 - good
The Rock - all-time classic
The Island - good
Pearl Harbor - Roland Emmerich did it better
Armageddon - all-time classic
Transformers 1 - *bends over hood of car*
Trans 2 - *shakes camera violently while these identically shaped and colored chunks of metal grapple*
Trans 3 - good
Trans 4 - *explains nuances of statutory rape laws to audience*
Trans 5 - did I watch this?
13 Hours - pretty sick pure actioner
Pain & Gain - haven't seen
6 Underground - *Michael Bay has transcended corporeal form and ascended to a being of pure cocaine*
 
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highrider

Banned
Snyder and it really is not even close. Man of Steel set a bar for live-action superpowered action that has yet to be met, let alone surpassed, 8 years later (have not seen Snyder Cut yet). Bay makes some damn solid movies (I think I am higher on Bad Boys 1, Transformers 1, 4 and 5 than most) but he has run the overdone pyrotechnics shtick into the ground so far it is coming out of the other side.

So many people are hyping The Rock as a masterpiece action film and I can not even recall one impressive action set piece from it. I always saw it more as a thriller. Can someone post the best action scene?

I look at MOS the same way, but tbh most people seem to think it’s not a good film. To me Snyder is an artist, very musical as well, that just happens to understand action, he’s probably played a sport in his life. Bay is just a default action director, but he’s competent and knows what the American movie public wants generally. This scene where Flash saves the girl in the car is just a beautiful piece of film to me.

 
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GymWolf

Member
Snyder didn't hired that screaming cunt of shit labeouf as a protagonist for a fucking action movie so he win by default even after the stupidest thing in existence that was bvs movie...
 
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Zack Snyder is a poor man’s Michael Bay.

Snyder hasn’t done anything that approaches the level of bombast as these gems:

THE ROCK
ARMAGEDDON
BAD BOYS
TRANSFORMERS 1 (this marked the beginning of his decline but the movie still ain’t all bad).

I did enjoy Snyder’s MAN OF STEEL but frankly would’ve loved to see Michael Bay get his hands on the Superman character and give it more of the flag flying, rah rah American pride that Bay excels at.
 

Kimahri

Banned
Snyder has interesting concepts and pretty movies that are boring as fuck.

Bay makes spectacles that are sometimes pretty bad, but overall enjoyable.

I haven't enjoyed a single Snyder film. He's a horrible director. No ability to create tension and suspense . Not even big action scenes manage to create excitement. It's bizarre how he's able to make spectacular things boring.
 
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