With Michael Bay’s return to the director’s chair coming down the pike with the action thriller Ambulance, what better time to reassess the maestro of mayhem? Bay, for all his critical drubbing, has been a box office draw for almost thirty years at this point, and his props are due with films like Bad Boys, Transformers, The Rock, among others. His “style-over-substance” shtick has spawned few imitators – as there aren’t many who can organize chaos to his pedigree – but Bay’s legacy perhaps spawned the career of one man with a legion of faithful followers, and a backlog of slick, fun action movies…
Zack Snyder. Snyder started his Hollywood career a little later than Bay, but has made an impressive mark for himself in almost half the time. Breaking out with the well-regarded Dawn of the Dead remake in 2004, Snyder’s had a storied career and has become as recognizable as Michael Bay, with both having actually gotten their start as music video directors. With Snyder having just had a banner year with Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally seeing the light of day, as well as launching a new franchise with Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves on Netflix (with Planet of the Dead coming soon), the multi-hyphenate director, screenwriter, cinematographer, and producer has seemingly come for Michael Bay’s stylish, slo-mo crown. Bay and Snyder share enough of a stylistic vibe, output, and origin that they seemingly cannot help but be compared. So in that immortal, jovial spirit, you know what it’s time for… FACE OFF!
This episode of Face Off is written by Daniel Woburn, narrated by Shawn Knippelberg, edited by Ric Solomon, and produced by Matthew Hacunda. Check out previous episodes below: