Michael Bay’s new movie ambulancein which Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II are involved in a heist gone wrong, hits American theaters later in April. But that hasn’t stopped the action director from courting a bit controversial: During the film’s European press tour, Bay seemed to have a few criticisms ambulance‘s CG effects and how they weren’t up to date.
in one Video interview with the director and his cast Led by European theater chain Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont, Bay stated that most of the film was filled with practical effects, while certain visual effects were subpar.
“Some of the CGI in this movie sucks,” Bay says in the edited video clip. “There were a few shots I wasn’t happy with, okay?”
However, in a recent phone interview, Bay Polygon explained exactly what he meant.
When asked if he didn’t like the effects, Bay said, “It’s a bit misleading. […] That day you say something [then] they take it out.”
Bay went on to explain a bit about how CGI was used ambulance and how it fits into his overall process.
“We did very little CGI for this film,” Bay said. “There are some really good ones and then there are some takes where I’m like, ‘I wish I had more time,’ whatever. There is very good work [in this movie.] I’ve always had really good CGI. […] But yeah, there’s a lot of real explosions, real car crashes, real stuff.”
Without skipping a beat, Bay recalled his early days mixing practical and CG effects Bad Boysand the possibly unsung achievement of Pearl Harbour. He noted that the historical action film earned him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records thanks to the complexity of one of the film’s explosive sequences (although spook later stole the title). A single shot, according to Bay Pearl Harbour involved blowing up seven ships with 350 explosions in seven seconds while blowing up 20 planes. The stunt was “a lot of pressure, let me tell you, and it was an amazing, amazing shot — but it was real,” he says. “Then we add some other elements. But these are all real explosions, it took three months to manipulate them.”
While Bay says the viral clip of him blasting his visual effects team was taken out of context, he remains a purveyor of practical effects enhanced by CG.
“I’m a dying breed where I do my own stunts and we make them happen, and I work with the best people in the world. I enjoy it. I don’t like doing it in computers.”
ambulance is scheduled for release in American theaters on April 8th.
