Michael Bay Addresses Reports of His CGI Criticism of Ambulance: “Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong”

Filmmaker Michael Bay recently expressed disappointment over select sequences in his new film Ambulance due to the CGI effects, with Bay now following up on those previous remarks to downplay his disappointment. His initial reaction was calling certain CG effects “sh-t,” so when the topic was broached again, Bay was quick to say reports were “wrong, wrong, wrong” and “overblown.” He didn’t specifically retract those initial statements, as he merely clarified there were specific shots in which CGI was used and he wasn’t entirely happy with the result. Fans can check out Ambulance in theaters on April 8th.

When speaking with ComicBook.com and his initial comments were brought up, Bay was quick to react with, “Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong,” noting that those reports were “totally overblown” and that there’s “very little CG in the movie.”

He continued, “There’s two shots that I don’t like, so, there you go. Like, you’re talking about CG in the movie. There’s two shots in the movie I don’t like. You have the truth.”

Having delivered audiences a number of CGI-heavy films over the years, Bay had expressed that one of his desires with Ambulance was to deliver something a bit more grounded, which includes shooting as much of the film as practically as possible. In this sense, it seems as though having any CGI in the movie at all was different from his intentions, possibly heightening why he was disappointed with the end result. 

“All those explosions and cars flipping, that’s all real. That’s all live, real, ratchets,” Bay shared with French outlet Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont. “It looks very dangerous [and] it could be very dangerous if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. Most of it is real stunts. There’s very few blue-screen shots on the movie. There’s not a lot of CGI. Some of the CGI is sh-t in this movie. There’s a couple shots that I wasn’t happy with, okay? Alright.”  

The filmmaker then went on to describe the process of using practical techniques to shoot the new thriller.

“The ambulance, we shot a live ambulance, which is very hard getting a crew in that thing, where you’re getting whacked around, flying down the street, turning corners,” Bay detailed. “And then we had the ambulance, also, on a buck, that could come apart. And then we have another ambulance on a rocker, in stage. We’d sometimes shoot the scene three times: live, and then the buck, potentially, or the back of a real ambulance, just so you get the coverage, you get the feeling of light hitting them, because that’s not always real on a stage. You like that real sunlight hitting them, and it’s all happening during the day and all happening in the span of like three hours.”

Ambulance lands in theaters on April 8th.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s remarks? Let us know in the comments below!