Michael Bay Is the Right, and Wrong, Director For a Lobo Movie

Warner Bros. seems to be serious about a Lobo movie, because the studio is close to signing a director. According to recent reports, Michael Bay is in talks to bring the Main Man to life on the silver screen. It sounds like, well, the most ridiculous Michael Bay thing imaginable.

Thanks to Bay's very particular set of skills, he just may be the perfect choice for this film. At the same time, though, he's also the absolute worst director the studio could have picked for a live-action Lobo movie.

Michael Bay's Wheelhouse

On the surface, Lobo is very much in Michael Bay's wheelhouse. He's a big alien monster biker who is basically as strong as Superman, but with the personality of a truck driver. He can heal from any wound, allowing him to take some pretty horrifying damage, and he has a built-in personality, in much the same way Raphael or Megatron ooze personality and charisma. If that doesn't scream MICHAEL BAY MOVIE, we really don't know what does.

The Main Man is typically seen as a rather abrasive character, often hovering somewhere between anti-hero and almost straight up villain. Given his rather crass attitude and the lack of a large fan following like TMNT or Transformers (though he does have a pretty rabid fanbase of his own), a Lobo movie will have to be a very entertaining spectacle if it's going to bring in anyone outside the character's small orbit.

That means Lobo needs to be set on a massive scale, one that perhaps only Michael Bay is capable of delivering. He has shown an ability to turn seemingly lame franchises into relatively "cool" multi-million dollar film series. Giving Lobo -- a relatively dumb character, if we're being honest -- some stupidly fun stuff to do is exactly how this movie is going to succeed. This means huge explosions, giant CGI aliens, and a massive amount of destruction in some heavily populated area.

In a word, only by not taking itself too seriously can a movie centered around Lobo actually make any kind of sense. If the Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchises are any indication, Michael Bay can offer that -- in spades.

The Worst Case Scenario

Of course, the other side of the Michael Bay coin is that he's hardly ever created a film that people can collectively sit back and say is actually good. Bay has perfected the art of the blockbuster movie over the past 20 years by putting the most recognizable actors in front of an excessive amount of explosions, but what happens when he's given a character that requires a little more nuance than, say, Optimus Prime?

Armageddon was certainly entertaining and Bad Boys II was fun, but nobody would argue that either was the pinnacle of American cinema. Lobo doesn't really have to be either, but you're already operating at a loss when you're dealing with someone less popular. Transformers and TMNT essentially came with their own built-in audiences, so he really didn't have to try that hard to make them successful. How do you make Lobo successful if you're not trying to actually make a legitimately good movie?

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Lobo is a difficult character to balance within a world of superheroes. He's actively crass, openly offensive, and his 1980s brawling biker aesthetic might make him a little outdated if you're not careful. The Main Man's personality and handling should be something closer to the complexities of Hellboy, otherwise he's either completely unlikeable or entirely unrecognizable. Relying on a man who has shown no ability to craft a genuine character moment in his career is quite the bold move here.

It's clear that Warner Bros. thinks it can counter the success of Deadpool with its own bizarre and ridiculous character. In a lot of ways, Lobo could work in the same sense, but Michael Bay is hardly going to be the reason it works out. A lot of things will have to come together perfectly for Lobo to near the success of Deadpool.

The Deadpool Factor

20th Century Fox hit a goldmine because it allowed the Deadpool creative team to have fun and be creative. A corporate hired gun like Bay is not likely to cut loose in the making of a Lobo movie. The involvement of Ryan Reynolds was also a huge part of the equation, not only as an actor, but as a recognizable face of the franchise, a creative talent, and a genuine love for the character.

Michael Bay has benefitted from being able to put the sexiest people in front of the camera for his movies, but how do you do that with Lobo, who looks like a big beefy roadie for the band Kiss? DC Comics has already tried making the character slim and sexy, and it failed spectacularly. It's also hard to say that anyone could be as passionate about Lobo as Reynolds is about Deadpool, but who knows.

Like most projects, the success of Lobo will ultimately come down to the writing. Screenwriter Jason Fuchs is coming off the success of Wonder Woman, so it's clear the studio likes what he has done, but he needs to be given the creative freedom to truly embrace the anarchy and hedonism that the Main Man represents.

In the end, if the studio is not willing to go all out with this movie and this character, the whole thing is doomed to fail. Sure, that means we need explosions and massive battles, and some CGI, but that also means an attention to detail and a devotion to the project from those involved. Deadpool was a love letter to the fans, but is the studio and Bay willing and capable of doing the same?

Considering most of Lobo's cursing is made up alien language, Warner Bros. would likely be able to get away with a PG-13 rating. However, if it doesn't have the character's trademark violence and gore -- something Michael Bay has never really touched on before -- what's the point? Combining the Main Man, Michael Bay and an unhindered R-rating would almost definitely make Lobo the DCEU's next big screen success story.