"You'll hear people say now, 'Oh, I don't want to see something in 3-D. That's wrong, because what they've seen is 3-D done poorly"
About this Quote
The subtext is defensive, but also strategic. Bay made his name on spectacle that critics love to call “mindless,” and 3-D was the early 2010s battlefield where blockbuster directors tried to claim legitimacy through “immersion.” By insisting people have only seen “3-D done poorly,” he’s not merely arguing for better projection standards or more careful conversion; he’s protecting the brand identity of the maximalist filmmaker as a serious technician. If the audience hates 3-D, and Bay is the guy selling 3-D, that’s reputational risk. So he relocates the failure onto unnamed others: studios that cheap out, filmmakers who treat it as post-production frosting, theaters with dim bulbs and bad calibration.
Context matters: 3-D had become shorthand for cynical upcharges after a wave of rushed conversions following Avatar. Bay’s sentence tries to rescue the tool from the marketplace that abused it. It’s a pitch disguised as correction: don’t give up on the sensation - demand a version worthy of your attention. In a media economy built on franchises and formats, he’s arguing that the problem isn’t novelty; it’s negligence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bay, Michael. (2026, January 15). You'll hear people say now, 'Oh, I don't want to see something in 3-D. That's wrong, because what they've seen is 3-D done poorly. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youll-hear-people-say-now-oh-i-dont-want-to-see-165498/
Chicago Style
Bay, Michael. "You'll hear people say now, 'Oh, I don't want to see something in 3-D. That's wrong, because what they've seen is 3-D done poorly." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youll-hear-people-say-now-oh-i-dont-want-to-see-165498/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You'll hear people say now, 'Oh, I don't want to see something in 3-D. That's wrong, because what they've seen is 3-D done poorly." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youll-hear-people-say-now-oh-i-dont-want-to-see-165498/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.


