Writers' strike ruined Transformers 2, says Michael Bay

Michael Bay has finally admitted what many already suspected: his film Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was "crap".

The US film-maker, who is known for his candid approach to interviews, has told Empire magazine that the writers' strike ruined the movie, which was poorly received by critics.

"The real fault with [Transformers 2] is that it ran into a mystical world," said Bay. "When I look back at it, that was crap. The writers' strike was coming hard and fast. It was just terrible to do a movie where you've got to have a story in three weeks."

It's not the first time Bay has made disparaging remarks about his own movie. In July 2010, he told USA Today: "I'll take some of the criticism. It was very hard to put it together that quickly after the writers' strike."

Shia LaBeouf, who headlined both Transformers films, has previously expressed his disappointment with the second instalment, which nevertheless took $836m around the world and was 2009's fourth highest grossing film at the box office. "When I saw the second movie, I wasn't impressed with what we did," he told reporters in Cannes last year. "There were some really wild stunts in it, but the heart was gone."

Both men insist that the upcoming third film will provide some redress. Bay told Empire he is working with James Cameron's team to ensure the film's 3D is up to standard, and joked that the Avatar film-maker had begged him to shoot in the format. "Cameron was like, 'Mike, directors like you have to do 3D or it is going to die'," he said.

Transformers 3, which comes with the subtitle Dark of the Moon, will be shot in stereo, rather than being converted in post-production. "I think our 3D works really well with the robots, the size, the girth, the weight of it ... it's spectacular," said Bay.