There are directors for whom the camera itself becomes one of the characters, driving the action through its movement and interacting with an image composition that brings out the emotions of the characters and their relationships to one another or, in the case of long shots, creates new perspectives on cities and landscapes.

And then there are directors like Michael Bay, who see the camera as a mere toy, as if it weren't an aesthetic tool but a new Christmas present with all the buttons to try.

Maria Wiesner

Editor in the society department at FAZ.NET.

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The misconception that wild movements enhance the effect of an action scene had already been endured in his five "Transformers" films, in which he tried to stage fights between intelligent machine beings disguised as cars on earth as large battles of material.

In the latest film, Ambulance, the cars may not be intelligent, but they are deformed, dented and thrown through the air anyway.

It's sometimes thought it's just a matter of surpassing John Landis' action-comedy The Blues Brothers (1980) for the top spot on the list of films with the most police cars wrecked during filming.

The plot intended to legitimize the spectacle is simple: young ex-soldier Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) needs money to pay for his wife's cancer treatment.

When he asks his stepbrother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) for help, he suggests one last bank robbery.

Of course, that all goes wrong, so the brothers have to flee the scene in an ambulance.

But the young paramedic Cam (Eiza González) is still sitting in it and tries to save a police officer who was shot by the brothers.

Tracking shots like on speed

Since you deliver with the police because cheerful chases through Los Angeles.

And here at the latest it becomes apparent that Bay confuses directing with stepping on the gas.

As if at speed, the camera races through the glittering film city – “Ambulance” is also intended to pay homage to it, because the initials LA light up in neon colors in the title.

It never succeeds in grasping the city as a separate space that somehow still offers something new compared to postcard knowledge or Google View.

Instead, the camera falls from roofs into the depths of the street canyons, whirls around corners of houses, then jumps in the faces of the characters without being able to locate the protagonists anywhere.

That's a pity, because the Danish original "Ambulancen" (2005), whose remake "Ambulance" is, shows how much potential the film has.

The film by director Laurits Munch-Petersen followed the principle of the chamber play, concentrating entirely on the four people in the ambulance, leaving room for the conflict between the brothers to develop.

Bay, on the other hand, is someone who can proudly declare that he makes films for teenage boys.

The expansion of the plot he brings here for this audience makes use of some foolhardy ideas that are as close to subtlety as possible.

When an operation in the car becomes necessary, for which the paramedic does not feel qualified, she calls two doctors who give instructions via video link from the golf course, while the woman sinks her hand into the open abdomen of the victim.

When ex-soldier Will leaves the house, an American flag waves in the wind, pathetic music pours over the pictures like syrup.

And when the two brothers face each other and Danny tries to convince Will to commit the fatal final robbery, the camera begins to dramatically circle the pair, only to be interrupted by unmotivated cuts before the circle is complete, and the rotation ends elsewhere in the circle to continue.

Perhaps such pseudo-dramatics is only intended to hide the wooden lines of dialogue.

then the camera dramatically begins to rotate around the two, only to be interrupted by unmotivated cuts before the circle is completed, and the rotation resumes elsewhere in the circle.

Perhaps such pseudo-dramatics is only intended to hide the wooden lines of dialogue.

then the camera dramatically begins to rotate around the two, only to be interrupted by unmotivated cuts before the circle is completed, and the rotation resumes elsewhere in the circle.

Perhaps such pseudo-dramatics is only intended to hide the wooden lines of dialogue.

Off through the Los Angeles River

To make matters worse, there are also attempts to recall classic films.

At the climax of the story, the ambulance pulls into the bed of the Los Angeles River.

The location under the city's bridges, where the river meanders in a trickle between concrete walls, is iconic for car chases.

In the action film "To Live and Die in LA" (1985) two US agents in a Chevy flee from gangsters through the splashing water in the riverbed, in the crime thriller "Point Blank" (1967) Lee Marvin drives a car into a bridge pier while trying to escape, and in the thriller "Drive" (2011), Ryan Gosling, as a stuntman, uses a car ride on the slopes of the concrete walls to impress a young woman.

Bay has it all in his head, but in the end he can't think of anything better than to freeze the slow-motion image of the ambulance rushing through the mist spray of river water while a police helicopter hangs overhead like a clumsy bird of prey - and because it is is so beautiful, this is repeated three times from different takes.

So is there any reason at all to watch this film if you are older than thirteen and expect more from cinema than fast, colorful pictures?

Gyllenhaal fans might be in for a treat, as the man takes every mundane line of dialogue and garnishes it with mad looks, as if the event were a casting for the Joker role in the next Batman movie.

And the Mexican Eiza González grabs the film every minute that Bay's overwrought camera gives her;

She gives her callous paramedic both heart and mind - and thus saves the ending from simply drowning in kitsch.