Michael Bay has come out against doing Transformers 3 in 3D — but there’s still a possibility Paramount will force it anyway.

There are two different ways to do 3D: shoot it with actual 3D cameras, which is what James Cameron did with Avatar, or shoot it in 2D and put the film through a 3D conversion afterward.  That’s what Alice in Wonderland and most other 3D movies have done.

The former method achieves the best result, but Bay’s in-the-action shooting style doesn’t lend itself to using such fragile, slow technology.  So the only other option is to do a 3D conversion — except that’s not really “true 3D.”  Deadline.com quotes Bay:

I am trying to be sold, and some companies are still working on the shots I gave them.  Right now, it looks like fake 3D, with layers that are very apparent. You go to the screening room, you are hoping to be thrilled, and you’re thinking, huh, this kind of sucks. People can say whatever they want about my movies, but they are technically precise, and if this isn’t going to be excellent, I don’t want to do it. And it is my choice. …

I’m used to having the A-team working on my films, and I’m going to hand it over to the D-team, have it shipped to India and hope for the best? This conversion process is always going to be inferior to shooting in real 3D. Studios might be willing to sacrifice the look and use the gimmick to make $3 more a ticket, but I’m not.  Avatar took four years. You can’t just shit out a 3D movie. I’m saying, the jury is still out.

In true Bay form, he’s unwilling to flat-out say he won’t do 3D, to avoid too much backpedaling if Paramount eventually forces a 3D conversion upon him.  But it’s pretty clear what he really thinks.  It’ll be interesting to see who blinks first, him or Paramount.