Michael Bay is an absurd human being and director, but if he uses his cozy relationship with the U.S. military-industrial complex to get the country thinking about space exploration again with Transformers: Dark of the Moon, I would be prepared to forgive him a multitude of Isabel Lucas- and Megan Fox-shaped sins (though not the Racist Robot Twins—some things are beyond the pale):
Seriously, though, it's always been my stupid, sad policy bugbear to wish that we were really serious about space exploration and colonization. I suppose if we're going to find new arsenic-based life forms here on earth, we probably don't have to go to Mars, and there are things that are bigger, more urgent priorities. But goddamn do I want to be the crazy journalist picked to settle Mars with a bunch of other nutty Americans and Russians, and hang out with Sufis, and see my kids grow up into slightly snotty-but-sweet-semi-immortals.