Michael Bay is back on the big screen again with Ambulance, which has a much different Rotten Tomatoes score than his other movies. After a detour into streaming with 6 Underground, Michael Bay Ambulance takes "Bayhem" back to theaters with better ratings than Bay has seen in a while.

Bay certainly isn't known for a history of strong Rotten Tomatoes scores, despite directing a number of highly popular movies, like Bad BoysArmaggeddon, and six Transformers films. His iconic approach to creating maximalist over-the-top non-stop action is often considered the epitome of "style over substance" filmmaking, which naturally tends to polarize critics and audiences, simultaneously making iconic movie moments and drawing negative reviews.

Related: Why Reviews For Michael Bay's Ambulance Are So Divided

Fortunately for Bay, Ambulance breaks the trend of poor reviews, even though it doesn't seem to change the Bayhem formula. Compared to the rest of Bay's movies in Rotten Tomatoes, Ambulance stands out in a few key ways.

Ambulance is Only Michael Bay's Second Fresh Rating in Rotten Tomatoes

While Michal Bay has directed 15 movies in 17 years, Ambulance is only the second time he's earned a Fresh score - the last was The Rock in 1996 (before Rotten Tomatoes was even invented). With a score of 68 percent, both The Rock and Ambulance are tied for Bay's highest Rotten Tomatoes score ever, with The Rock's 6.7 out of 10 average rating edging out Ambulance's 5.8 out of 10 as the tie-breaker.

The Rock was only Bay's second movie, meaning since 1996 he made 12 movies in a row with "rotten" ratings. With an overall average of 39 percent for his whole filmography, Ambulance's 68 percent is 29 points higher than Bay's average. One of the strangest aspects of Ambulance's Rotten Tomatoes score is its 72 percent Top Critic score, which isn't just higher than Ambulance's Tomatometer score from all critics, but also higher than any other critic score for any of Michael Bay's movies.

Critics And Audiences Are Split on Ambulance, But Not Agree More Than Michael Bay Movies

michael bay in front of the record setting explosion from spectre

Despite Michael Bay's massive streak of movies with Rotten ratings in Rotten Tomatoes, when it comes to the audience rating, only five of his movies have scores under 60 percent. Compared to his low critic scores, his average audience score of 67 percent is 28 points higher than his 39 percent average from critics.

Related: Ambulance Ending Explained (In Detail)

Ambulance may be tied for Bay's highest Rotten Tomatoes rating at 68 percent, but with an 83 percent audience score, there's still a 15 percent difference between audiences and critics. The only Michael Bay movie where the audience and critic scores are closer is Pain & Gain, which only has a three percent difference. For comparison, the MCU average difference is only one point, the Star Wars movies have an average difference of five points, and the DCEU's average difference is 12 points. So while Ambulance sees far more agreement between critics and audiences than almost every other Bay movie, the split is still way bigger than seen by most other franchises.

Why Ambulance's Rotten Tomatoes Score is So Much Better Than Other Bay Movies

Michael Bay Ambulance

Ambulance's Rotten Tomatoes score stands out against the rest of Bay's filmography in quite a few ways, yet the reviews themselves talk about the same pros and cons you'd expect from any Michal Bay film, such as an abundance of amazing explosions as well as sub-par dialogue, so why is the score so much higher? Ultimately, it seems to simply come down to execution and balance.

While both Bay's detractors and defenders usually agree his ability to design and shoot epic action scenes with tons of explosions is one of Bay's strongest talents and his scripts are one of his biggest weaknesses. Ambulance reviews don't seem to change the formula very much, highlighting the same strengths and weaknesses as any other Bay movie, so the Fresh reaction suggests critics simply just think the action was good enough to overcome any deficiencies in the script for once.

Ambulance may not be on-track to earn a profit at the box office, but Bay's firm grasp on explosive blockbuster action is more apparent than ever. Ambulance earning a Fresh Rotten Tomatoes may not be setting a new trend for Bay's movies, but his consistent ability to draw high audience scores, which typically impact a movie's success more than critical scores, will likely keep a consistent stream of explosion-filled Bay movies in the years to come.

Next: Ambulance Cast & Character Guide