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Another blockbuster, another record broken. What’s the big deal? Well, the biggest deal might be that film critics are wasting their time reviewing movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, because a billion trillion negative words written about the blockbuster sequel couldn’t have kept it from breaking the Wednesday opening record. Grossing $60.6 million over a day and two nights (the figure includes Tuesday’s midnight show tally of $16 million), Transformers 2 knocked Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix off the throne.
I haven’t heard of anyone liking the sequel, so it’s very possible that word of mouth will keep the movie from making too much more over the weekend. But then again, if another one of my weekends is completely rained out, I’ll probably go see the thing just to see how godawful it is (this Best Week Ever post makes me masochistically curious to see it). The first Transformers was a total bore, so I’d be happier with elements as ridiculously terrible as racially offensive robots and parachute farts, as long as there was something interesting going on.
The only thing keeping me from rounding up a large posse for a MST3K-inspired viewing is the idea that buying the tickets will only encourage Paramount and Michael Bay more (how about a group of us goes and buys Star Trek tickets and then sneak into Transformers? Paramount can’t complain, since they’ll still get the money, only for a better film).
Check out the film blogs’ response to the record breakage after the jump:
The midnight screenings alone earned $16 million, putting it third behind The Dark Knight ($18.5 million) and Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith ($16.9 million). As Skids might say, “Daz be a ‘hoooo lodda cheddah! Cans you ordah lunch? I can’z be readin duh orderin’ papuh.”
So much for the purported robot rivalry between McG’s ‘Terminator Salvation’ and Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’ sequel. While ‘Terminator’ has underperformed, earning only $120 million to date, ‘Transformers’ is on pace to hit that mark by the end of the weekend.
For comparison’s sake, that one-day total eclipses 2009 Oscar nominees Doubt and Frost/Nixon’s combined domestic gross for their entire theatrical run.
Earlier this morning, our lovely sex columnist Bethany Perryman sent me over the following tidbit, a message from the folks at Funny or Die posted to Twitter:
Transformers 2 is at 21% on Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes is at 0% on Michael Bay’s give-a-shit meter.
Then moments later, I read over at Variety that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which hit theaters yesterday, became the highest grossing Wednesday opening of all-time…it would appear that Rotten Tomatoes (and critics in general) is at 0% on America’s give-a-shit meter as well.
Just goes to show that… making a ridiculous movie based on a cartoon made to sell toys, and then making an even stupider sequel to that movie, is a good business plan? I don’t know what it goes to show. Something depressing.
I actually just got back from seeing this thing and if it has any legs I will be floored. Even for fanboys this thing must be painful. And I’ve argued with one of our writers because I loved the first one. But I feel bad for championing the franchise now. I seriously might be done with Michael Bay, or Orci and Kurtzman. I haven’t decided yet, but I definitely hate someone.
That puts the sci-fi actioner on track for a $175M five-day opening despite overwhelmingly lousy reviews. But Paramount boasted how exit polling showed that 91% of the audience said “they liked this movie as much or better than the first”. So this Decepticons vs Autobots battle is reviewer-proof.
Before he begins work on Transformers 3, Michael Bay said he plans to use some of his money to travel the world in a unicorn-shaped zeppelin, bringing explosions to underprivileged children. Then he made a crass joke about “record opening” and giggled for 10 minutes.
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So the critics slam another Michael Bay movie, big surprise, I remember back in 2007 when Transformers was released, same thing many critics slammed it, but most moviegoers enjoyed it. The theater I went to was packed, not a seat empty, people laffed, cheered, a few sniffles during the OP scene, I didn’t hear anyone complaining about the film, most left saying AWESOME or how they were going to see the movie again. The Film was alot of fun. Enjoyed it. Will See It Again.
All of you critics are so stupid honestly! This movie is meant to be a summer action blockbuster! It’s not supposed to have an in depth story or anything! Michael Bay made this movie to excite everyone with visual spectacularity and nothing else! Stop hating on him for what he does best. You guys probably think a movie like Frost/Nixon is a better movie which no one cares about!
i don’t think matt and josh went to see transformers. it’s probably the worst movie all year. if you going to fanboy this crap of a movie, at least make sure you’re getting paid for it
I LOVED it and have already seen it twice and will be seeing it again. Screw the critics.
Oh ya L1A? Worst movie of the year? All I got to say is u got some bad taste and u don’t know an awesome movie when u see it! Go watch “The Queen” or something with more “depth” to it…
Any Uwe Boll movie is actually better than this, at least he makes shit movies with lot less money.
in a land, were people get paid to compare movies about giant f!@#ing robots to broke back mountain and other oscar winning forgettables. movie reviewers have come to destroy our world with the hate for mindless fun and entertainment. in theaters june 24/09.
Ummm….. apparently u guys arent watching the movie if all your watching is the explosions. Optimus and megatron have issues which create great conflict if you havent noticed. and about the stereotyped twin bots…. what movie have you seen that didnt have stereotypes? there used to identify people/groups in film thats just how it is thats how our society identifies things its comic relief relax and enjoy it. only when its meant to be derogatory is it harmful.
You know, people say this movie doesn’t have character feelings or conflict….
Do people forget that Sam risks his life to save optimus, even when chances are zero it will work. Or the fact that the military throws their superior out to help optimus and sam when they are in trouble, and that a general disobeys direct orders to do so? The humans fight for the autobots same as they for them. F*** character development, do people forget this IS A SEQUEL!! character ties and abckstory were developed in the first movie, this movie picks up and runs with it, and is FILLED with what THE PEOPLE want to see, autobots and decpticons fighting to the death. I was blown away by the action!
And by the way, the “this movie relies on its special effects, no characters hardly ever show up.” THE TRANSFORMERS ARE CHARACTERS. This movie did 201 million in 5 days, 2nd most ever, IMAGINE what it would do if reviewers weren’t ridiculous….
From what I gather, it is mostly batman fans that are bashing the movie, as they are worried it will topple the record. Using these excuses as a way to hamper the movie, if they release transformers TWICE and have no other movie competition, it will roll to the record, like batman did.
Hmmm. true. I’m not sure why everyone is bashing on the Transformers 2 movie. If you can care less about it, don’t talk about it, don’t rag on it, don’t compare it with the Dark Knight and don’t even try to analyze it. You “haters”, and your negative reviews, actually helped it earn $201 million on it’s first 5 days. So thank you. Everyone’s got their opinion and the right to tell it…but I think it’s wrong to force opinions on people. I can not wait for Transformers 3 … I’m sure Trypticon and Metroplex will be involved. Oh? You critics don’t know what I’m talking about? …. exactly my point. There is a history behind this film, a fan base, and of course proven sales from toys and tv shows. It’s fun! It’s intersting. It involves art and imagination; it’s entertaining…a nice escape from the shit of everyday life especially from work, don’t you agree?
Gotta agree,If u don’t care why would you critize it. I like the first movie more, but the second one amuse me enuf. Its all about the robot. That’s why its titled TRANSFORMERS, not HUMANS. So who cares if the human chara are only passing by? The point of the movie IS big robots war.
I’m from indonesia,reporting that here we use 7 studios for each theatre to play transformers and it still overflowed. And we have like more than 50 theatres for one city only.
Don’t use your brain too much for movies like this. It’ll only make you look stupid.
I love transformers. Michael bay did a good job in making my childhood heroes comes back to life.
I saw this movie, completely for free, as I worked at a theater on sunday and snuck in. I can honestly say that I would rather watch Showgirls than this giant turd of a film. People say that it is a mindless summer action flick, it doesn’t need plot. Well my question is, why on earth would someone want to watcha mindless film? Answer is simple, because they’re stupid. I wouldn’t have wasted 5 minutes of my life on this holy pile if it weren’t to get me out of doing a job. In fact, I considered leaving the theater to get back to work a couple times but I decided it was at least as bad as wiping crap off of toilet boils.
transformer is the best
Outside gorgeous! but, empty inside…totally.
It’s basically a scam… Madoff goes 150 years in prison..
Michael Bay? 150 years in Paramount. good for him. LMAO!
“because a billion trillion negative words written about the blockbuster sequel couldn’t have kept it from breaking the Wednesday opening record.” - Christopher Campbell
The opening day record is irrelevent because that’s simply a result of being a highly anticipated movie. The critics have to pay money before they criticize.
Transformers 2 is the best in it’s Genre.
The Action and Comedy were good enough 4 the audience….
The Soundtracks were amazin’.
The tym length of the movie doesn’t matter cuz’ each second of the movie is AWESOME………
I won’t give my opinion of the movie. However, newsflash to all the “critics” out there:
Your tripe IS more of the drudgery and cynicism of day-to-day life and movies are an escape. Stop worrying so much about why people don’t “get” you or your ability to “enlighten” us through writing ability.
Chris Spears, my reply is directed to you.
How can you comment on people being stupid if they enjoy these sorts of films when you clean toilets for a living?
Think about it…. Good day sir.
Wait…people actually liked this piece of crap?
Unbelievable, this just strengthens the argument that the masses are idiots. Simply put:
. The Story - Stupid, ton’s of plot-holes, makes little sense when though about properly and the writing is god-awful.
Comedy - Awful, appalling, abysmal - I cannot believe people enjoyed the “jokes” in this film. OMG HAHA! Those dogs are simulating intercourse LMAO SEX IS HILARIOUS!!!!. Geez, grow up… Not to mention the fact that almost every single line is a freaking pun, its ridiculous; no substance or class.
Action - Awful, you may be wondering why. Because they had 200 million to spend, of course they can make it look good for plebs. Yet, Bay insisted on zooming in and out and switching camera angles all the time during fight sequences, so they were piss-poor. The majority can’t do action right - this rule is no different here.
The Acting - Awful. Megan Fox is only in the film becuase she’s good looking, she can’t act to save her skin. The special Effects were great, as they should be with all that money; and just to see them would be the only way I could recommend this film to anyone with half a brain.
The Music - Repetitive, boring, didn’t suit certain scenes etc…
—-
Effectively, its awful and all the moronic excuses such as “Its a summer blockbuster” (So? Your demanding these people insult your intelligence with a film of this poor quality every summer then?) amaze me.
That prove that all reviewers listed in this column are not sensitive to other people liking..nobody can say that movie is lousy and the other is super duper because we all have different opinions, likings, desire, thinkings bla bla…just like the saying “the beauty is in the eyes of the beholders”..
very good work of director
i just love transfomers 2 its grat from sean.
I’m definitely not a fan of the Transformers franchise and didn’t like the first film cuz it seemed hollow. However, I’m slightly stunned by HOW angry some of the critics get. The first transformers movie is about the only movie that my bro and I don’t agree on, and at times we’ll talk about our disagreements. But it’s mostly in fun, and it still stuns me how angry people get. The truth is, if you don’t like the movie or michael bay, just ignore it and quit whining about how stupid the masses are.
You are an asshole.
Enjoy things for what they are or go watch French films about gay men talking for 2 hours…
well as i see. transformers is the best movie i ever see but some people they don’t see like me cuz they might never saw the anime like me and i’m whaching how this was possible for me to see how great they made it and i’m happy to see that people who ever make this movie i have to say thank’s, for make me see movie like this one.