Budget: $200m Total Box Office: $836.3m US Home Video Sales: $278.2m The first Transformers was a hugely enjoyable sci-fi blockbuster, a movie that turned a fairly cynical adaptation of a popular toy line into a premium slice of summer entertainment. The sequel was rushed into production after the 2007-2008 writer's strike and as a result the final product was an overlong, incoherent, excessive mess that has even been acknowledged as a bad movie by those that helped make it. Nonetheless, it still made an absolute boatload of money. The problems with the movie are so plentiful that it's difficult to know where to begin, but I'll try. For a movie with such a flimsy narrative, the 150 minute running time becomes something akin to an endurance test, populated by a constant barrage of often-incomprehensible action scenes. Also, for such an expensive movie the humor is painfully cheap, whether it be the borderline-racist Autobot twins or allowing John Turtorro to become one of the first actors to be filmed on the pyramids simply to gaze in awe at a pair of giant robot balls. Revenge of the Fallen is found sorely lacking in the plot, script and character department but big-name franchises like Transformers are critic-proof; audiences will turn up in droves for the sheer spectacle. And they did. After opening to a huge $108.9m, Revenge of the Fallen went on to cross $400m to become the second-biggest domestic hit of the year behind Avatar. Worldwide, it was the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2009 with just under 52% of the box office takings coming from the international market, which is actually a very low number for such a high-profile blockbuster. Despite the overwhelmingly negative critical reaction, the movie sold over 12.4m units on home video in the US alone, with international sales taking the total revenue to over $1.3bn, making it unquestionably the most successful bad movie in history.
I don't do social media, so like or follow me in person but please maintain a safe distance or the authorities will be notified. Don't snap me though, I'll probably break. I was once labelled a misogynist on this very site in a twenty paragraph-long rant for daring to speak ill of the Twilight franchise. I stand by what I said, it's crap.
