Comments (31)

• 400 million domestic. Minimum.

  Bay haters are going to have an aneurysm. He’s a guy film snobs relish detesting even though he has more talent in an eyelash than they have in their entire bodies.

  He’s a veritable maestro of delivering, on time and within budget, high-octane productions of massive scale with his own personalized stylistic stamp. He’ll still be one of the foremost talents around in this field ten years from now while his detractors continue to be mired in message board oblivion championing obscure black and white foreign films about the human condition.

  Comment by Fred Unger — June 11, 2009 @ 1:39 am  Reply to this post

• God I hope not! Michael Bay has been one of the worst things to happen to cinema in EVER. Studios will never stop making crap like this until they see that it won’t sell.
  If The Dark Knight was the perfect smart and entertaining flick then bayformers is the antithesis of that.

  Michael Bay (and his movies) are like the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion of moviemaking: he’s got no brains, no heart and no balls.

  Comment by JaySmack — June 11, 2009 @ 6:00 am  Reply to this post

• Judging by the trailer, it’ll be the biggest hit of the summer, at least.

  Comment by peggy — June 11, 2009 @ 7:20 am  Reply to this post

• michael bay doesn’t tip very good for making 75 mill on the last one.

  and he drinks Heineken. WTF. Hopefully he’ll tip me more after the next installment. Who cares about plot…VISUALS!

  Comment by Waiter — June 11, 2009 @ 9:26 am  Reply to this post

• It’ll open huge, then fall off a cliff.

  Comment by B Hennessay! — June 11, 2009 @ 9:33 am  Reply to this post

• Ha. jaysmack. Some people can hate on anything. They did a terrific job bringing it to the big screen and the trailers look AMAZING for the sequel. But I guess when you’re miserable, there’s no writing “cool, hope it does well!”, huh.

  I’m sure Michael Bay is crying himself to sleep every night, “I’m doing okay, but I’m still no JaySmack.”

  Comment by Woland — June 11, 2009 @ 9:34 am  Reply to this post

• Good call JaySmack! Why would we want movie studios to make huge budget films that employ hundreds of people. Let’s stick to low-budget indie flicks where everyone can work for scale.

  Comment by Not a snob — June 11, 2009 @ 9:34 am  Reply to this post

• @Jay Smack

  If that was actually true then you should be able to do better than him right? Then… please. By all means– do so.

  Although I kinda wish that he had accepted Uwe Boll’s boxing match challenge! haha

  Comment by Bay is good — June 11, 2009 @ 9:35 am  Reply to this post

• What are you talking about JaySmack?! Transformers I was AWESOME!!!! And, Transformers II will be…take a guess…MORE AWESOME!!!!

  Comment by Reena — June 11, 2009 @ 9:36 am  Reply to this post

• I love when people hate on guys like Michael Bay. Is he a douche? Yes. Does he make good movies? Depends on who you ask. Believe it or not, there is actually an entire country between LA and NY that likes to be entertained by Michael Bay’s action movies and those people really don’t care about the fact that there is no “character development by the end of the 2nd Act.” I once met a guy in Iowa who said that “SPAWN” starring Michael Jai White was the greatest superhero movie ever made. Gotta love middle America. Anyway, Michael Bay probably won’t be up for any Oscars any time soon, he is still successful in his own right…making movies for America

  Comment by Gerardo — June 11, 2009 @ 9:39 am  Reply to this post

• JaySmack is ghey, and is talking out his ass. Movies like this make a lot of money which then allows the studios to make what he considers “good films”.

  Also, it looks entertaining as hell.

  Any takers on whether or not JaySmack goes to see Transformers in the theater, if only to bitch about how terrible it was?

  Comment by Cool Hand Lube — June 11, 2009 @ 9:59 am  Reply to this post

• This is one of the few films I’m looking forward to. JaySmack, I know why it’s easy to hate Michael Bay but don’t forget that the film industry is a business and the purpose of any business is to make profits not art. Bay’s movies may not be the greatest thing to ever happen to cinema but they (mostly) make money. And that’s literally the bottom line.

  Comment by JD — June 11, 2009 @ 10:03 am  Reply to this post

• Transformers Revenge of the Fallen will be AWESOME.

  Comment by L.T. — June 11, 2009 @ 10:22 am  Reply to this post

• I really wish people would stop expecting Transformers to be anything other than gourmet junk food. The first one was fun and i expect this one to be better.

  @Jay – Not everything can (or should) be Iron Man or TDK, people want to see spfx robots fighting, stop hating, if you don’t like it, stay home, but don’t begrudge the rest of us. Btw, Bay for all of his faults does have balls and vision, he did fight for a TV actor to star in his first movie, when the studio resisted, lo and behold Bad Boys (one of his good films) and Will Smith.

  Comment by trey — June 11, 2009 @ 10:42 am  Reply to this post

• Action is good

  Comment by Gilbert — June 11, 2009 @ 10:51 am  Reply to this post

• I saw Star Trek last month at the Arclight the day after it opened. The three trailers were Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G. I. Joe. During the G. I. Joe trailer a teenager behind me said, “Aren’t these all the same movie?”

  Comment by Max Zook — June 11, 2009 @ 11:41 am  Reply to this post

• People want to see this thing? Seriously? I’m not just Bay-Bashing, either… I’m legitimately puzzled. Isn’t this a “one-trick pony”? I can see that OTHER toy movie, G.I.JOE, spawning a franchise (questions of quality and taste aside, it’s an ensemble-cast action film…plenty of growing room there). But all you can do with THIS thing is try and make it bigger and louder. Is that really enough?

  Comment by cst — June 11, 2009 @ 12:25 pm  Reply to this post

• Can you conceive of the mind that would watch Transformers 2, much less book a ticket on-line two weeks ahead of the release? The human race is doomed … !

  Comment by King of Comedy — June 11, 2009 @ 2:58 pm  Reply to this post

• Hey Jay..go back to doing smack… which takes no brains, no heart and no balls…Those of us in the business realize the importance of delivering what the public wants once in a while…

  Comment by lb — June 11, 2009 @ 3:05 pm  Reply to this post

• @ cst

  Obviously you don’t know anything thing about the multitude of robots in Transformers lore. Hell, the main reason half of the people was to see this is because they’re going debut the fan favorite “Devastator”, there are plenty of storylines that can use.

  Comment by trey — June 11, 2009 @ 3:45 pm  Reply to this post

• Yeah, I’m just not feeling it anymore. Its getting to the point where I’m just blockbustered out. Who cares? The only movie I’m hungry to see is Avatar.

  But I have to say that it was so refreshing to sit in a packed house and watch the ‘Hangover’, a movie with no stars, no CGI jerkoff explosions, just win over the audience by its sheer confidence in telling a story on its own terms.

  The first Transformers was goofy summer fun, but to repeat it is just that. Where else can you go with it?

  Comment by Alboone — June 11, 2009 @ 4:13 pm  Reply to this post

• Max -

  Your story gives those of us who still love 70’s New H’Wood/90’s Indie films hope. The future of cinema is really up to the teenagers, since 98.9% of movies today are made for them. Every 10-15 years they rebel and chose a “Dr. Strangelove” or a “Pulp Fiction” over whatever brain-dead Cleopatra/Schwartzenegger movie was up against it.

  Betting it all on tentpoles is dangerous. Sooner or later, they’re gonna get bored, and on that weekend the heavens will fall. It’s all up to you, kids…

  Comment by JP — June 11, 2009 @ 4:19 pm  Reply to this post

• The Dark Knight was hardly perfect.

  A shambling narrative wrapped around an iconic supporting performance.

  Transformers 2 will be a shambling narrative wrapped around stuff blowing up and robots.

  Nothing inherently wrong with that. Nothing inherently right. I’m sure it will be fun.

  c.s.t – GI JOE will not spawn a franchise. A movie with low test scores – and who’s the ensemble? Marlon Wayans, Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum?

  That’s not chemistry. Chemistry these days = the biology that created Megan Fox. And Shia is a more charismatic actor that Tatum hands down.

  You know what DOES create franchises? Box office. DVD sales. Toy sales. TRANSFORMERS – and this is not up for argument – delivered the money. It looks like Part 2 will do well (if not flat-out amazing) and is poised to outgross STAR TREK by a hefty margin (even if it’s not as good).

  That’s what makes franchises. Not Stephen Sommers (whether or not he’s locked out of the editing room).

  Comment by ghostface — June 11, 2009 @ 5:33 pm  Reply to this post

• Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is going to be a
  FUN ACTION PACKED SCI-FI THRILL RIDE. I’ve heard
  from some Japanese fans who have already seen the
  movie. They all said it was AWESOME. Can’t wait till
  JUNE 24th.

  Comment by Jeremy — June 11, 2009 @ 5:56 pm  Reply to this post

• Oh, I’m not actually judging either film- I’m just saying that, CONCEPTUALLY,”team of supercommandos travel around world fighting international terrorists with high-tech gadgets” lends itself to sequels in a way that”Big Robots fight MORE Big Robots” doesn’t.(I can’t say I’m a fan of Bay OR Sommers, although Bay’s films I can ignore easily-I really don’t care if BAD BOYS 2 is any good or not.But I AM a fan of old-school horror, so Sommers DID piss me off with stuff like VAN HELSING…)

  Comment by cst — June 11, 2009 @ 7:30 pm  Reply to this post

• @ ghostface:

  “The Dark Knight was hardly perfect.

  A shambling narrative wrapped around an iconic supporting performance.

  Transformers 2 will be a shambling narrative wrapped around stuff blowing up and robots.”

  I don’t know, but TDK hit that particular spot where a lot of people wanted to see it, loved it and saw it multiple times (and recommended it to their friends). I’m sure Ledger’s passing increased the awareness and free publicity, but it was a combination of stuff aside from his incredible performance. And a shambling narrative? You need to check the dictionary more carefully, the word you’re looking for is ‘complex’ — TF has a shambling non-narrative.

  TF-2 will not come close to the phenomena TDK was a year ago, maybe in terms of dollars ($400 million I can see, but it won’t hit the $500 million mark). Bay is a hack — Nolan introduced the idea of shooting select scenes in IMAX and Bay piggybacked off that idea.

  And for those who like TF and yell that everybody who doesn’t like the franchise is a “film snob,” we’re not. I love brainless action flicks as much as the next guy, but TF didn’t thrill me (and I had lowered expectations and even then TF didn’t surpass those). Bad dialogue, bad acting, badly-cut action sequences, and cartoonish CGI (never once did I believe the giant robots were real or close to it). At least guys like Gore Verbinski know how to make exciting but dumb movies — Bay is just an amateur.

  While TF-2 may be the highest grossing film of 2009, the films from that past decade people are gonna talk about ten years from now will be pics like TDK. Bay’s films are average at best and mind-numbingly awful at worst.

  Comment by Matt C — June 11, 2009 @ 7:39 pm  Reply to this post

• Even though Fandango says Transformers 2 accounts for 21% of their ticket sales today, what I would like to know is, how many tickets is that? Im sure its not $70 million worth.

  Comment by KC — June 11, 2009 @ 7:52 pm  Reply to this post

• Early feedback from the japanese premiere have been mixed. Great action, yet dumb lame and cheesy comedy and dialogue were taken up a notch

  Comment by Harvey — June 11, 2009 @ 8:35 pm  Reply to this post

• Don’t act like TDK was flawless. It wasn’t. It was good. But best ever? No. Ledger was excellent. Bale paled in comparison and his Batman voice was distracting. The movie didn’t have enough action. The sonar enhanced climax was out of context from the rest of the film. And finally while u leave the theater thinking it was a good movie, it kind of leaves you cold. Where was the fun? After all it’s Batman. But Its only because Nolan still cant direct action scenes.

  Transformers was candy. But the action and special effects were flawless. The robots looked real. So why hate? Transformers 2 is going to kill really big in 2 weeks.

  Also Iron Man isn’t perfect either. It dragged in the middle and coasted on Downey’s charisma. Also the final fight was merely a big budget remake of the fight from Robocop 2.

  Bottom line, no movie is perfect. But let’s not get carried away and overrate some in favor of trashing Bay. Bay may be the cool kid with the nice cars and hot girls, but the mutherfucker can direct an action movie. No substance? So what. Most people forget these movies are not for you anyway. They are for 13 year old kids who eat this shit up.

  Stop hating and enjoy…

  Comment by B- — June 12, 2009 @ 3:43 am  Reply to this post

• I enjoy Bay’s movies for the most part, although “Pearl Harbor” and “Armaggedon” were both abortions (especially “Harbor”). When the robots were on screen, the first “Transformers” was good dumb fun. But damn, whenever they were off screen and actual people took over, the film sucked harder than Ginger Lynn in her heyday as a porn actress. I’m sure the sequel will be more of the same, albeit on a bigger budget.

  Comment by spf781 — June 12, 2009 @ 3:29 pm  Reply to this post

• u all are haten cuz tf2 will be the worlds beggest movie ever made ,hands down, so fuck off!!!! until 23 at midnight , autobots out!!!

  Comment by king swag — June 16, 2009 @ 2:20 pm  Reply to this post