Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
June 30, 2009
David Mumpower: Before I answer the question, I'd like to pose one of my own. If Revenge of the Fallen does earn over $400 million, does it instantly become the worst movie to make that much money or does Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace or maybe even Shrek 2 hold that claim? Episode One will always be considered one of the most disappointing movies ever made. No one is arguing that. But in terms of simple film quality, which of those three titles is the worst? I can't decide if I'm more bugged by Jar-Jar or 30 minutes of mindless, pointless explosions at the end of Transformers 2. In terms of the question itself, I'm torn between my gut and my mind. My gut says it's not going to slow down any time soon. People view this as THE summer movie and a generally satisfactory one at that. I've been monitoring some of the Twitter posts from the peanut gallery about the film. They are not as heinous as would be expected for a film with a Tomatometer score of 21%. People generally got what they wanted from the film, which is...unsettling/depressing/aggravating. Take your pick. My brain says it's not going to get there. Spider-Man 2, which was mentioned earlier as having the glowing word of mouth one would expect from such a brilliant film, earned "only" $221 million after its first five days. While Transformers 2 beat it by 25% in that same time frame, I struggle to believe that it's going to have the similar later days hold of such an impeccable movie. In fact, I would point out that Transformers "only" made $163.7 million after its first six days. I just don't see this one maintaining its current (tremendous) escape velocity. Of course, I would have said the same thing of Shrek 2...and probably did. Sometimes, a box office hit's success is self-propagating. We've recently seen that with The Hangover and we saw it last year with The Dark Knight.
Kim Hollis: Well, with regards to worst movie to make that much money, I'd certainly pull Shrek 2 out of the argument. Even if some of us here don't like it, it was a pretty universally loved movie and sits at 89% fresh at RottenTomatoes (including 90% from "Top Critics"). I'd think that lots of people will be perfectly happy with Transformers 2 except for the fact that it actually gets monumentally boring for a long period of time. We're talking about a movie with explosions and giant robots, but you're just wondering when things will move along. If other people feel this way, it could be in trouble, but if they're just in it for the action and the CGI, they'll be content enough and it could trudge right along to $400 million.
Daron Aldridge: I don't feel qualified to answer just yet as I will likely wait until DVD for my Transformers 2 whipping. But that isn't stopping me from throwing in my two cents. Disappointment is the best word for Star Wars Episode One. I don't think it is horrible but rather just average thanks to a few kick arse sequences that Josh highlighted in the recent A-List column. Shrek 2 is painful for me to watch and I am usually inclined to cut animated films some slack. Puss-in-Boots was the only redeeming element. For that matter, repeated viewings of the first Shrek are hard to sit through. That entire franchise is dated as soon as it comes out. (I might be a little bitter because it stole Monsters, Inc.'s Oscar.)
So sight unseen, my ranking from worst to just bad is Shrek 2, Transformers 2 and Star Wars Episode One.
David Mumpower: As always, the correct answer about which over-hyped movie sucks the most is Star Wars.
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