Mark Wahlberg, being the crafty film promoter/actor he is, decided to get people talking about his latest film “Transformers: Age of Extinction” since all the attention is squarely focused on comic book films “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” by saying he “had to jump at the opportunity because I really feel like it is probably the most iconic franchise in movie history.”
Heck, even Megatron and Starscream are finding this laughable.
But for argument’s sake, let’s see if there’s any possible way he could be right.
Iconic – of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an icon; an object of uncritical devotion
Hmmn. Gotta figure “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Star Trek,” “The Dark Knight,” “The Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit,” “Harry Potter” and “Marvel’s The Avengers” fans may be a bit more qualified for that distinction.
Financially, no “Transformers” film by Michael Bay has grossed less than $300 million. The first film, brought in $319 million, while its sequel, “Revenge of the Fallen,” earned a tremendous $402 million. The third installment, “Dark of the Moon,” earned $352 million.
Bumblebee prepares for battle
But compared to George Lucas’ lesser regarded Star Wars prequel trilogy, Transformers is far from iconic. “Phantom Menace” earned a whopping $474 million, “Attack of the Clones” stumbled with $310 million, but “Revenge of the Sith” closed out on a strong $380 million note. Not bad for films that apparently everyone loathed. [sarcasm meter sharply tuned to 10].
Well, maybe Wahlberg was talking about critical acclaim? Let’s see … “Iron Man” earned 93% freshness on rottentomatoes.com, its sequel, “Iron Man 2” fell to a still fresh 73% and “Iron Man 3” rebounded slightly with 78%. “Marvel’s The Avengers,” the flagship of the Marvel Studios’ franchise earned a stellar 92%.
Transformers? Well, “Transformers” earned a rotten 57%, “Fallen” fell further with 20% and “Dark of the Moon” earned 36%
Maybe Wahlberg’s talking toys? Yeah…that won’t work either.
So it looks like we’re all pretty safe in assuming Wahlberg has experienced one too many Michael Bay explosion while on set or he’s just in such ridiculous shill mode that he’ll say that “Max Payne” really was the best video game adaptation in movie history.
Lyles Movie Files 
I think Wahlberg is trying to promote his film and convince people to see it, I guess I can’t blame him. While the ‘Transformers’ films have been huge box office successes, no doubt about that. There have been bigger hit films, more acclaimed films obviously and films with bigger pop culture impact than the ‘Transformers’ films have had. I get his reasoning for why he’s trying to sell people on the franchise’s impact, but he’s not even close.
And there’s no problem with that, but I think it goes from being genuine about trying to get people excited about the film to having them roll their eyes with statements like that.
Of course, there is now way ‘Transformers’ is the most iconic franchise and Wahlberg knows that, he needs to stop being ignorant and outrageous. It’s a hit franchise with some popularity, nothing more nothing less.
Yep. Just say something like it’s one of the bigger recent franchises around and I was thrilled to be a part of it. Perfectly reasonable and nothing wrong with saying that.
Exactly Jeff, now the day the ‘Transformer’ films start grossing 500 plus million domestic at the box office, maybe he can start to boast such claims.