Looks like we'll be getting 'Bad Boys III' any time now...

Michael Bay has his first box office flop, with The Island, which cost $122 million to produce but only took in $12 million in its opening weekend. I liked the film (my review will be up at Relevant tomorrow), even if it was just more of the same badass, macho theatrics and epic destruction. But hey, badass paramilitary dudes and exploding vehicles are not something I usually complain about. If explosions are an art form, then Michael Bay is the foremost practitioner. He's an auter of bombast and mayhem, and I'm an unabashed fan of his movies.

Box Office Mojo tries to explain the film's failure by its lacklustre advertising, which gave away key plot points and sold the action over the characters. The spoiler trailers are unforgivable, but they're, unfortunately, an expected part of most big budget films these days (War of the Worlds being a notable exception). And while I hate the trend, it's understandable. People are stupid, and if a studio spends $100 million plus on a film, there's a pretty strong incentive not to sell it with advertising that could be mistaken as confusing.

My feeling is that the film was sold as just another generic action film, and it didn't include one of the things that makes Bay's previous work so popular - his rowdy, outrageous sense of humor. The Bad Boys movies and The Rock didn't just work because of the bullets and fireballs - all three were relatively quick-witted in a bawdy, crotch-scratching, locker room sort of way. Armegeddon misfired as an action film, but the buddy comedy coming from its large, mostly excellent* cast was top notch. Audiences can get high-velocity destruction any week of the summer, but Bay's humor, crude as it may be, greases the rails rather effectively for his mayhem. The Island had a few moments, but played it mostly straight, and that may have been what turned people away.

Still, his next film is virtually gauranteed to be a hit, and I can't think of a shallow popcorn chewer that I'm looking forward to any more. I was born in 1981, and if you are also a child of the 80s, or even remember children from the 80s, you'll understand when I sign off with just four words: live action Transformers movie.

*Meaning, of course, everyone but Affleck and Tyler.