It’s the first original Michael Bay production from Platinum Dunes, and it’s a dark sign already.

And no, that’s not my barely-repressed “Bash Bay” instinct expressing itself–that’s my “have you seen what they’re using for a poster”? instinct.

I just saw a trailer for it, and it looks like it’ll at least be passable.  Bay’s philosophy of special effects uber alles seems to be serving him well, though it’ll remain to be seen if the whole will actually remain coherent or just sort of fall apart into a melange of special effects sequences vaguely and ineptly strung together with plot.  That’s a rather shaky situation, but what really has me scared is that poster.

Any time you have to resort to getting a chick soaking wet to hawk a movie you know it isn’t exactly going to be an Oscar contender.  Anyone else remember Mirrors?  The remake that came out not too long ago?  They had to rely pretty heavily on their footage of Amy Smart in the bathtub, as you may well recall, and look how that turned out.

This isn’t to say that a woman CAN’T have her picture taken covered in water, but it leans pretty heavily toward the exploitative and that never bodes well for a movie.  Will this gambit work for possibly the first time ever?  Answer: I really doubt it.

After all, this sucker’s being released to theatres January 9, and as we all know by now, January is the dumping ground for bad movies.

Popularity: 4% [?]