Mark Wahlberg, the host of Antiques Roadshow an actor most notable for playing Shirtless White Rapper in the “Good Vibrations” video, says a lot of dumb things. Seriously, a lot. A whooooooooooole lot. It’s important to look back and remind yourself how completely out of touch with reality this guy is, because he tends to run his mouth a bit. His latest claims about his upcoming movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction, are pretty stupid. But at least they’re not on the “I could have prevented 9/11” level of idiocy.
Wahlberg made an appearance at CinemaCon, where movie studios try to instill confidence in theater owners with presentations of their upcoming big budget summer movies. Paramount Pictures started off this year’s convention with a look at Transformers: Age of Extinction. While director Michael Bay was notably absent, The Artist Formerly Known As Marky Mark took to the stage to let everyone know how dumb he is why his movie is going to be such a big success.
When speaking about accepting the role, Wahlberg said he “had to jump at the opportunity because I really feel like it is probably the most iconic franchise in movie history.” Oh, Mark. Do you really believe that blurry metal fistfights, giant robot testicles, and Megan Fox’s ass are more iconic than Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Batman? Hell, even Twilight is more iconic than Transformers. The original TV series, toy line, and comic books are iconic, but very little of that carried over into the films.
Any other outrageous claims. Mark? “For moviegoers all over the world, I guarantee this will take it up a notch. It is bigger and better than the other three (films) combined. This will be the biggest movie of 2014.” Look, I have no problem believing that Transformers: Age of Extinction could be better than the other three combined, because they weren’t that good. But declaring it the biggest movie of 2014 is just setting yourself up to fail.
I’m sure Transformers: Age of Extinction will be a fun, mindless, action movie. It’s going to be filled with explosions and Dinobots. It’ll do well at the box office, maybe even beating Dark of the Moon‘s $1.1 billion worldwide. But don’t pretend that it’s going to be culturally significant, unless you really feel that strongly about it. But you’d really have to FEEL IT, FEEL IT.
Via Vulture and The Playlist