Yeah, I said it. Try to debate me on this, I dare you.
Nominations for this year’s 30th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards are out, and boy, did the list just remind me of how many sci-fi/fantasy film stinkers existed in 2009.
Front runners in suckdom are Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Land of the Lost, who top the list tied at seven nominations a piece. Both were equally as terrible as the other, but here’s the kicker: Land of the Lost brought in nearly $69 million, while Transformers banked $835 million. This, my friends, is the movie making puzzler: How can two films, both equally awful in substance walk out of the same year with such drastically different piggy banks?
(More on Techland: The Five Most Underrated Sci-fi Masterpieces)
Land of the Lost had Will Ferrell and dinosaurs, but Transformers (affectionately dubbed Trannies, Too) had a pre-existing fan base, a huge marketing campaign, and of course, Megan Fox. The fantastically untalented Ms. Fox is nominated a whopping three times for this year’s Razzies – two of those in the “Worst Actress” category for her roles in Transformers and Jennifer’s Body and one as Shia Lebouf’s counterpart for “Worst Screen Couple.”
While it’s no secret that talentless beauties are plucked out of obscurity and J.C. Penny catalogs to run around damsel-in-distressing – usually in something short, cropped or ripped off – it’s satisfying to see it called for exactly what it is: terrible acting a la another Hollywood sex kitten. (Stay out of my sci-fi, Megan Fox. Go straddle something for Maxim instead.)
(More on Techland: What We’re Looking Forward to in 2010: Sci-Fi Movies)
In fact, sci-fi and fantasy dominated the “Worst Screen Couple” list with three of the five nominations, including: Will Ferrell and anything from Land of the Lost, aforementioned Lebouf and Fox and the Twilight: New Moon triangle of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. And while I’m certainly not shocked that the New Moon crew snagged a nomination, I’m just surprised it couldn’t manage more than four. The well-timed shirtless man shots must have overshadowed the disastrous script or the fact that her boyfriend sparkles like a My Little Pony.
(Full list of Razzie nominees on page 2)
