Monday, December 12, 2011

G.I. Joe Retaliation gets a 'realistic' trailer, for better or worse.

I'm of two minds about this one.  On one hand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this second G.I. Joe movie being a bit different, both visually and in terms of tone, from the last picture.  So the last one was colorful and campy while this one is trying to sell itself as somewhat more serious and arguably more generic.  Fine, no harm, no foul.  On the other hand, as someone who LIKED G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, this new entry feels less like 'your G.I. Joe action-figure dramas brought to life!' and more like 'A G.I. Joe movie for audiences who are probably a little too old to reasonably have an interest in a G.I. Joe movie'.  Part of the fun of the last film was seeing the characters that we all loved back in the 1980s (Baroness, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Duke, Destro, etc) come to life in $175 million worth of candy-colored carnage (say what you want about those robo-suits, but the Paris chase is a fantastic action sequence).  This time around, it's basically like someone made an admittedly stylish-looking action picture (that ninja cliff fight is about six kinds of awesome), cast some name actors (The Rock, Bruce Willis apparently playing himself), and some relative unknowns, suited everyone up except the two returning ninjas in generic battle gear, and then slapped 'G.I. Joe' on the marquee for marketing purposes.  Will it be a 'better' movie than Sommer's initial entry?  Perhaps, at the very least it hopefully won't shoot itself in the foot during its final 20 minutes in order to neuter its major villain.  But, based on what we've seen, it feels less like a (as I know it) G.I. Joe movie than the first film.  Having said all of that, I love that they are keeping the terrific cliffhanger of the first film.  I like that the button gives Willis the joke, but Adrianne Palicki gets the comic reaction shot.  Anyway, this one drops on June 29th, 2012.  Then we'll know, which is of course about 50% of the battle.

Scott Mendelson      

2 comments:

Liam_Ho said...

I agree that the first one was basically just camp, but it just boggled my mind where the $175 million dollars went when the effects of the movie were so terrible. The desert looked like a CGI cut scene from some video game. This movie looks polished and got me interested. I love that the fixed Snake Eyes, he looks so much better now.

obthavariable said...

I'm also of two minds on this one. On one hand I hate everything this movie has become because it's nothing like the first one, and I love "Rise of Cobra" immensely. On the other hand, I want to like it because of how much I love the first one and I want to remain a supporter of the franchise. I'm still shaking my head in confusion as to why so much of the original cast is missing, why and how Chu got hired, how the hell is Storm Shadow alive again, and why does the trailer make Channing Tatum look like the worst actor alive, when he's clearly just a little better than that??? The one thing I definitely love, like you said, is that they're continuing with the 'Cobra has infiltrated the White House' twist from the first movie, but other than that I have no reason to be excited. Even I can come up with a better sequence than that cliff scene. Sorry, Chu. You're no Sommers, and that Paris scene will always be unbeatable.

"Perhaps, at the very least it hopefully won't shoot itself in the foot during its final 20 minutes in order to neuter its major villain."

I didn't really see it as shooting iself in the foot. I felt there was an added emotional weight with having Baroness reconcile with Duke, which eventually helped them to foil and capture Commander and Destro. Without it, the movie just becomes strictly a good vs. evil cartoonish parable, but instead there was that added bonus of "we'll see how they turn out after this" being there for a a potential sequel. Too bad this sequel won't get into that, which I was looking forward to very much.

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