Jon Chu: Creating a movie for fans and fans alone

[Drill]

I've been seeing a lot of flack about Mr. Chu and I don't think he deserves it. A vast number of people have immediately decried him as a wannabe fan and that he does not care for the property. I have to counter that claim, I think his problem was that he is TOO much of a fan and as such isolated the generic Hollywood blockbuster audience. His enthusiasm has shown throughout all of his tweets and the various interviews that were performed. This wasnt a case of a director getting a crash course on the mythology and cherrypicking concepts that look cool or are visually appealing.
This is probably a giant cause of why the movie was pushed back. What normal movie audience would go into a movie that is marketed as a war movie and yet features a 16 minute period of a silent ninja breaking into a castle (if the Silent Interlude homage is anything like the comic). It is a hard sell and while I dont think he will fail us, sadly he might have to cut some of that out. That is a major reason why I think it has been moved (along with Spider-Man as competition).

[luigi]

serious we all know retaliation should have less ninja in it

[eddy-arashikage]

I am inclined to agree, A friend had seen a preview of Retaliation and it made him even more excited and we have yet to see anything negative about the film before the delay, and if something was bad why throw more money at it?

Now the innitial shock has worn off I have to wonder at the logic that the film is that shit.

I would be keen to hear of a big gi joe fan that had watched the screener to get there opinion on it.

Military heroes and ninjas are a lot like marmite(british thing) you either love it or hate it.

I think the general holywood enthusiasts may not appriciate Joe. Even Ninjas are either taken with a smirk or massive fanboy love.

We are still getting some of the toys, this gives me a financial break to track down my wants list im bidding on low light now and next will be zarana. If there was an abundance of Retaliation toys to buy for me and my children then I could not afford to buy things off my wants list!!

Ive been with Joe off and on since the 80's so I won't give up now, its easy to get carried away with the moaning especially on here, for a close community there is a lot of bitching and moaning compared to other toy lines, but don't worry guys it will all come around!

[eddy-arashikage]

serious we all know retaliation should have less ninja in it

No it shouldn't the RAH comics featured Ninjas heavily.... Firefly, Jinx, Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Slice, Dice, Red Ninja clan, Billy, Ninja force, Scarlett to a lesser degree.

Don't forget that in many a Joe fans opinion the RAH comics are Joe lore!

[Frank Talltree]

Where's Muggum? I would think he would know something about what's going on with the movie that he could share with us.

[Derek]

I have a decent joe collection and there was nothing about retaliation I wanted to see. I already own ninja assassin.

[CrimsonGuard101]

The problem is he cared too much and he got slapped by paramount and DiBoneventurasshat...he tried to give us something better then ROC and they would not have it apparently...

[drunknmunky]

No it shouldn't the RAH comics featured Ninjas heavily.... Firefly, Jinx, Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Slice, Dice, Red Ninja clan, Billy, Ninja force, Scarlett to a lesser degree.

Don't forget that in many a Joe fans opinion the RAH comics are Joe lore!

They already tried live action Ninja Force.

1992 GI Joe Toy Commercial - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlG4bdgZX8)

[CrimsonGuard101]

They already tried live action Ninja Force.

1992 GI Joe Toy Commercial - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlG4bdgZX8)

I could go so a full feature film of that...better then ROC thats for sure lol...

[kennywr22]

I agree on most points. I truly believe that the film is not bad. As I've said before, it's a case of how movies were trending and they felt they had a decent movie that was just gonna get lost in this summer of huge movies. I mean this movie had some fantastic buzz happening and then avengers happened. Now spider man and then the dark knight. It's no surprise the buzz has kinda faded. I think come march they will have the hype built back up with not much to take away from it. I for one am still very excited and will be waiting for opening day! Yo joe!

[Drawing Heat]

I agree with the OP. I just don't think Chu is that incompetent. And too much credibility is given to these test screeners. Especially if the biggest problem they had was not enough Taters. This reminds me of my more fratboy/meathead friends who's first question to determine the quality of any movie is "Is there any tits?"

If this film is absolute dreck then why invest more money into it? Take the hit and move on, paramount doesn't care about Joe. And furthermore they can't have that lack of faith in it because postponing it is only adding up the cost. And if it's a stinker, any extra money they think they can bring in march 2013 probably wont offset the the additional money they're investing.

[Kujo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember Jon Chu saying his two favorite characters were Snake-Eyes and Roadblock. Is it just a wild coincidence that the writers picked those two as the "main" characters in the film or is Mr. Chu full of absolute horse shit? Maybe he knows tons of Joe lore, but I'm leaning more towards him bullshitting our community.

[Dolemite]

They already tried live action Ninja Force.

1992 GI Joe Toy Commercial - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlG4bdgZX8)I love how the actor playing Storm Shadow loses his balance after that first spin kick. lol.

[Dolemite]

And we can speculate all we want, but we'll have no idea if Chu is a poser or a true blue fan unless someone can get their hands on a copy of the movie before it's "re-tooled."

BTW, I actually almost hope that he's a poser and the movie currently sucks, because if it turns out that he's a true GI Joe nut and the movie is being changed because it caters too much to fans, the homogenized Hollywood shit-bomb we'll be served in March will be heartbreaking.

[MonkeyBoyZ]

Blade Runner. There are two real versions of this film: the directors version and the one the studio thought would make them more money. The studios don't know quality, they only know money. It doesn't matter if the film is good or bad, only if it is going to line the pockets of the execs. Titanic 3D made triple it's money back from the 3D treatment, same for Episode I. You can bet on seeing more poor movies being given the 3D treatment. Forrest Gump? Jaws? Big Momma's House? Expect them all.

[Raysohood]

I agree with the OP. I just don't think Chu is that incompetent. And too much credibility is given to these test screeners. Especially if the biggest problem they had was not enough Taters. This reminds me of my more fratboy/meathead friends who's first question to determine the quality of any movie is "Is there any tits?"

If this film is absolute dreck then why invest more money into it? Take the hit and move on, paramount doesn't care about Joe. And furthermore they can't have that lack of faith in it because postponing it is only adding up the cost. And if it's a stinker, any extra money they think they can bring in march 2013 probably wont offset the the additional money they're investing.

They better Now add some Tatum because I dont want duke to die. But I have a feeling is not really about him cause if they wanted to keep tatum they could have just film a scene saying he is alive and sign him on for part 3.

Hopw that is what they do now

[thealleyviper]

You can bet on seeing more poor movies being given the 3D treatment. Forrest Gump? Jaws? Big Momma's House? Expect them all.

Forrest Gump 3D. Lol. I'm imagining the storm scene where Lt Dan loses it...in 3D. hahahaha

[CrimsonGuard101]

Forrest Gump 3D. Lol. I'm imagining the storm scene where Lt Dan loses it...in 3D. hahahaha

They will have radnom shrimp flying off the screen to add additional 3d glam content...just at random intervals, 10-15 shrimp come flying outta no where like the random tie fighters in Star Wars...

[thealleyviper]

I have to admit, I was super ticked when I first heard the news of the delay. With just over a month to go, the entire Joe community gets a manure bomb dropped on them by the movie studio. I believe that Jon Chu is a Joe fan. However, I don't think he is as much as he leads people to believe.

It's understandable that this movie delay can only be the result of a decision made by both Paramount and Hasbro. However, I don't think that Jon Chu (as much of a fan he says he is) would be agreeing with the execs' decision. Wasn't there talk pre-filming where Jon Chu said he didn't want to do the movie in 3D?

Anyway, I was lucky enough to score some figs and the HISS. Hopefully, Hasbro won't really pull the figures back from retailers. I don't think they have that much power anyway. I'm still looking forward to Retaliation and will still take my day off from work to see it. Hopefully, they won't force the midnight viewers into a 3D screening.

[Bushmaster72]

I have to admit, I was super ticked when I first heard the news of the delay. With just over a month to go, the entire Joe community gets a manure bomb dropped on them by the movie studio. I believe that Jon Chu is a Joe fan. However, I don't think he is as much as he leads people to believe.

It's understandable that this movie delay can only be the result of a decision made by both Paramount and Hasbro. However, I don't think that Jon Chu (as much of a fan he says he is) would be agreeing with the execs' decision. Wasn't there talk pre-filming where Jon Chu said he didn't want to do the movie in 3D?

Anyway, I was lucky enough to score some figs and the HISS. Hopefully, Hasbro won't really pull the figures back from retailers. I don't think they have that much power anyway. I'm still looking forward to Retaliation and will still take my day off from work to see it. Hopefully, they won't force the midnight viewers into a 3D screening.

Yeah, Chu pretty much cleared the air by saying that they had the chance for 3D in the beginning but it was decided not to do it. I think the silence and lack of tweets from Chu and any of the cast can be read as distaste for this whole thing. Wasn't long ago when everyone was tweeting about cast parties and stuff, now you hear crickets chirping.

[helrod]

to much of a fan is a bad thing a film make needs to ba=e a fan But be objective as well.
Avengers worked because of that reason.
but look at what happens when the director is tooo much a fanboy
1.Watchmen.
2,Dare devil.
3.Batman & Robin

[helrod]

Hasbro is really getting screwed with this mess.
first they were suckered into making a ton of Star wars toys nobody wanted nobody like Phantom menace but George.
the toys didn't sell the movie flopped 3-D was not a help.
Now the Gi. Joe movie being moved I'm sure they had already had plans for 2013.
odds are the money has been spent on joes with the promise of a June release.
and that the budget for 2013 is already set aside for future projects.

[Bushmaster72]

to much of a fan is a bad thing a film make needs to ba=e a fan But be objective as well.
Avengers worked because of that reason.
but look at what happens when the director is tooo much a fanboy
1.Watchmen.
2,Dare devil.
3.Batman & Robin

Watchmen was probably one of the most by the book movies. The only thing that was changed was pretty much a nuclear disaster instead of alien invasion. It was just not a movie for a general audience and probably would have done alot better years and years ago.

Batman and Robin had come out well after the franchise should have died out. After the first one it just started to get really silly and hearken back to the old campy TV shows of the 60's. Daredevil...like the Punisher were those comics that no one outside of the comic book readng world even knew about.