[oliverbox]

From what I've seen so far, I think this movie is going to be pretty bad. It's going to be as hokey and fake and ridiculous as the old cartoon show, with none of the costumes or charm of the old cartoon show. I mean, let's face it, the old show was great in it's day - I watched it every morning - but as I go back and watch it on DVD with my kids I think, "wow this is rediculous", but it's still fun.

Now here comes this movie. They've changed all the fun uniforms, the characters look like they're out of the X-Men movie, and they are not recognizable except maybe for Cobra Commander and Snake-Eyes. So they have taken the most problematic portion of the old show and discarded the best parts of the old show. I think it'll be worse than the Street Fighter Movie with van Damme. I don't think it's going to be a realistic military movie, nor do I think it's going to be true to G.I. Joe. I'm not even sure that I'm going to go and see it.

I mean, hey, what if we just go get a copy of X-Men, redub some of the dialog and call that "G.I. Joe"... do you think people would go see it just because we called it G.I. Joe? Probably, but that wouldn't make it good, or even worthy of the name. I'm much more excited about the Resolute cartoon Hasbro is producing. That has potential.

Here's one other gripe: when they restart G.I. Joe, why do they always go back to a small unit of like 6-12 guys? I know that's how it started, but that's all the toys they had at the time. Why not start with the whole cast of characters and work on doing a good job of coming up with a working chain-of-command so that each character can be seen, even if just in passing. People have a lot of favorites, and many of them are obscure. Military Uniforms have name tags...

It seems to me that this movie is only possible because of older fans. This is not a movie that will succeed on the basis of the under 12 crowd. Rather, this is a movie and a franchise that is propped up by older fans. That being the case, I would like to see a movie that honors the long time fans by delivering to us a movie that is recognizable as the franchise we love.

[oliverbox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timberwolf

I hope it tanks like Speed Racer so that better more talented people will get to reboot it in 10 years.

I agree with you, Timberwolf, but here's my concern: It has taken forever to make a G.I. Joe movie... like 25 years or so. If this movie tanks, do you think they'll ever make another one? I don't know. This maybe the only one they'll ever make because if they screw this up, they may not get a second chance.

All in all, it's just sad. Would it have been so hard to use uniforms that were a little more realistic and a little more true to the original? From the pictures I've seen, Dennis Quaid looks more like Flint than Hawk. Surely there was a way to find some balance. Would it have been so hard to write these characters a little more closely to the original intent? I liked the idea of updating some of them; that needed to happen. Vietnam was a long time ago. However, a lot of the rumors just sound crazy - Cobra Commander starting off as a Joe? Starting as Duke's friend? No thank you.

Again, I'm much more excited about Resolute.

[rob0213]

I just want this movie to be good.

[BigFore]

I want this movie to be good. Going back to look at a lot of the older things, I must say that a lot of the characters we know and love had overlapping storylines.

Snake-Eyes was the biggest of these. He had ties to Scarlett, Hawk, Stalker, Storm Shadow, The Baroness, Cobra Commander, Zartan, and Firefly just to name a few.

Even though I don't like the Duke/Baroness nor the Duke/CC it's not like it hasn't been done before. Heck, in the Cartoon, didn't Zarana and Mainframe have a fling?

So it's not far from the truth, but I must say that I don't like it. It's like they are trying to add too much drama to thie movie.

[MLos1]

Movie Studios should implement polls like this before they make the flick. Instead of making the flick, and using a test audience to react to what's already been made.

[Steevy Maximus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oliverbox

From what I've seen so far, I think this movie is going to be pretty bad. It's going to be as hokey and fake and ridiculous as the old cartoon show, with none of the costumes or charm of the old cartoon show. I mean, let's face it, the old show was great in it's day - I watched it every morning - but as I go back and watch it on DVD with my kids I think, "wow this is rediculous", but it's still fun.

And a LOT of that has to do with nostalgia. Taken objectively, very few of the cartoons of the 80s had any real substance, and much of the "charm" of these old series come from what we remember of them, not how good they actually were. GI Joe had better than average animation and voice talent for the time, but I can name several cartoons that had better content.

Quote:

It seems to me that this movie is only possible because of older fans. This is not a movie that will succeed on the basis of the under 12 crowd. Rather, this is a movie and a franchise that is propped up by older fans. That being the case, I would like to see a movie that honors the long time fans by delivering to us a movie that is recognizable as the franchise we love.

The reason this film is being made is because the franchise is only being propped up by the older fanbase. And that is why the line has largely piddled at retail for almost a decade. The older fanbase is NOT enough to support a franchise at mass retail, or even direct retail. The ONLY way for this brand to thrive beyond a revamp every 2-3 years is by capturing the attention of kids, and a big budget live action movie is the best way to do it. After all, Transformers is still riding the wave of popularity from its film over 18 months ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oliverbox

I agree with you, Timberwolf, but here's my concern: It has taken forever to make a G.I. Joe movie... like 25 years or so. If this movie tanks, do you think they'll ever make another one? I don't know. This maybe the only one they'll ever make because if they screw this up, they may not get a second chance.
Would it have been so hard to write these characters a little more closely to the original intent?

I can assure you, if the GI Joe movie flops, it WILL hurt the brand. Especially if all they have to rely on afterwords is the Classics line (which, if you notice, now that supplies have increased, isn't flying off the pegs all that fast)

And a question: Have you read the script? Do you REALLY know how much the fundamental characters have changed? Yes the origins have, but have the characters? I sure don't know, and unless you have the actual shooting script, I doubt you do either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MLos1

Movie Studios should implement polls like this before they make the flick. Instead of making the flick, and using a test audience to react to what's already been made.

Then movies like Joe would never get made. EVER.
Fans have almost no idea what works in the real world. I have seen time and time again in toylines, shows, and other projects where fan input was followed closely, only to result in failure.
The people who run these companies really do know what they are doing. Fans may not like the decisions, but if you read the Transformers boards two years ago, the live action movie should have been the biggest flop of 2007. Instead, it outperformed several established franchises and the toys were sold out practically through Christmas.



My take is that this will be popcorn flick. I'm going into the theater August 2009 with my brain off and will likely enjoy a military scifi spectacle with ninjas. I'm NOT expecting a recreation of my childhood cartoon, I'm NOT expecting an oscar-calibre feature film. I expect to be entertained for 2 hours, and hope the toys sell well enough that 2010 brings a host of good things tailored to the older crowd (much as 2008 did for Transformers fans)