[Ratel]

Is it the cartoons, the plots, acting.? What do you think?

[Saboteur]

The more time wanes on, the more Hollywood attempts to lift the brand from the ashes into a mecca for a new generation of fans (and fails), and the longer we get away from the decade that saw Joe rise in popularity as never before (80's), the more I believe it's not happening.

No doubt there are those who disagree. Don't care. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Who knows, maybe they are right. But do you think an Amazon show about Jaye as the Alpha(di Bonaventura's idea) is going to do it?
Is another movie about Snake Eyes going to change everyone's minds?

What about another cartoon? Why would a cartoon be successful now, when it wasn't in 2010?

I think the most we can expect from Joe is a video game that does decently, and a line like Classified that comes at the right time, and hits all of the right notes. They look good, they lean heavily on the 80's version of Joe's that fans love, they are 6 in scale, something that works better for Hasbro vs 3 3/4, and popular with a great swath of collectors.

I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we step back and say, instead of saying writer's strike, release timing, etc etc, perhaps we are just making excuses. Those things are real, for sure, but it's always something that we point our finger to when a movie doesn't succeed.

It's just not going to happen.

Also, what is G I Joe?

A real American hero? Nah, they're international heroes, that's less offensive. Nah, they aren't heroes at all, they're on the run as criminals.

Nah, let's just use the name, character names and events from the history and rewrite it (because we have no intellectual creativity), and let's throw everything against the wall and hope it sticks. And if we don't, well we'll just call everyone racist!

No one knows what to do with it. They change it, and no one cares, so it doesn't stick. Then they try it another way, same result. By the time they reluctantly do it the way it was originally done (American, with national pride) it will be too late.

The best we can hope for, we already have. A great line in Classified. With Super7 throwing gasoline on the fire.

[NightWolf]

(There are spoilers ahead for those who didn't see the movies)
The movies weren't successful because the first one was in fact the script for another movie that some writer had in the drawer and they didn't respect characters. I mean changes in all series is fine, we won't always repeat but to make the Baroness a poor innocent hypnotized woman who is the girlfriend of Duke and the sister of Cobra Commander (who is himself the friend of Duke) didn't really attract me. Also they used the Baroness as eye candy all throughout the movie and it was getting annoying. She was hypnotized yet doing many evil plans and was in charge of many things. You give such position to the people you hypnotize? And the trope of the "women can't be evil, they are all poor controlled paws" is annoying. Baroness is evil and intelligent but she is not hypnotized. Also it lacked in characters original looks. Zartan looked like an ordinary guy all through the movie and Destro only got his nanomite helmet at the end. Fine, I can accept they changed Zartan's look, he doesn't have to look like a Kiss member all the time but why turn James McCullen into Destro only at the end and make him explode at the start of the second movie?

The second movie had Zartan as the president all through the story and had a weird story. Zartan was president, he could have used the power from inside, more subtlety instead of making Cobra come with a bomb to take control. Also why kill all the Joes and the Cobra from the previous movie at the start?

The Snake Eyes movie already has the problem that it barely shows any G.I.Joe or Cobra, it's only a ninja story with Baroness and Scarlett in the background. As a martial art movie it wasn't bad, they tried to go that route because people are obsessed with Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow but those obsessed with them didn't like the fact that Snake Eyes wasn't an irreproachable hero and racists didn't like that he wasn't white. I honestly liked that Snake Eyes, he wasn't boring, they did change the eternal Snake Eyes vs Storm Shadow plot a bit so it was nice to see. But again, the problem of the movie was that it was a ninja movie, not a G.I.Joe and Cobra movie.

I think G.I.joe would need a tv series. That would be great and would give place to concentrate on many characters, G.I.joe, Cobra, Dreadnoks, Iron Grenadiers, etc without having to focus on the same ones again (Snake Eyes, Duke, Scarlett, Cobra Commander, Baroness, Storm Shadow) Those are great as characters but it keeps being them over and over while G.I.Joe is in fact one of the biggest toy collection with lots of characters. Make your usual Duke, Snake Eyes, etc be the main ones but in a series, many others could also be included and have some story. I would really love to see what happens between the Cobras in their headquarters see relation between the many officers and also see the Dreadnoks or Iron Grenadiers while they are not fighting the Joes. I'm not interested in seeing only Duke and Snake Eyes's life.

As for why Transformers movies are popular, me being a big Transformers fans (certainly not Bayformer though), I have no idea. Probably the explosions (well that is what I found more tolerable, the rest was intolerable, the robots were ugly as hell, the humans were all annoying and the jokes were vulgar). I wish it had not been a success then they would have started anew, not do 300 Bay movies...

I didn't see Barbie so I cannot tell.

[Breakerfan]

It's a matter of perspective. GI Joe has outlasted a majority of 80's properties. Is it at the level of Barbie and Transformers? No. But I could easily name dozens of toy lines and cartoons that have all been left in the 80's. It isn't some grand conspiracy or sign of the times. The fact that GI Joe is still a toy line and still has movies and video games and comics and relatively recent cartoons gives it a staying power that 90% of the 80's properties never had. Maybe the current stuff isn't your cup of tea, but that isn't the point. It is still here when most of the stuff isn't. Nothing lasts forever.

Maybe instead of focusing on reasons one could come up with why GI Joe isn't more popular, we should focus on the reasons why it is still around when so much form its era is not.

[Sataninjaku]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Breakerfan

It's a matter of perspective. GI Joe has outlasted a majority of 80's properties. Is it at the level of Barbie and Transformers? No. But I could easily name dozens of toy lines and cartoons that have all been left in the 80's. It isn't some grand conspiracy or sign of the times. The fact that GI Joe is still a toy line and still has movies and video games and comics and relatively recent cartoons gives it a staying power that 90% of the 80's properties never had. Maybe the current stuff isn't your cup of tea, but that isn't the point. It is still here when most of the stuff isn't. Nothing lasts forever.

Maybe instead of focusing on reasons one could come up with why GI Joe isn't more popular, we should focus on the reasons why it is still around when so much form its era is not.

I do believe that is a mic drop.

[DarkLordMordred]

The G.I. Joe films haven't been successful, because they aren't similar enough to the source material. They are indistinguishable from random action movies. Just because you call someone "Duke" or "Snake Eyes" or "Cobra Commander" doesn't mean people will get excited if the characters bear little, to no, resemblance to their comic/cartoon/toy counterparts. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were the only good parts of the first two films and then they ruined Snake Eyes for the Origins movie.

[ScottyHawkeye]

I think a lot of it is just a failure of marketing on the part of Hasbro & Paramount. With Transformers Paramount had the easy task to sell movies about giant robots punching each other and blowing stuff up. When it came to Barbie, Warner Bros. simply had to say "Hey look here's this strange & bizarre movie made by an acclaimed director based on Barbie" It was a good enough pitch. GI Joe's problem on the film front is the directors directing GI Joe movies aren't interested in the franchise and simply direct generic schlock and call it GI Joe and it's hard to market. Rise of COBRA was just Spy Kids with adult characters, what the hell Hasbro & Paramount?

[ScottyHawkeye]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkLordMordred

Snake Eyes for the Origins movie.

It's like someone in the writing room thought Snake Eyes was like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat and characterized him as such. Kenta basically manipulates Snake Eyes, in the same way, Quan Chi manipulated Scorpion in the Mortal Kombat games. It's appropriate characterization for Scorpion in a Mortal Kombat movie, but not Snake Eyes in a GI Joe movie.

[J James]

I know the Barbie movie is making money but that doesn't mean Barbie is a more popular property than GiJoe at all.

Barbie doesn't have a storyline. There's nothing to adapt. The film is something else entirely wearing Barbie imagery as a skin.

[Fred Broca]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J James

I know the Barbie movie is making money but that doesn't mean Barbie is a more popular

Dude, not only is Barbie more popular than G.I. JOE, I daresay Barbie is arguably the greatest doll/action figure line in the history of the toy industry. To find something else that is comparable to in terms of longevity and popularity, you'd have to go to Legos or possibly Mr. Potato Head.

Barbie is evergreen, (like a muthafucka,) and she's never left the public consciousness since her debut 64 years ago where as JOE has had to restart with varying levels of success during it's 59 year history.