When we think of the 2007/2008 writer’s strike, what comes to mind first and foremost is studios greenlighting half-cooked lame ideas to ensure that Summer 2009 had some kind of tentpole (more effects from that aforementioned strike will hit this year, but that’s another piece, however just look at the lack of ’09 Oscar-bait). The first fallout/ movie that comes to mind for us from the strike is “G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra” Everything about it seemed corny, forced and rushed and if that writer’s strike didn’t happen, the project might have stayed in development for a few years.
Well, five minutes of footage from the film was shown at ShowWest in Vegas (along with “Terminator Salvation” and “Sherlock Holmes” footage), and even blogs that are usually prone to loving these sleek action, blow-em-up fests seem to be thoroughly unimpressed.
FirstShowing called it, “quite a cheesy letdown.” “Everybody remembers ‘The Mummy Returns,’ also directed by Stephen Sommers, and how they just threw in everything they could into that to beef it up and it made it so damn cheesy? Some sort of thing here, except that instead of mummies, we’ve got Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans wearing ridiculous-looking armored suits with helmets that emulate the ‘Iron Man’ visor.
JoBlo: “The footage looked kinda ridiculous and even a Paramount exec said afterward, “That’s not the GI JOE I remember.” But despite all that, it did look kinda cool. If you can go in and remind yourself it’s going to be nothing like the comic or cartoon (which isn’t to say the action doesn’t look cartoony, because it does), I think you’ll have a good time. I’m interested to see how this all works into a plot but so far the over-the-top eye candy part they’ve got down pat.”
However, Katey Rich at Cinemablend seemed to be at least partly optimistic about it admitting that G.I. Joe ignorance won’t hurt your enjoyment of it. “It should be clear at this point that I know nothing about the world of G.I. Joe, but that said, I wasn’t confused at all by the trailer. All anyone seems to need to know here is that this is an international team of badasses led by Dennis Quaid, and they’ve got the technology to make us jealous. A few of the effects in the clips we saw looked cheesy, but those can almost definitely be chalked up to the fact that they’re unfinished. And overall I was impressed with what I saw, though it’ll be interesting to see more of the film than just action sequences and witty quips from Dennis Quaid. That’s where effects-heavy movies like these can fall apart entirely, and on that count, G.I. Joe isn’t out of the woods just yet.”
Sounds like the summer crowds will eat this stuff up.