Saturday, May 02, 2009

GI Joe Trailer is Go

So, I am not actually excited about the upcoming GI Joe movie, other than seeing The Baroness as something other than a cartoon animated at 8 frames per second.

G.I. JOE trailer in HD


Calvin of Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool is pumped, but I look at this and I see.... Transformers. Big, expensive set pieces, when nobody did the obvious thing and tried to decide if what they were doing (a) was actually reflective of the source, and (b) whether it was stupid or not in the first place, and whether they'd made it somehow stupider.

I don't know. I look at this trailer, and I'm just not sure I can make myself care about this kind of stuff anymore. CG has meant an open gateway for me to think something will be good, but then find myself entirely disappointed. (see: Transformers. Which was stupid.)

Speaking of, here's the trailer for the Transformers sequel, which looks every bit as dumb as the first movie.

12 comments:

J.S. said...

The whole GI Joe super suit thing is certainly not anything that I remember from GI Joe, and it just seems like a cheap gimmick to give characters super powers (in order to compete with all the super hero movies, and it probably also makes it easier to render more realistic looking characters who are flipping around doing CG nonsense). I like the Snake Eyes/ Storm Shadow ninja battle stuff.

At this rate, though, given your growing weariness with CG effects, you might end up stuck going to movies about realistic people who are dealing with realistic, real life problems. So that's clearly crazy talk.

The League said...

Well, I certainly think I may be at least past the point where I'm going to see something because (a) it is something I liked in 5th grade, and (b) someone put a budget behind it.

I was more into GI Joe for the vehicles and Larry Hama's military-lite dialog with some cool derring-do. I'm not into the idea of something which is not GI Joe just using the name.

If the thing gets good reviews, I'll think about it. But this trailer is leaving me cold.

Plus, that's a Wayans in there.

mrshl said...

"Plus that's a Wayans in there."

Indeed. The sight of the Baroness is kinda nice, and I'm pleased they're confident enough to set up the whole movie as exposition for a run of sequels. At least there's a chance I'll get my Dreadnaughts movie.

The League said...

I just see no reason to be complacent about a half-assed approach to a movie, even if its based on a toy or comic or whatever. It doesn't need to be Hamlet, but as long as you're going to go off and make a movie, why not try to make the best movie possible, based on the actual concept whose name you're lifting...?

Transformers could have been THE fantasy family movie for this decade. But instead they worried about Megan Fox, not-funny antics, over-the-top wackiness, mixed with brutal violence marked with horrendous camera work, not-saved by rapid-fire editing (hint, I'm already sitting there. You don't need to flash images at me to keep my attention).

J.S. said...

Transformers wasn't that bad, and Superman Returns was derivative, extremely predictable, and not very good (which you saw how many times?). Simmer down.

NTT said...

I think I'll pass as well. Not because I'm above dumb action flicks because I sometimes live for dumb action flicks. The trailer looks like it's trying to make a Team America movie except with real actors this time. One of the ridiculously absurd but totally enjoyable element of GI Joe was that each team member was distinctly unique, imbued with special tactical and military training so that they become this big team. Aside from Snake Eyes, every other person in the trailer looks generic, even Scarlett. Once they break out the military grade Exoskeleton/body armor, it lost all flavor for being GI Joe.

The League said...

Even if Superman Returns were not everyone's cup of tea (it wasn't, that's pretty clear), I'd stand behind its technical merits and a script which tried to do something more than urine jokes.

I'm not mad. But Transformers was, from a scripting and directorial standpoint, pretty unwatchable. A movie about Transformers shouldn't have me cringing when the Transformers take a minute or two to do something other than fight.

Different strokes for different folks, but I'm a sucker for things like plot and characters in a movie.

And that's what I'm seeing in the Joe trailer all over again.

Add in NTT's comment, which I wholeheartedly agree with, and I don't think I need to get this particular item on my geek card punched. Maybe I'll go see it as a way to avoid the heat of summer and find something to do come August. But my expectations are extremely, extremely low.

And I'll be taking a pass on Transformers 2, as well.

J.S. said...

Yeah, these are movies designed for children, based on children's toys, founded on concepts that really only make sense to children in the first place (immensely powerful robots who hide as cars instead of becoming our overlords? And why haven't we just nerve gassed/nuked Cobra yet?) The only thing that will indicate the success or failure of these flicks is whether the kids who watch them today are still appreciative of them in 20 years.
And your unwillingness to see Transformers will allow me to see it at a matinee without a lot of groaning mixed in with the soundtrack.
Take my money, Michael Bay! Take my money and make Armageddon 2!
I want to bathe in the flickering, cool light of your mindless, action-packed genius.
All modern movie making has led up to this!!!!

The League said...

I just don't feel obligated to see this stuff anymore. You go ahead. I'll wait for cable.

J.S. said...

Well, if you feel obligated to see these things, I think I might be starting to see where some of the frustration is coming from (and I understand the sense of obligation, given all of the comic blogging that you do).
When I defend some of these movies, of course, I'm not really saying that they're awesome movies. I'm just saying that there's some fun to be had. Everyone should keep in mind that I really did thoroughly enjoy going to see Death Race in the theater last year. And no, I did not think it a "good film".

The League said...

I just wish people would occasionally try a little harder. "Death Race" was exactly what it said was, and when I added liquor, I enjoyed it, too.

I don't really know why I have a dividing line in my perception of different movies, but it so often seems that the filmmakers just can't be bothered to try to use what exists. I guess I KNOW what is possible with GI Joe, Transformers, etc... versus with Death Race, I see "oh, its exactly what the title suggests. Plus Joan Allen". I have no concept of the stories around the characters, and don't care.

But I think if you ever watch the "Evening with Kevin Smith" discussion of what happened when they hired him to work on Superman (back around 1996), you can see exactly what happens on these movies. While I don't hold much regard for Smith, I share his horror.

Michael Corley said...

I have a sparkling clear memory of my brother, on the verge of not "playing with toys" age and I setting up all our GI Joes on one side of the room. Then we stacked our few COBRA fellas with all our Star Wars character (they were the evil mutants under the control of COBRA Commander!) and commenced to do battle.

I think our plot will probably be better than this movie's. Which is pretty sad when Snake Eyes Vs. Greedo is a superior concept.