GI Joe: Rise of Cobra Movie Super Bowl Clip Online

[BentonGrey]

If Larry Hama started up GI Joe again and recruited Aquaman as a new team member, I think Benton would have to call it a day as there would be no more mountains left for him to climb....

But then Shipwreck would be out of a job..........and what about Optimus Prime?

[Shogunn2517]

Don't look now guys but the reviews have generally been positive.  Yes, they've said it's a popcorn flick devoid of real substance, but Rotten Tomatoes has it at 75% fresh.  Given it has gone from 82% to 80% to 75% and it's only 16 reviews, but we might not have a total egg here.

[Glitch Girl]

Honestly, those numbers won't mean anything until they have a good 50-75 reviews.  So far, most of those who've seen it were handpicked by the studio so there's gonna be a bit of a slant.  The real test is going to be post-general release.

[Shogunn2517]

Still, the early opinions expressed are still better than the rumors we've heard over a few months ago.  Even with the bad reviews.

[deano_ue]

from what i've seen over at superherohype which has some of the harshest bitterest fans i've seen, the reviews so far have been decent, it's not fantastic but it great fun.

someone said it's like a throw back to 80's style action films

[Mr. Hamrick]

Saw GI Joe movie.

Went in with relatively low expectations.

Like most of it.  Think the writers backed themselves into a hole on a few things, though.

Wish they'd have stuck to one particular comic for the backstory/origin instead of borrowing from several different ones here and there then adding their own. 

Spoiler

I think they chose a variation of Cobra Commander's worst costume mask for his mask at the end.

Love the explanation of Destro's unremovable mask at the end.  It made sense and fit the story.

Hated the way they had Baroness has an unwilling bad girl only to turn good.  Though, they left an opening for her to relapse in the sequel.

Why kill Cover Girl??  For that matter, why give the Wild Bill shout out only to kill him moments later?

Brendan Fraser's cameo made sense sorta and was a fun cameo!!

One of the most prominent scenes in the trailer was not apparently in the movie unless I blinked and missed it.  WTF!!

Joseph Gordon Levitt looked like he was having a blast.  He is my new hero. 

[GogglesPizanno]

I would almost entirely agree with Hamrick.

The movie is not near the horrendous pile of crap that everyone was assuming it was... provided you go in with certain expectations (ie. I feel bad for anyone Benton is going to see the movie with  ). It was just cheesy enough to be fun, while still taking itself seriously enough that it wasn't some self referential joke. It was a giant live action cartoon that succeeded in all the ways that Transformers failed.

And for a PG13 film, while the blood was minimal and limited to cuts and bruises, the action was extremely violent...

[Shogunn2517]

No, I ABSOLUTELY DISAGREE.  Completely!  What they did was a disgrace.  It's like not only did they try NOT to stick to the essentials of GI Joe, but they went out to make a gut-wrenching, insulting, senseless and totally useless and horrific movie.  I went out and saw it Thursday night and I actually came back and made a long and terrifying post about it and luckly my computer rebooted.  But what they did to this was plain and simple unnecessary.

Spoiler

First, of all, I did come in not expecting Shakespeare.  But I'm well familiar with the comics, the cartoon as well as the toyline and additional cartoon series.  I know the base material.  I'm convinced whoever wrote this movie did not.  But that's not even the worse part of it.

I refuse to go point for point about how much they did wrong, a lot we already know.  But damn it, I understand if you didn't want to go the route of the comics and have Snake-Eyes and Hawk be the feature characters.  Heck, even if you didn't want to go the route of the cartoone and didn't want Duke and Scarlett to be linked romantically.  But DAMNIT!  Duke and the Baroness?!  And worse: RIPCORD AND SCARLETT?!!!?

I'm getting really tired of Hollywood taking liscense of franchises and doing whatever the hell they want to with it, totally and irresponsibly regarding the source material and just slapping the name on it and expecting fans to appreciate what they did.

Okay, I'm a fan of the source material.  I know it really well.  But because they completely flushed 155 issues of the comic down the toilet isn't the only reason for reasonable people to be turned away from this.  This movie was horrible.  It would have been a step higher than that if I had any faith at all that someone over the age of nine wrote the script.  What the hell were they thinking?  And how in the hell Sommers shoot that and have faith that it looked or sounded good?  No, I'm not talking about the action, I'm talking about the dialogue, the exposition, the language, everything about the script and how it was filmed.  Man, I can't blame the actors, the actors aren't bad actors... but the way they carried their lines and the way it was shot was disgusting.  A lot of movies are bad because of ridiculious situations.  Some are bad because of horrible writing, directing and acting.  this was the whole thing.

Now, to be fair, I can't say it was all bad.  The characters, when their charcterizations were right, they were good.  The Baroness, was as nasty as she was hot and she was smoking.... up until the last act of course.  Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes didn't disappoint at all(despite being made a child killer and some ridiculious vow of silence when the "Fat Master" was killed).  And the scene that most thought we all would hate, the chase in Paris, actually was the best thing about the entire film really(yeah, even with the Robo-Cop suits).

But for as dispicable of a deviation they did with little to no regard to the source material and given how bad the scripting was, there is no forgiving this movie and what they did.  This is probably the worse adaptation I've ever seen.  Yes, even below Captain America.  I mean, why in the name of God did they just totally take a crap over the Baroness' backstory?  Not only was she married to some douchebag, but she's a blonde-haired American who's brother is Cobra Commander and engaged to Duke... WTF?  Honestly, I could cope with some of the racial and ethnic changes.  If you want to make Ripcord black, got it.  Make Heavy Duty British, fine.  If you wanted Breaker arab, do your thing.  But damn, the rest of the changes were just really random, and really unnecessary.

Please, if you have not seen this movie, thank me for this post.  If you have, I'm truly sorry that you did.  You'll never be able to get those two hours of your life back.  Those two hours could have been wasted with something more useful like Last Action Hero or Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.  Not this.

[Shogunn2517]

Please excuse my errors, but it's 5:30.  But I also wanted to say I'm sorry if my criticism is harsh, but man I feel like apologizing to those who saw the movie becuse that, what you just saw, was NOT GI Joe.

[RTTingle]

Well... I saw it.

And I want more... NOW!

Didn't expect much and had a blast when I did watch it... it was like Star Trek.  Fun.

A few things bothered me, but why let it ruin the fun.  I sat back for a few moments and thought what those issues really meant to me.  Nothing.  GI JOE is a toy that has a few different variations to it.  The cartoon, the various comics... but then I thought --- what made GI Joe special for me?  The toy... what I read on the back of the cards and that what I imagined myself as I played with them.

So I applied that to the movie.

I got to watch Stephen Sommers and the screenwriters play with their toys... and while he didn't play the same way I did --- I still enjoyed watching him play.

So, I thought this movie was going to be a trainwreck and I'd walk out disgusted.  Instead I walked out with a big old stupid grin on my face and went right over to Toys R Us to find me a General Hawk toy.

---RTT

[marhawkman]

Hehe, I'm hoping they do a few more.

[jtharris86]

Yeah, got to say I checked it out and I loved it. Can't wait for the next one.

[BWPS]

Wow, totally fun. Although the dialog was groan-inducing, the plot was actually pretty interesting, there were definitely some surprises. I didn't watch the show very much or read the comics ever so in my mind this is just a movie based on the toys and I can't complain about any differences. The action was nonstop awesome and OMG Snake Eyes is just so cool. He sworded people much. Scarlett, Duke, Hawk, and Ripcord could have learned something from him by not talking ever. But it was still cool to see them kill people. Also someone in the theater hit a fire alarm and we all got free tickets!

[The Hitman]

I thoiught it was pretty good. I just like that Brendan Fraiser had a bit part as Flint.

[GhostMachine]

Brendan Frasier plays Flint? I heard his cameo was going to be a soldier on a motorcycle. And if he has a black beret, that doesn't automatically make him Flint, since that's what the Army wears now. (Wish they had Hawk wearing a helmet instead of the beret) Was he actually called, or credited as playing Flint?

Hama's cameo should have been as Tunnelrat. 

Over at another board, people have been complaining about something in the movie involving the Baroness. I'm beginning to wonder if they didn't read the Marvel Comics series, because if they had then they wouldn't have been complaining.

Spoiler

I haven't seen the movie, and don't plan to until it hits dvd, but what they were complaining about wasn't her relationship with Duke but the fact she turned out to not be really evil. That's something that was long ago established in the Marvel Comics series; if not for her mistakenly believing that Snake-Eyes had killed her brother, she probably wouldn't have become bitter and ever joined Cobra in the first place, and the only reasons she has ever been loyal to Cobra are because she's in love with Destro and was under mind control for a while.

What I think is stupid, from what I read, is the movie's explanation for why Snake-Eyes doesn't talk. Vow of silence, my rear end!

If the movie is successful enough to make a sequel, and he wasn't killed off in this movie, I hope Ripcord is either left out or gets smoked. I cannot stand Marlon Wayans, and he's one of the main reasons I've decided to wait until it hits dvd to see it. Should have used Stalker or Roadblock, in my opinion, rather than changing an existing character's race.

[The Hitman]

He was uncredited I thing (or I missed the credit), but since he and Hawk were the only two wearing berets, I just kinda assumed he was Flint.

EDIT: Oop, Wikipedia credits him as Sgt. Stone.

[Zippo]

Saw it the other night. I didn't expect it to be good, and for the most part it met my expectations. It's decent for an action movie, maybe worth watching once, but I'd never buy it on DVD, and probably decline any future offers to watch it.

Some things that really bugged me:

Spoiler

• The CG was TERRIBLE. Most notably on the various jets in the movie, and in the scene where they first fly into the egypt base. Nanobot effects were not bad, but c'mon. My friend, and amateur modeler using Blender, could do better than some of these things in a matter of days, without a multi-million dollar budget.   
• The romances were stupid. Especially between Ripcord and Scarlett. Not funny, not cute, not needed in the movie.
• They used a particle accelerator to weaponize the nanobot warhead? Excuse me? The worst part is that it would have been so easy to use any number of made-up ways to activate the nanobots that involved the Baroness' husband. Why would they intentionally go with an option that makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE?
• The super advanced jet responding to "Celtic" commands only was just stupid.
• Ripcord surviving and being able to paracute from what seemed to be low earth orbit was stupid and impossible. It even looked like he was going to get some super high-tech means of surviving as he was ejecting, but in the end he just ends up parachuting...
• Every interaction between Duke and the Baroness was laughably clich?. I know I shouldn't expect anything different from this type of movie, but it was really bad.
• I still can't figure out why the Baroness was married to that french guy at all, especially if she was being mind-controlled and they were just going to break into the particle accelerator and kill the guy anyway.

[Sevenforce]

I...I don't know what happened.

I LIKED this movie. There's so many reasons I shouldn't have, I recognise that it's a bad movie but...I liked it. I think...maybe, hearing all the bad press about it, made it seem better? Maybe?

Oh well. Time to cleanse the slate with District 9 and the Time Travellers Wife (Hopefully. I LOVED that book, and District 9 has been a wait of mine for a looooong time)

[JeyNyce]

Don't know if this was posted

http://www.superherohype.com/news/gijoenews.php?id=8605

Very funny

[Tyveka]

You know, back when I was a kid playing with the GI Joe action figures, the whole "Snake Eyes taking a vow of silence because Stormshadow killed his master" was canon.  It happened like that according to the backstory in either the comics or TV cartoon back in the 1980's, so whether you liked it or not, it was based on pre-existing story line.
Turns out later that Stormshadow really didn't kill him, was chasing down the assassin who did and Snake Eyes was mistaken.  Ultimately, Stormshadow turned out to be some kind of double agent - but that all happened after I graduated college.  I WAS going to put that it all happened after I grew up, but I haven't grown up yet...
I actually enjoyed the movie - and I love the video game on the XBOX 360....

[marhawkman]

The super advanced jet responding to "Celtic" commands only was just stupid.

It makes some sense. It's plausible that it's being used as a linguistic code and intended to be a form of security feature.

Ripcord surviving and being able to paracute from what seemed to be low earth orbit was stupid and impossible. It even looked like he was going to get some super high-tech means of surviving as he was ejecting, but in the end he just ends up parachuting...

Well.... Anoxia is the only thing that'll really kill you there. That or getting hit by an airplane, no telling where you might glide to.

[BentonGrey]

You know, back when I was a kid playing with the GI Joe action figures, the whole "Snake Eyes taking a vow of silence because Stormshadow killed his master" was canon.  It happened like that according to the backstory in either the comics or TV cartoon back in the 1980's, so whether you liked it or not, it was based on pre-existing story line.
Turns out later that Stormshadow really didn't kill him, was chasing down the assassin who did and Snake Eyes was mistaken.  Ultimately, Stormshadow turned out to be some kind of double agent - but that all happened after I graduated college.  I WAS going to put that it all happened after I grew up, but I haven't grown up yet...
I actually enjoyed the movie - and I love the video game on the XBOX 360....

Umm......no...not at all.  Unless this happened in the British version of the comic, then I am sorry to say that you are quite mistaken.  Snakes' origins were never explored in the original 'toon, so there are only two possible versions.  Snake Eyes lost the ability to speak when a helicopter's fuel line exploded in his face as he was trying to rescue Scarlet.  The Huey was going down, the other JOEs had jumped, but she was trapped.  Instead of saving himself, he is trying to free her, and then WHAM!  He walks out of the flames on the ground, carrying Scarlet, with his head "wreathed in flames."  Even though he's horribly wounded, and he can't speak, he continues the mission (to save his late sister's fiance's life).  

The Storm Shadow connection was thus:

Spoiler

Cobra Commander, blaming Snake Eyes' family for the death of his brother (long story) hired Zartan to kill him while he was studying with Storm Shadow's ninja clan.  SS and SE are practicing one day, and SS uses the "Ear that Sees" to shoot a squirrel THROUGH a stone wall.  Zartan steals the arrow, and with technology replicates the ability to kill the Hard Master, who was trying to convince SE to accept control of the clan in preference to SS.  Everyone things SS did it, blah, blah, blah, he joins Cobra to try and climb high enough in the ranks to figure out who ordered the hit.  Eventually they figure out it was Zartan behind the bow and SS even joins the JOEs for a time.

So nope, it was never canon, and this is just another example of these people having no respect at all for the source material.

[RTTingle]

No respect for which source material?

The cartoons?  The comics?  Which cartoon?  Which comics?  Considering the different versions we have of GI Joe already... why can't GI Joe the movie be its own thing, with its own mythology?

And why is everyone assuming Ripcord and Scarlett have a romance?  I really didn't pick that up as much as her just giving him an extra special thanks and glad yer' ok peck.  There was no tongue or passion to the kiss, no romantic walk on the beach montage, no sex scene.  The most I'd assume, is friends at this point.

RTT  

[BentonGrey]

No respect for which source material?

The cartoons?  The comics?  Which cartoon?  Which comics?  Considering the different versions we have of GI Joe already... why can't GI Joe the movie be its own thing, with its own mythology?

And why is everyone assuming Ripcord and Scarlett have a romance?  I really didn't pick that up as much as her just giving him an extra special thanks and glad yer' ok peck.  There was no tongue or passion to the kiss, no romantic walk on the beach montage, no sex scene.  The most I'd assume, is friends at this point.

RTT  

If they wanted it to be its own thing, why buy the license?  I know the economic reason, because it is more recognizable, but this kind of thing really frustrates me.  If you don't want to actually use what the thing is based on, then don't use it at all!  RTT, as for your first questions, from what I've heard, there are large elements of this film that conform to NO versions of the JOEs, neither comics nor 'toons.

And by "these people" I am, of course, referring to Hollywood in general, and not the makers of this particular movie.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

But Benton, every version of the Joes HAS been different and added there own version of it.  How many origins are there of Cobra Commander for instance?  The whole vow of silence thing works as well as anything else does.  It doesn't change the essential qualities of the character which are that he never talks, never reveals his face, and is enemies with Storm Shadow who have some kind of history.  Beyond that, the exact explanation doesn't really change anything.

[GogglesPizanno]

COBRALA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA.......

I rest my case.

[BentonGrey]

I think y'all are overestimating the differences between the iterations.  If you exclude the British Action Force version (which no-one outside of Britain has ever paid attention to anyway), there are exactly two different origins for Cobra Commander (comics and cartoon movie), and precisely one origin for Snake Eyes (comics).  Other versions have either accepted one of those two or ignored the question altogether.  I'd argue that it changes the core of the character quite a bit.  His origin in the comics is a moment of selfless sacrifice and haunted him throughout the rest of his life.  There is a moment down the line when SS slashes him across the face (after reconstructive surgery) and he just plain loses it.  It was also this great link, but also this profound divide between him and Scarlett.  He loved her, but he didn't want to risk that she just felt sorry for him, or felt like she owed him something.  That depth and texture is lost with an explanation like "vow of silence."

It seems to me that the argument of "well, there are already different interpretations" is fairly weak.  There are, really, only two.  The comic and the toon.  Everything else has followed the pattern of one or the other.  Also, it ignores the fact that the comic is worlds better, and has all of the good points of the toon, with none of the bad points.

[Ares_God_of_War]

Does anyone remember Exo-Squad? Because the last thing I remember from GI Joe and I think this was around Valor vs Venom etc was that both sides had E-Frames like exosquad. So remind me which came first? the Toys? the 30 minute commercial to sell the toys? or the comic book?

[marhawkman]

New things? This is apparently the only iteration to reveal Cobra's "real" name.

I have to disagree on the comics always following the same take. One version had Cobra start his career as Cobra Commander by trying to kill Snake Eyes, in the other the two were PARTNERS until Cobra Commander decided to go too far. In both version he becomes Cobra commander because of the death of his brother, and he finances it with elaborate scams. But in one his brother died because of heavy drinking brought on by PTSD, in the second the drinking was caused by losing his livelihood due to arson. Oddly in both versions the drnking caused him to die in a car accident that also killed Snake Eyes' family.

But this is a completely new take, I can't say I hate it though. At least it's better than the version with him as a snak-man.

[BentonGrey]

What?  Are you talking about GI JOE Reborn?  That's an entirely different animal.  That's like talking about Marvel 616 and Ultimate Marvel, or better yet, like talking about standard DC and Elseworlds tales.