How
To Tell If G.I. Joe Is Good...
GI
Joe: The Rise of Cobra was not screened for critics and
wasn't previewed at ComicCon which can only mean one thing;
It is so insanely amazing that traditional marketing crutches
like good reviews and strong advance fan word of mouth would
just give Stephen Sommers' masterwork an unfair advantage
in the box office against everything in the multiplex not
directed by the genius behind Van Helsing.
Since I won't
be getting to see GIJ:TROC until midweek I have
some questions for those who are seeing it opening weekend.
From the trailer
it looks like Cobra's first target while rising is The Eiffel
Tower just like in the first first GI Joe mini-series "The
M.A.S.S. Device".
We like destruction
of landmarks in our summer movies and the tower has a fine
cinematic pedigree (View to a Kill, Superman 2, Condorman),
but the question remains -- will Summers end his picture
with Breaker restoring the Tower in London by mistake and
the Joes having to physically lug it back to Paris?
Some questions
I have about Channing Tatum's portrayal of Duke:
Will Duke wear
two collared shirts of the same color on top of each other?
Can new Duke
hold his own against a Goliath 3 times his size?
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There's
part of me that thinks this scene was in there because
Hasbro was sitting on a bunch of unsold 12"
Conan figures that they were going to try and repackage. |
During a flashback
will we learn that as a young man Duke grew up defending
Peter Parker?
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Have
you ever seen Duke and Eddie Brock in the same picture? |
Enough about
Duke. Does the film tell us why are the Cobra Troopers devoted
to this ruthless terrorist organisation determined to rule
the world?
At one point,
assuming they have caused Duke to drown, these two brag
that they are going to get bonuses.
But then later,
after throwing Scarlett into a dungeon, one of them calls
her a "G.I. Joe witch."
Which is it?
Are they purely mercenaries or do they have some kind of
fanatical anti-fringe belief system agenda? I need to know.
There's part
of me that doesn't want to go after the only draw Sommers'
flick might have, and I know he was everyone's favorite,
but I need to address Snake Eyes. He was always the Wolverine
to Duke's Cyclops (which sounds far dirtier than intended
when I started that metaphor), but even for the 80s he's
presented as ridiculously badass.
At any point
during Cobra's titular rise does Snake Eyes pull a Wrath
of Khan and head into the radiation cloud for the good
of the mission? Does Major Blood then let Snake Eyes, now
glowing purple with radiation, wander into the Arctic tundra
with the MacGuffin unmolested assuming he will die soon
enough? Once Snake Eyes manages to get a fair distance away,
does he rescue a wolf from a trap, get batted away by a
polar bear even bigger than Duke's Conan rip-off, and eventually
saved by a blind hermit?
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One-eyed,
two-armed polar purple people eater... |
Not only that,
but back in his Arctic shack does said blind hermit apply
a "simple dressing of leaves and herbs" which
draws the radiation from Snake Eyes' body into a husk that
he then burns for warmth?
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Wait...seriously?
This happens? And people are worried the movie won't
make sense? |
Can someone let
me know if Cobra and Joes join forces again their common
enemy, the tube worms?
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Did
Ken Russell direct this? |
Also important
to me is if at any time does Cobra Commander declare that,
"Cobra Rulessssss!" and pump his fist in the air
like it's his first Aerosmith concert?
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Destro
remembers his first beer. |
Seeing as this
is a Sommers movie, we know that it's going to lead to a
red digital countdown/disarm the bomb climax. In the movie
when this happens and the tension is high, does Gung-Ho
simply blast the frak out of the doomsday device?
Finally and most
importantly does the film have a leather clad Sienna Miller
recreate this scene in live action?
Because if the
answer is yes I may be able to move some things around in
my schedule and catch a late show Friday and that's the
kind of happy ending we can all agree on.
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