In recent months, Aint it Cool News has been a hotbed of ambilivlence towards G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA, while the talkbacks boiled over with contempt and nerd anger. However, the recently released trailer, combined with some insight from someone in the industry has given Harry Knowles a bit more of a positive outlook, which is nice to see.
He often gets blamed for being “in bed” with certain movie production companies, but considering how badly he’s lambasting Transformers 2, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case here. And honestly, the comments he mentions from the director he’s spoken with sounds pretty on-target. Here’s the full text from the AICN article:
“Hey folks, Harry here – over on YouTube – they have the latest GI JOE trailer up and frankly… I’m dying to see this trailer in the greater glory of Glorious Quicktime – but there’s flying motorcycles and crazy cool vehicles galore. Yes, none of this looks particularly real – but with the exception of specific costumes – it kinda looks an awful lot like GI JOE. I just want Cobra uniforms – and the cool ol Village People unique look of the JOES themselves. That said – I have a correspondence with a director. One we all collectively worship who told me that the film is made for the boy in us. And I can’t share that director’s name, but I can say he wants all the vehicles in this movie. And that’s as much of a clue as I’ll give ya. I’m now much more excited about this than TRANSFORMERS 2 – as the word on that is pretty awful at this stage”
Regardless of any agendas or reasoning, it is at least somewhat refreshing to see some positive spin and optimistic views, considering every single other website I’ve seen (save for Latino Review) has been pretty universal in their “Meh”ness.
“I’m now much more excited about this than TRANSFORMERS 2 – as the word on that is pretty awful at this stage”
really? ive heard its gonna be the biggest movie of the summer. ppl dont say that if they think a movie is awful. but then again ppl like to hate on bay for some reason and knowles’ oppinion of movies means even less to me than most critics. does it REALLY matter if lots of ppl like it if you do? sure, its nice to have that. but as long as i myself enjoy the film i dont care what anyone else says. i see movies cause i think they look good. im the only critic that matters to me
From a personal perspective I don’t give a crap what other people think or reviewers say. But from the perspective of hoping the film does well commercially, unfortunately word of mouth (especially from an influential site like AICN) is critically important. So in my mind, just from hoping the film is successful and spawns more years of awesome toys, I’m glad that a pretty large site has at least made some sort of positive comments.
I rarely agree with what Harry Knowles thinks myself, but if his comments influence just a few people, who in turn influence a few people, etc… I think that’s worth talking about.
Please. Harry and AICN will give praise to whatever film or studio gives them the most access and perks.
i remember years back when harry knowles wrote a glowing review of the phantom menace, i could be wrong here but i think he also stated that it was just as good the first star wars movie “a new hope”. then he back tracked when the bad word of mouth started to spread.
Harry Knowles’s corpulence is composed of bullcrap, it would appear.
He can bash Bay all he wants, but the first Transformers film was great entertainment and from what I’ve heard from people who have actually SEEN the film (what with it being out in Japan and Europe), Revenge Of The Fallen IMPROVES on all the first film’s strong points while removing many of that film’s weaker points.
To put it bluntly, it is the most kickass action sci-fi movie we’ll be getting in YEARS.
As for Rise Of Cobra, I do prefer this second trailer but I remain cautious. Kind of glad they could get some humor out of those Accelerator Suits, but I fear Ripcord will simply be a “dumb comic relief character” from what the trailer’s shown.