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So last night I put out the call, and I had some great responders who listened to the KERN Radio segment on AICN last night in order to get some details about the apparent reaction to the G.I. Joe: Retaliation screenings.

From the sounds of “Caller X” and his feedback from the film…well, it sounds like things weren’t good.

In fact, it’s sounding more and more likely that there will be some reshoots done over the next nine months in order to bring Duke back to life.  At this point it’s unknown whether these reshoots will also make drastic changes to the script or film itself, but something tells me they’re not going to do anything dramatic.  I’m not sure if 9 months is quite enough time to change things significantly, especially if the stars filming schedules don’t allow it.

For Spoiler sake, I’ll keep the actual reports after the jump.  You can read them below.  THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW.

First, from C_Money_Collins:

I caught on General’s Joes front page about the radio interview and just happened to be at a computer. I summarized the segment below. I hope it helps. -Stan “c_money_collins” Collins

Bare in mind that this is me typing as fast as I can and paraphrasing. These aren’t exact quotes, but it does get the guys point across.

It was the lead topic on the show, Hercules the Strong from AICN phones on from where ever (Texas? Ancient Greece!) Show was very loose format. The host (Mr. KERN) actually asks the callers to attempt to derail the show. There was also a couple of other regular guests on. They also have a website www.askmrkern.com. They said the site is new and will have a show archive.

Here we go…. SPOILERS FOLLOW! (Well maybe, I guess.)

The guy we all wanted to hear from, the guy that actually saw the movie, is on the line immediately after the first commercial break. He actually called the show to get interviewed after he saw the movie and it got pushed back. The host riffs for a little bit and gives and spoiler alert. The caller is an industry insider and is only identified as “Caller X.”

The host ask for initial impressions.
Caller X: The movie couldn’t have been fixed by release date. It felt very thrown together. Roadblock/Duke relationship is the best part and it ends in the first ten minutes. Duke Dies.

Did Tatum getting killed off pose a problem for you?
Caller X: The questionnaire after the movie asks about the character, if we wanted to see more. (We knew this already.) He said that added Tatum would probably be better because of the chemistry between hm and Roadblock and that the character was developed in the first movie. He mentions Jinx as having no character arc at all and Flint as being portrayed as a jerky kind of guy, but there is no character development on him at all. Joe Colton 3-4 scenes, these felt like a reshoot already. The scenes are decent but feel like and after thought. Something just added on.

They talk about the writers and the director.

Herc to Caller X: Could it play as comedy? (after finding out the writers wrote Zombieland)
Caller X: No. it doesn’t seem like it. There are some one liners. The movie feels thrown together. Roadblock/Duke shooting bet make a shooting bet. If Duke loses,he will have to babysit Roadblock’s kids. This is the only mention of Roadblock’s family for the whole movie. So they tell something about a character and then don’t mention it again.
Cobra Commander during cryogenic prison escape scene says, “Sorry Destro we are kicking you out of the band.”

Will 3D make it better?
Caller X: It might make some things better. The ninja fight would probably be good, but to fix the movie in nine months, they will have to do major reshoots and rewrites.

Final thoughts:
Caller X: Movie in bad shape. Felt like reshoots had already happened. Willis and ninja fights felt like things that were tacked on.

Herc asks the caller a question from the AICN forums about characters that were in the first movie, Baroness, Scarlet and Destro.
Caller X: Baroness and Scarlet are not mentioned at all. Destro seen in a “prison tube.” 3 seconds. That’s it. Not mentioned again, no lines. The entire GI Joe teams dies in the desert, it’s only like 40 Soldiers. No mention of other Joes or anything. there were a bunch in the first movie. There seems to be a continuity problem

End of segment and talk about Retaliation.

There it is. It was pretty brief, but no one cares about GI Joe like we do, which I think is an important point to make. Hopefully, they can get the movie out and it will be worth watching. Godspeed GI Joe:Retaliation movie production team.

Also received a report from Brent, a GeneralsJoes reader:

Totally sucks, Justin. Looks like the movie sucked. Duke does die in the first 10 minutes. The guy who watched it said the movie was horribly done and put together very sloppily. No Scarlett or baroness references at all. No pit references. Only destro is CC turning to his tube and saying sorry destro, we kicked you out of the band. He said a lot of things just didn’t make sense and he doesn’t know how they are going to fix it. I guess John Chu wasn’t the right choice after all.

Adam also chimed in through the GeneralsJoes Comments:

What spoilerish details I gleaned from the 3 minutes “Caller X” was on the show are below. What the interview stressed more than anything was that the movie feels like it’s already had a series of re-shoots. Ninja battles and Joe Colton all seem like afterthoughts. Destro has an in-tube cameo before being pulled out of the film with a corny one-liner. No character development takes place. Roadblock doesn’t seem concerned that his daughters think he’s dead. Jinx is in the movie as some sort of place holder. The PIT doesn’t exist anymore for some reason. There is not any real international cooperation before or after the extermination. 

Of course none of this is what we wanted to hear, but I cannot thank these guys enough for sharing this information.  Some good detail and some solid reasons for the opinion on the film.  Obviously none of us will really know all of the facts, it sounds like there were certainly some plot and structure issues, and hopefully they’re also spending some of the next nine months trying to repair some of that.

Regardless, if this is the foundation they’re building on, it will be very interesting to see how things get righted between now and March.  I’ll still be right there in the theater on March 29th to gauge my own opinions.

A huge thanks to the GeneralsJoes readers who dictated this and reported it back.  You guys are the best!