The countdown has been on for a few weeks now, just wondering when it would come, and if estimates hold true throughout this weekend, by the time Monday rolls, around, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra will have broken 300 Million dollars internationally, an almost even 150 million domestic and 150 million International. This comes at the same time as Entertainment News International reports that The Rise of Cobra also hit the Top Ten list for summer films. For a film released at the tail end of the summer blockbuster season, I think this is a great sign and absolutely a successful indication in Paramount’s eyes.
Look…in spite of what the 25 – 30 year old fanbase will tell you, G.I. Joe has never been purely about gritty military drama. It’s never been about hardcore special ops soldiers in realistic military uniforms fighting terrorists down and dirty. Sure, it’s had those elements, but the core of G.I. Joe has always been the science fiction and fantasy elements of the story, and what made Larry Hama so special was his ability to seamlessly work that new age technology into a more real world story and make it work.
Rise of Cobra had the military action, it had the next gen realistic weaponry, and it also had super-futuristic technology and fantasy elements, just as G.I. Joe has had since it’s inception.
I would never say the film is perfect, it had it’s healthy share of faults (just as Resolute did, I might add…) but it was entertaining as hell, and like it or not, the movie has done more for G.I. Joe’s public “street cred” than anything else since the 90’s. Fans of all era’s and all ages should be appreciative that at least the G.I. Joe brand is once again in the public consciousness. I know it’s easy to slam the film, but before doing that, just try and remember a time when you could find 10 – 12 feet of G.I. Joe product in your local store shelves, I can guarantee you haven’t seen it in the past 20 years, not even when the 25th Anniversary line was in its hey day.
There are plenty of things that I would change about the film if given the chance, and I hope the inevitable sequel gets a chance to improve on the mistakes of the first film, but from a pure brand-awareness perspective, I have a hard time getting mad about anything the movie did or didn’t do. For all of its faults, it’s put the words “G.I. Joe” on the lips and tongue of the American public again after being forgotten for a long time, and that can never be a bad thing.
I love the movie toy line, but I disagree with your statement (or implication?) that GI Joe has always been more about fantasy and Sci-fi. The science fiction elements seemed to take the backseat when it started out, before the Vipers and highly overrated BATS and such.
I feel justified in saying the movie went completely overkill on the sci-fi, and that it was just one of the problems, but oh well. I do like the toys.
I felt it my duty to relay this message intercepted from high command…The SS claims under new management , PP has no interest in the return of cobra, regardless of final figures. SS would like to be apart of cobras return..but PP is not moving forward. The horses mouth. 2 degrees separation.
From a different perspective, this film has got me into GI Joe. I suspect Hasbro are reworking the brand a bit on a going forward basis to appeal on a more, shall we say, contemporary level. So for some aspects I do think that means out with the old and in with the new.
I don’t think the movie was overkill at all. On the contrary, I think the movie did, and did excellently, what the G.I. Joe brand has always done. Combine military themed action, a heavy dose of speculative sci-fi, a little humor, and a heavy dose of comic book high adventure.
Oh, and for you “gritty military realism” guys, you may want to reevaluate why you look for it in a property based solely on a children’s toyline.
“I love the movie toy line, but I disagree with your statement (or implication?) that GI Joe has always been more about fantasy and Sci-fi. The science fiction elements seemed to take the backseat when it started out, before the Vipers and highly overrated BATS and such.”
Really? With jetpacks, laser rifles, etc? Zartan was around before the Vipers and BATs, not to mention Storm Shadow, a ninja who could scale walls with bare hands and feet, and move at blinding speed. Heck, so were the PAC RATs, who were robotic mini-vehicles as well.
It sounds like you’re kind of basing the core concepts of G.I. Joe on 1982 and 1983, which were two years out of the combined twenty-seven. Seems to me that the sci-fi and fantasy was a much larger part of the mythos than those two years of more realistic military aspects…
Justin: i gotta say i admire your dedication to gijoe, heck, it’s been my favorite toys since the 80’s, but let’s face it: the movie wasn’t planned for fans; it was made just for the sake of selling toys and justify the investement of it, plain and simple. fantasy and sci-fi were always there, as well as military realism; combined perfectly, in my opinion, thanks to larry hama. But the movie just wanted to keep the kids in the “wow, awesome gadgets and lights!” That’s why i can’t like the movie, i really would like to, but i can’t help to see it just as a pop corn flick that has nothing to do with the joes larry hama made me care about so much; the whole time i felt i was watching a max steel movie; sorry justin, i salute you, you’ve made awesome dio-stories, reviews and a terriffic couple of web sites; but i just don’t understand how you like that movie so much.
“Really? With jetpacks, laser rifles, etc? Zartan was around before the Vipers and BATs, not to mention Storm Shadow, a ninja who could scale walls with bare hands and feet, and move at blinding speed. Heck, so were the PAC RATs, who were robotic mini-vehicles as well.
It sounds like you’re kind of basing the core concepts of G.I. Joe on 1982 and 1983, which were two years out of the combined twenty-seven. Seems to me that the sci-fi and fantasy was a much larger part of the mythos than those two years of more realistic military aspects…”
1982 and 1983 were not just two years like you say, they were the first two years of ARAH, so to say the least they’re important. I don’t mind laser rifles, or jetpacks, but regardless, if you ignore those two things, it was simple, realistic terrorists fight realistic army soldiers.
I guess the main problem I have is that there’s just too much in the movie. Too many delta-6 silly suits, nano-mites, odd gunships, ect. It feels to me like they only concentrated on the sci-fi, which is a good or bad thing depending on what you like more about GI Joe.
“Justin: i gotta say i admire your dedication to gijoe, heck, it’s been my favorite toys since the 80’s, but let’s face it: the movie wasn’t planned for fans; it was made just for the sake of selling toys and justify the investement of it, plain and simple. fantasy and sci-fi were always there, as well as military realism; combined perfectly, in my opinion, thanks to larry hama. But the movie just wanted to keep the kids in the “wow, awesome gadgets and lights!” That’s why i can’t like the movie, i really would like to, but i can’t help to see it just as a pop corn flick that has nothing to do with the joes larry hama made me care about so much; the whole time i felt i was watching a max steel movie; sorry justin, i salute you, you’ve made awesome dio-stories, reviews and a terriffic couple of web sites; but i just don’t understand how you like that movie so much.”
Hey, wish I could explain it, I just like what I like. I know full well that Hasbro made this movie for the general movie going public, and not for fans, which is good, I think, because if they had made it purely for fans, I strongly doubt it would have pulled in 300 million at the box office.
I’ve said numerous times that the movie is not perfect. Far from it. But it made a lot of money, gave G.I. Joe a ton of recognition, and it entertained me for 2 hours, and I don’t see how folks can ask for more.
I am glad to see that you haven’t let my love for the movie dissuade you from checking out the site, though… that much is very appreciated. 😉
Neon Viper, when you said “…the movie wasn’t planned for fans; it was made just for the sake of selling toys…” I thought if you replaced “movie” with the word “cartoon”, that would be the perfect description of the original cartoon series of GI Joe.
I think a lot of us “grown ups” focused on the realistic military elements of GI Joe as we got older and ignored more of the childish, toy-selling aspects of it. Before I saw the movie, I watched some of the old cartoons, and what really struck me was how childish and far-fetched it really was. It was pure cartoon sci-fi fantasy. Compared to that, the movie WAS grown up.
Rise Of Cobra wasn’t this summer’s most embarrassing, childish, poorly executed sci-fi movie based on a child’s toyline by a long shot…yeah I’m looking at you Transformers 2.
I enjoyed the movie, but I was to raped up in the action of the movie to see the faults of the movie.
I agree with Justin. GI Joe needed to be re-imagined for today’s audience and, despite its flaws (mostly story wise) Rise of Cobra delivers. As for the sci-fi elements, heck this is the 21st century–stuff like the accelerator suits, the nanomites, and the augmented Cobra Vipers armed with pulse rifles are as appropriate as JUMP jetpacks and Brainwave Scanners were back in the 80’s.
At first I let the nostalgic fanboy inside get the better of me, but then I gave the movie and the new toy line a chance and I gotta say they’ve grown on me to the point I’m hooked. And Justin’s right about one other thing: at my local Toys R Us, nearly half an aisle section is devoted solely to GI Joe. Oh, it’s back!
So where do the bubble head Cobra Commander abomination, Snake-Eyes’ “vow of silence” and him not being with Scarlett (not to mention his fish lips), and Baroness being American and banging Duke all fit in? It wasn’t the “contemporary update” that sucked about this movie. It was the character assassination and poor script and direction that I take issue with.
I agree completely with you, cobra commander; i take it very close to the chest ’cause gijoe is giving hasbro a lot of money because of us, the fans; the fans that supported gijoe and is still a strong toy line from a bunch of other properties that didn’t make it out of the 80’s such as mask, air raiders, visionaries, to name a few; we, the fans made gijoe the phenomenon that it is today and hasbro gave us the short end of the stick by delivering a crappy movie, destroying the characters we loved as they were for more than 25 years. i’d rather stick to gijoe extreme or sgt. savage rather than this rise of cobra nonsense.
i agree completely with you, cobra commander; gijoe is giving hasbro a lot of money because of us: the fans that supported gijoe for more than 25 years; buying toys, comics and dvd’s, we deserved a good adaptation of the gijoe mythos, but hasbro gave us the short end of the stick by delivering a crappy movie and destroying the characters we loved for 25 years! think about it, there were tons of toy licenses from the 80’s and gijoe is one of the few that is still strong today. that makes me think that they don’t give a rat’s ass about us, the old fans and they only care about attracting kids, potential new customers.
whoops, double comment, sorry about that, guys.