The delaying of G.I. Joe: Retaliation from its original scheduled release on June 29th to March 2013 certainly raised alarms in the film industry. Why the massive and potentially disastrous business decision? For a 3D conversion, of course. But now with recent news and word, it has become more juicer and dangerous.
Though I enjoyed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, soldiering into it even with absolute low expectations, it still rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Nerd and geek websites would constantly bring it up in a harsh and negative light, as if it just killed someone's dog on their birthday. Despite having some errors of judgment and misgivings, the film was not and could not be as bad as the second Transformers film, a film that proved how low a toy-based film product could achieve.
Despite the massive debating of the merits of the first film, G.I. Joe: Retaliation was put into production to answer the complaints and give out plenty of cake to the whiners. As seen through the trailers, the makers incorporated plenty of changes, such as redesigning Cobra Commander and Snake-Eyes and modeling the film as a gritty war-action flick instead of a paint by numbers action-adventure. One of the biggest new elements, as it is clearly hinted at, is that some Joes were to be killed off in the opening, including Channing Tatum's Duke. Killing two birds with one stone, the makers wanted to please the angry fans by eliminating the first film's hunky main character while at the same time going the Bad Boys II route of shit getting real.
Well, it turns out that Tatum is to be pulling a Robert Evans and staying in the picture. Since this year is proving to be big business for him, with The Vow and 21 Jump Street doing very well and Magic Mike expected to be a sleeper hit, his stock, stardom, and presence all have risen significantly. Paramount wants him to appear more in the new film, possibly even surviving his supposed demise, all because of their own fears and bad test screenings.
And, I am fine with this.
First off, at least the real explanation came out. Living in our current spin-happy world, I grow tired of all of the glad-handing and fake smiles. Hollywood is a dream destination for a lot of us but it is still just another business in life. If Paramount just came out with this news at the top, I would still be pissed by the move but understand it. Also, I would gladly take a re-written character and re-shots any day for a film over yet another 3D conversion job.
Secondly, unlike the many cynics and low self-esteemers, I'm fine with Channing Tatum. He's not a favorite of mine, a bit too wooden at times, but the man at least gives it his all. I haven't seen all of his early 2012 work, The Vow being a rental for me during desperate times while Haywire is higher up the watch list, but I very much liked him in 21 Jump Street. I'm also strangely a bit interested in seeing Magic Mike, despite not being a fan of stripper films or Steven Soderbergh's exploration of modern sexuality (see: The Girlfriend Experience). As for his Duke, he served his purpose as a audience surrogate and he was frankly okay with the role.
If Paramount wants him in the next feature to drive up the female portion of the audience, let them have it. I just hope that the expected prominence of Snake-Eyes will still remain.
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