What is the general consensus on the upcoming GI Joe movie?

[middleman]

The thing is still over a year away, but I am really looking forward to this film.

I have a HUGE nostalgic crush on this franchise. Like many thirty-somethings, I came to comics and geekdom through this comic book. The toys were always my favorite action figures.

Here’s the Wikipedia listing.

Here’s some promo pics.

The cast looks respectable.

From wiki:

Channing Tatum as First Sergeant Conrad S. Hauser / Duke: The lead soldier.[10] Lorenzo di Bonaventura wanted to cast Mark Wahlberg in the role.[11] Tatum had played a soldier in Stop-Loss, an anti-war film, and originally wanted no part in G.I. Joe, which he felt glorified war. Once he read the script though, he realized the franchise was a fantasy akin to X-Men, Mission: Impossible and Star Wars rather than a war film.[12]
Dennis Quaid as General Clayton M. Abernathy / Hawk: The team leader. Quaid described Hawk as “a cross between Chuck Yeager and Sgt. Rock and maybe a naïve Hugh Hefner”.[13] Quaid’s son convinced him to take on the part, and the filmmakers enjoyed working with him that Stuart Beattie added “ten to fifteen more scenes for him”.[4] He filmed all his scenes within the first two months of production.[14] Quaid is signed on for two sequels.[15]
Rachel Nichols as Shana M. O’Hara / Scarlett: She is a skilled martial artist and the team’s counter-intelligence specialist. She graduated college aged twelve, and therefore does not understand men’s attraction to her. Nichols was the first choice for the role.[4]
Ray Park as Snake-Eyes: A mute ninja. Like his character, Park is a martial arts expert and specifically practiced wushu for the role, as well as studying the character’s comic book poses.[16]

Marlon Wayans as Wallace A. Weems / Ripcord: The leader of a military unit. He has a crush on Scarlett, which she is oblivious to, and he does not realize she is in a relationship with Snake-Eyes.[4] A fan of the franchise, Wayans was cast on the strength of his performance in Requiem for a Dream.[17] Bonaventura said that film showed Wayans could be serious as well as funny.[4]
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Lamont A. Morris / Heavy Duty: An ordnance expert. Common was offered the role of Heavy Duty’s cousin Roadblock,[18] although Bonaventura previously indicated Heavy Duty was being used in that character’s stead.[11] Stuart Beattie ultimately chose to have Heavy Duty instead of Roadblock.
Saïd Taghmaoui as Alvin R. Kibbey / Breaker: He is the team’s communications specialist.[4]
Karolína Kurková as Courtney A. Kreiger / Cover Girl: Hawk’s aide-de-camp.[9]
Cobra
Christopher Eccleston as James McCullen Destro XXIV: The main villain for the early part of the film.[4] Irish actor David Murray was cast in the role, but was forced to drop it when he had problems with his visa.[19] Murray was later cast as James McCullen I in a flashback scene.[20]
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander: Destro’s shadowy, masked boss.[6] Levitt signed on because he was given pictures of Cobra Commander and decided it would be fun to play a larger-than-life villain.[21] Levitt is a friend of Tatum and they co-starred in Stop-Loss and Havoc. His casting provided extra incentive for Tatum to join the film.[12] USA Today reported Levitt is playing “multiple roles”.[5] Like Quaid, Levitt filmed all his scenes in California.[22]
Sienna Miller as Baroness Anastasia DeCobray / The Baroness: Destro’s partner. Years before the film, the Baroness was to going to marry Duke, but he left her at the altar.[4] Miller prepared with four months of weight training, boxing sessions and learned to fire live ammunition, gaining five pounds of muscle.[23]
Lee Byung-hun as Storm Shadow: Snake-Eyes’s nemesis. Both are members of the Arashikage ninja clan.[24]
Arnold Vosloo as Zartan: A mercenary serving Destro.[25]
There are scenes involving a ten-year old Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow.[4] Cameos include Larry Hama (as a NATO general in a scene with Duke, Hawk, Destro and Zartan);[25][4] Kevin J. O’Connor (who had roles in Sommers’s Deep Rising, The Mummy and Van Helsing) as a scientist in a flashback scene;[26] and Brendan Fraser plays a motorcycle-riding sergeant, who is not Gung-Ho as has been rumored, whom he dubbed a “refugee from the Village People”. Fraser claimed the character is a descendant of Rick O’Connell from The Mummy, thus linking both of Sommers’ films.[27]

[sub](Public Domain Material posted above)[/sub]

I can’t complain with any of the choices. There are a few real actors in the bunch, which makes me hope that they will play it as a straight action/adventure flick in the vein of Transformers and X-Men. Not campy (I worry because the photos recall Van Damme’s “Street Fighter” film!)

Ray Parks as Snake-eyes was the only possible choice! I know that he won’t be the downfall of the film.

What I don’t get is the characters they used. Why isn’t Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje playing “Roadblock”? Roadblock was a much more significant character than Heavy Duty.

I was also surprised Stalker wasn’t in the film. Just looking at the racial composition of the casting (not a big issue for me), I would have thought Wayans would have been Stalker.

I don’t know much about Rachel Nichols, but she looks the part.

And I like the inclusion of Dennis Quaid. We share a birthday, a hometown, and the same alma mater.
I am very nervous about the adaptation. It could suck monkey ass. This would hurt, as I have been waiting on an adaptation so long that Dennis Quaid would have probably been cast to play the rookie instead of the general!

I’m allowing myself to be cautiously optimistic, however, based on the success of Transformers (didn’t think they could pull that one off).

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

How come there’s no G.I Joe listed in any of that cast? Who’s playing G.I. Joe?

[middleman]

@Diogenes the Cynic

How come there’s no G.I Joe listed in any of that cast? Who’s playing G.I. Joe?

Dirk Richter was original cast. Unfortunately, he’s 73 years old and he’s dead.

[pravnik]

Sounds cool, but I sort of wish they’d do a G.I. Joe around the 70’s “Adventure Team” theme.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@middleman

Dirk Richter was original cast. Unfortunately, he’s 73 years old and he’s dead.

Ok, I’m confused. I don’t know anything about the cartoon, so all those other characters are new to me. All I know about G.I. Joe is the doll I had when I was like 5. Are you saying that this G.I. Joe movie does not have G.I. Joe in it? I don’t understand.

[Bearflag70]

In the 1980s, GI Joe went from being one dude to being a group of dudes and a few dudettes. The group is called GI Joe and each member of the group has a code name, like Hawk, Duke, Flint, etc.

[pravnik]

@Diogenes the Cynic

Ok, I’m confused. I don’t know anything about the cartoon, so all those other characters are new to me. All I know about G.I. Joe is the doll I had when I was like 5. Are you saying that this G.I. Joe movie does not have G.I. Joe in it? I don’t understand.

The 1980’s version of G.I. Joe was an elite team of soldiers, code named “G.I. Joe.” G.I. Joe was the team, not any one soldier.

[DigitalC]

@Diogenes the Cynic

Ok, I’m confused. I don’t know anything about the cartoon, so all those other characters are new to me. All I know about G.I. Joe is the doll I had when I was like 5. Are you saying that this G.I. Joe movie does not have G.I. Joe in it? I don’t understand.

Its based on the 80s cartoons/toy line. There was no “g.i. joe” figure for that era.

[middleman]

@Diogenes the Cynic

Ok, I’m confused. I don’t know anything about the cartoon, so all those other characters are new to me. All I know about G.I. Joe is the doll I had when I was like 5. Are you saying that this G.I. Joe movie does not have G.I. Joe in it? I don’t understand.

I thought you were being funny, so I tried to return the funny.

See the later comments by others for an explanation.

[JThunder]

@pravnik

The 1980’s version of G.I. Joe was an elite team of soldiers, code named “G.I. Joe.” G.I. Joe was the team, not any one soldier.

Except that in later issues, it was revealed that there was an original “G.I. Joe” who was now known as General Joe Colton.

[smiling_bandit]

The only thing I’m wondering is whethery they wussified it.

G.I. Joe has nothing to do with some “multinational task force of peacekeepers stationed in Brussels” which was how the film as originally going to be. It was claimed they changed it - as it should be. It’s really hard to claim GI Joe has nothing to do with America, and frankly, it was racially diverse right from the get-go. (Shipwreck is still my hero!) Heck, they didn’t take orders rfom anyone, and certainly not the weak-kneeded EU or the UN which is half run by Cobra’s clients.

[pravnik]

@JThunder

Except that in later issues, it was revealed that there was an original “G.I. Joe” who was now known as General Joe Colton.

Ah, missed those.

[Justin_Bailey]

I am very very excited for this movie. Which is strange since I was always a Transformers man.

[wolfman]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander: Destro’s shadowy, masked boss.

Isn’t he like 22 or something? I know there’s a mask and all, but that will be hard for me to accept. And besides Cobra Commander needs to be over the top, but still have presence. Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, and, Walken are some of the few who can pull that off, I just don’t see it from Gordon-Levitt.

[JThunder]

They hired a fashion model to play Cover Girl. How appropriate.

[Bosstone]

Dennis Quaid rocks. I’m ambivalent about GI Joe, but I really like him. I might go see it. The only other name I recognize is Marlon Wayans, unfortunately.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

[pedantic jackass]

You do not need the word “general” in your thread title. “Consensus” implies generality.

[/pedantic jackass]

As to the movie, I see horrible, horrible things in store for it and am already plotting my preemptive revenge.

[Hampshire]

I got a kick out of watching the 80s cartoon where both the good guys and bad guys had massive firepower with guns and missles but no one was ever shot or killed. If a plane got hit by a missle they always showed the pilot paratrooping to the ground. Two opponents would run at eachother machine guns a blazin never hitting a thing and when they eventually were a couple yards from eachother dropped their guns and went fist to fist.
Pretty clever to make a kids show where no one got shot or blown up even though they were all armed to the hilt.

[Snooooopy]

@wolfman

Isn’t he like 22 or something? I know there’s a mask and all, but that will be hard for me to accept. And besides Cobra Commander needs to be over the top, but still have presence. Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, and, Walken are some of the few who can pull that off, I just don’t see it from Gordon-Levitt.

He’s 27. But I think his relative youthfulness could be an asset – I mean, Cobra Commander was such a petulant little twerp. Casting someone with too much presence would just make him your basic bad guy.

[middleman]

@Hampshire

I got a kick out of watching the 80s cartoon where both the good guys and bad guys had massive firepower with guns and missles but no one was ever shot or killed. If a plane got hit by a missle they always showed the pilot paratrooping to the ground. Two opponents would run at eachother machine guns a blazin never hitting a thing and when they eventually were a couple yards from eachother dropped their guns and went fist to fist.
Pretty clever to make a kids show where no one got shot or blown up even though they were all armed to the hilt.

The comic book was much different. Much death and chaos. I remember when Storm Shadow turned on Cobra and attacked Springfield, there were panels of arrows sticking out of the chests of Cobra troopers.

Larry Hama was the writer of every issue of the original series, and he is the creative consultant brought on board to make sure the movie was closer to the comic.