G.I. Joe: Retaliation Problems
By now everyone has heard the news: The much-hyped G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the sequel to the craptacular movie of 2009 (my thoughts here), has been delayed until early 2013 so that the studio can incorporate 3-D effects into the film.
Yeah, right.
You can get a deeper thoughts and excellent commentary in posts at generalsjoes.com and theterrordrome.com, but if you wanna know why I think the movie was pushed back it all comes down to one thing:
Tests proved that the new movie was scattered, disorganized, and almost as bad as the first one.
Now this is not because I saw the movie. No, I come to this conclusion based on seeing a couple of trailers. Trailers that, to me, looked to have the potential for fun with an underlying of terrible hidden inside. From the premise — the G.I. Joe team is slaughtered and the few survivors are fugitives who must change the world — to the special-super-secret martial arts that everyone in the movie uses (the Hasbro event at NYTF took time to try and tell us how awesome this is) there is enough bad hiding in the trailer that it looks like there are problems with the film.
Well, the one real victim in all of this is very likely the G.I. Joe toy series. G.I. Joe toys haven’t exactly had the best shelf-presence since the last horrible movie and this significant delay isn’t going to help the line any. And the way chains like Target and Wal-Mart work I wouldn’t be at all surprised if movie toys hit the shelves in the next week or two . . . and then are immediately clearanced and dumped to make room for something that will actually sell to kids.
How long, exactly, will Wal-Mart and Target let a second-rate line like G.I. Joe clutter their shelves?
Related articles
- G.I. JOE: RETALIATION – What’s the Real Reason Behind the 9 Month Delay? (geektyrant.com)
- G.I. Joe Retaliation News of the Day (geeks.thedailywh.at)
- ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Delayed To 2013, Adding 3-D (mtv.com)
It’s clear that the given reason, to go back and give it 3D effects, is a smoke screen for something else. Obviously, 3D has been around for a while so there’s no reason for a studio to wait until the last minute to make that decision, especially considering the financial ramifications involved with delaying the release. The extra few million that they would get from 3D (which is on the decline anyway) can’t possibly justify the merchandising logistical problems caused by the delay.
I think you’re right: the movie tested poorly with audiences. They wouldn’t be delaying the movie and filming more scenes if that wasn’t the case. That’s disappointing… I enjoyed the first film for what it was, and I love the character designs for this one. I was really looking forward to getting the toys.
By the way, pushing the movie back to March isn’t a good sign either. March isn’t exactly one of the big months for box office returns. It seems like they thought this was going to be a tentpole movie, but they lost confidence in it after the test screenings so they’re trying to bury it in March.
This is actually the first hint I’ve ever heard of it being bad. From what I’ve read it was “THE” GiJoe movie “we’ve been waiting for”.
Adding 3D wasn’t to bolster the movie in the US, it’s to ensure it does well overseas. Apparently we here in America whine a lot more about 3D films and they do gangbusters in other countries.
It really sounds like the US will soon no longer be the place to make hit movie.
Yeah, apparently that’s true. I thought all the doom and gloom we’ve been hearing recently about 3D ticket performance applied to worldwide audiences, but it seems like international audiences still dig it.
On the other hand, 3D is also newer overseas, so maybe they’ll get tired of it eventually too. Or maybe they get something out of it that American audiences don’t.
Personally, I can’t stand 3D movies so I’ll be seeing GI Joe in 2 dimensions when/if it comes out.
Hasbro’s official statement reads as follows:
“G.I. Joe is an ongoing consumer franchise and therefore there is merchandise available to consumers. There is a limited amount of G.I. Joe Retaliation product at retail now, but in light of the movie moving out to March 29, 2013, the majority of the movie line will be made available early next year in time for the film’s release.â€