Dwayne Johnson in G.I. Joe : Retaliation – 6 Thoughts That Come To Mind

This sum­mer we are privy to a new edi­tion in the overblown Has­bro fran­chise band­wagon with a new G.I. Joe movie. Unlike the other entries in this fran­chise it seems the pro­duc­ers behind this film have decided to change up the tone of the film and with Dwayne “The Rock” John­son behind the wheel, what can we expect? Here are six thoughts that come to mind.New Cast, Bet­ter Film

With a change of direc­tor and incor­po­rat­ing new char­ac­ters, this could be the move to a bet­ter and less corny film. With Stephen Som­mers’ over the top CGI spec­ta­cle and prob­a­bly some of the worst writer of dia­logue work­ing in Hol­ly­wood today, we might be in for some­thing a lit­tle edgier and more attuned to the cur­rent trend of real­ism we expect in our hun­dred mil­lion dol­lar pro­duc­tions. Cast mem­bers from the first film are return­ing but we are pre­sented with only the ones we want to see. And pos­si­ble spoiler alert but it looks like Chan­ning Tatum isn’t in the movie for too too long. After 21 Jump Street I don’t know if I would like to see him go so soon. That leaves ‘The Rock’ and his charis­matic weight. Though he has had hits and misses as far as being the lead in a movie, this past sum­mer he showed us how he could hold his own in a fran­chise. Fast Five proved to many to be the best in the series and John­son was a hulk­ing weight that really held that film cen­tered and satisfying.

Big­ger Guns

Judg­ing by trail­ers alone we can already see that with some­one like Dwayne Johnson’s phys­i­cal­ity we will be treated to an array of weaponry of ginor­mous pro­por­tions. Many pro­duc­tion stills present John­son as a hulk-figure. Some­one phys­i­cally intim­i­dat­ing and slightly removed from the cleaner and more pol­ished, if not silly approach the first film had.

Humor or Heft

John­son has done films that were both seri­ous in tone and humor­ous but which way will Retal­i­a­tion go? Will we get a comic-filled action romp or a “this means busi­ness” tone? The posters and trail­ers for the film seem to be push­ing towards the lat­ter but with pos­si­ble laugh­able moments as Ninja’s fly­ing along moun­tain sides and the sight of a newly refur­bished Cobra Com­man­der, what will be audi­ences ini­tial reac­tion to the mat­ter? I sup­pose that is a com­bi­na­tion of what John­son, the cast, and direc­tor Jon M. Chu can pro­vide.
Beef­cake Cinema

‘The Rock’ has uni­formly been grouped into the new era of “Beek­cake Cin­ema”. Started in the eight­ies with Schwarzeneg­ger, Stal­lone, Van Damme and Segal, this was the kind of cin­ema that relied on big burly men duk­ing it out against insur­mount­able odds. John­son, being apart of the Fast and Furi­ous fran­chise now, has become a sort of res­ur­rected icon of that kind of cin­ema. While before we had the very slim and slick Chan­ning Tatum and Mar­lon Wayans, we now have the kind of per­son who matched Vin Diesel’s sheer brute force. Those two were like a cou­ple of Alpha-Gorillas fight­ing it out in the jun­gle. One only won­ders if that kind of sheer brute force will be brought to the new G.I. Joe film?

Legit­i­macy?

Is it fair to say that Dwayne John­son has more clout that the cast of the pre­vi­ous film? Given that Tatum looks to be absent for much of the movie, are we to believe that John­son is the wor­thy pre­de­ces­sor to Mar­lon Wayans and Chan­ning Tatum? Gen­eral audi­ence con­sen­sus is prob­a­bly one that leans more “no, The Rock isn’t any­more dis­tin­guished than the pre­vi­ous cast”. Though ‘The Rock’ is good fun and can always be relied on to bring the goods as far as action-entertainment, I wouldn’t say that he is the bet­ter ‘actor’, not since some­one like Tatum has proven him­self a lit­tle more recently. What it does is prove legit­i­macy to the genre. Rock seems to be per­fectly at home at this more hyper-kinetic and rougher G.I. Joe film and within the world of action, he does indeed lend legit­i­macy of sorts.

‘The Rock’ in 3D

News broke that G.I. Joe Retal­i­a­tion would be pushed back from it’s June 29^th, 2012 release to March 29^th of next year. With addi­tional 3D re-shoots on a film that was shot in the tra­di­tional for­mat, what can we expect from this delay? Para­mount had suc­cess with push­ing Scorsese’s Shut­ter Island back a few months, will the same be said for this film or will it sim­ply sink? This will be the sec­ond time we get ‘The Rock’ in 3D and though we never think of the excite­ment of see­ing movie stars in 3D movies as much as we do the spec­ta­cle, one has to think if it will be an added enter­tain­ment improve­ment. Will ‘The Rock’ help break the three-dimensional bar­rier and come into our audi­to­rium with furi­ous action? We’ll have to wait until March 29^th now to find out

Tagged as: Hollywood