Does “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” Already Suck?

Paramount revealed about 5 minutes of exclusive footage of their upcoming summer blockbuster G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra yesterday at ShoWest in Las Vegas. For those who don’t know, ShoWest is an annual film industry exhibition where studios, producers & directors try to impress movie journalists and bloggers, so that they get their readership jacked up with anticipation for the future films.

Paramount showed a screening of The Soloist with Robert Downey Jr. & Jamie Foxx, but right beforehand, they gave a surprise sneak peek of some G.I. Joe action to the audience of industry people.

Alex Billington over at FirstShowing.net, is a film journalist and blogger, whose opinion I respect and take very seriously. He was one of the lucky few who got a glimpse of this exclusive sneak peek, and he claims that the consensus was either “two-thumbs down”, or “meh….”  This is  bad news for Paramount. All they need is for fanboys to start bashing the film, calling it cheesy 5 months before it’s even released. And even if this is an unjustified, knee-jerk reaction, the film’s director Stephen Sommers has a bad track-record of creating corny, bad-effects-filled action yawners; aka Van Helsing and The Mummy 2 & 3.

Now I don’t want to jump to conclusions, so let’s compare the feedback we’ve received from ShoWest attendees, to the G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra TV spot that ran during the Superbowl:

Now those black suits apparently have super-human/Ironmanish abilities, which is cool. But did you see that green chemical stuff eating up the Eiffel Tower? Pretty horrible effects for a film’s debut Superbowl spot and for today’s blockbuster standards. Now, I still have hope and it is three words; Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or JGL as I affectionately call him, is a rising young star and is one of the best actors of his generation. He used to be the quirky, shaggy-haired alien on 3rd Rock from the Sun, but has since blossomed into spectacular performer. Need proof? See: Brick, The Lookout or Mysterious Skin. He’s usually cast in small-budget, indie flicks, but this August, he’ll be playing the legendary villain, Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe.

Why would they cast a 28 year-old who looks like a teenager to play a sinister villain like Cobra Commander you might ask? Well I’m pretty sure that’s the same question that EVERYONE asked when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker, and look how that turned out. (p.s. JGL and Heath look eerily identical).  So here we are. Is G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra going to suck or be bad-ass? I don’t know and neither does anyone else until we see the flick. Either way, I’m ecstatic to see how JGL is going to play this character. And to see the smokin’ hot Sienna Miller play the sexy Baroness (poster at top).

STAY TUNED for our G.I. Joe expert Polly’s take on the upcoming film! COMING SOON….

What Do You Think? Discuss.