Trailer Tracking, Super Bowl Edition: ‘John Carter,’ ‘The Avengers,’ ‘Battleship,’ ‘GI Joe 2: Retaliation’

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Movie: “GI Joe 2: Retaliation”

Best Parts of the Trailer: The opening Jay-Z line is pretty killer; Cobra Commander looks MUCH better than he did in the first “GI Joe” movie

Worst Parts of the Trailer: Only major new trailer without an expanded version online; way too many ninjas; can’t yet tell if Bruce Willis’ presence in this movie is cool or campy

OUR TAKE: This was a short one compared to the other three trailers – clocking in at only 0:31 seconds – so there’s not as much to praise or gripe about.

Upon first glance, it seems interesting that director John M. Chu is abandoning so many elements from Stephen Sommers’ 2009 “GI Joe” flick. Granted, Sommers’ “Rise of Cobra” didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but it was, apparently, successful enough to warrant a sequel, so it’s a little odd that the franchise has made the decision to reinvent itself so drastically in “GI Joe 2: Retaliation”. Aside from Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and the bumper sticker-friendly Cobra insignia, almost no other recognizable elements from “Rise of Cobra” show up in the “Retaliation” teaser. Which may or be a good thing.

What does Chu give us to gawk at in the “GI Joe 2” trailer? A whole lot of ninja moments – Snake Eyes’ apprentice Jinx apparently has a large role. We see the Cobra Commander finally actually looking like the Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s proto-Commander costume in “Rise of Cobra” was HORRIBLE), and we see big Cobra banners flying at the White House, which seemingly pays off the “Zartan impersonating the American president” storyline from “Rise” – a subplot that had almost NOTHING to do with the rest of the movie except for setting up sequel fodder. And, perhaps most notably, we get Dwayne Johnson once again revisiting his new role as an action movie franchise late-comer/revitalizer (he pulled the same duty on “Fast Five” and the upcoming “Journey 2”). Johnson’s scenes look fun – his opening Jay-Z quote sets a nice tone – but it does feel a little awkward that the GI Joe franchise needed to do such a major revamp after only one movie.

And the final Bruce Willis tag? Willis’ most recent action roles – in “Red” and “Cop Out” – have all been fairly precious, fairly jokey, and fairly self-aware in tone. So, when Bruce shows up at the end of the “GI Joe 2” teaser, my knee-jerk reaction is to smile and smirk. Which, again, may or may not be a good thing. If Willis’ role is to garner some laughs and make me smile, he can do that in his sleep. But, if I’m supposed to regard him as the same level of action bad-ass as Dwayne Johnson or Ray Park… eh, those days have passed.

The Superbowl teaser is well put together, but I just haven’t seen enough of “GI Joe 2: Retaliation” yet to decide whether or not the franchise reboot is working. In the next trailer, I’d like to see a little bit more bridging material to show me how “Retaliation” evolved out of “Rise of the Cobra” because, right now, the transition seems a little too fast and furious. (See what I did there?)

TRAILER OUTLOOK: There’s some promise here, but we need to see more footage before we openly declare “Yo Joe!”

By TOM BURNS
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
tom@hollywoodchicago.com