Amph The Hasbro Cinematic Universe (G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Micronauts, Visonaries & ROM) Discussion Thread

Wha-wha-what?

 

She looks exactly like Baroness with glasses on.

I rewatched RotC yesterday, it's fine as a blockbuster, lots of actions and effects. Cobra Commander's characterization is quite nice, in the cartoon he was just ranting at others and lose, Destro was more serious and menacing. However, they still shouldn't ruin Baroness and probably should have picked a better actor for Duke.

Still, Rachel Nichols, Lee and Ray Park were perfect.

 

Would they let Scarlett get captured by Cobra and reprogrammed to another Baroness?

 

Other than Park, I think they whiffed on the entire cast. Marlon Wayans belongs in a G.I. Joe movie about as much as a '99 Geo Metro belongs in the Indy 500. And I get that it's an origin story, but I feel Duke needed to be older (he was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, members of the team in the original canon). Tatum lacked the gravitas for the role. I just kept waiting for him to do a pop-n-lock move over a prone Cobra Commander and tell him he just got served. I would've liked Thomas Jane or maybe Aaron Eckhart as Duke. That said, I've come around on Channing Tatum in general, thanks mostly to 21 Jump Street.

It's funny, though. Having recently re-watched Rise of Cobra and Retaliation, I have to say I think the former is more generically entertaining. I appreciate the efforts Chu made to right some of the first movie's "wrongs", but Retaliation is a joyless slog of a movie IMO. Dwayne Johnson makes for a much better lead than Tatum, but he needs a stronger supporting cast and a better script next go-'round.

 

Half of the cast should have been kept.

Yeah, Retaliation didn't ruin any characters but as a blockbuster, the conflict sucked, the final drama was too much like a joke since Cobra Commander showed up.

 

Marlon Wayans shouldn't belong in anything period.

 

Do you guys think Cobra Commander should keep stay behind the stage, let someone else(Destro/Zartan) do the work like in both movies?

 

Definitely.

 

Then who will do the job? Tomax and Xmaot?

Is this their company's logo?

 

G.I. Joe 3 definitely needs the Crimson twins (and Major Bludd as well), though I think they need to actually bring Cobra Commander to the forefront and flesh him out a bit better. Bring back Destro and the Baroness so you have that three-way dynamic and suddenly Cobra becomes a lot more interesting.

 

Van Damme so would have been the Crimson twins if the movie had come out in the 90s.

Alas, he's probably too old at this point, despite his extensive experience portraying twins.

 

Retaliation had a higher Walton Goggins rating than Rise of Cobra and is therefore superior.

 

Who's Walton Goggins?

 

That's likely a question Mr. Goggins asks himself on a daily basis.

 

That's very depressing sounding.

 

Is this a true comic story, or just a cover? WOW

 

I'm %99.7 certain that's just a goof.

The "Special Missions" was an actual subtitle of the Marvel comic proper, though.

 

Uh um...uh...April Fool's?

 

Is Cobra Commander human in the comics? In the cartoons he was a Cobra La noble.

 

He is completely human in the comics and in the earlier seasons, he was as well. The origin given in the comics is that Cobra Commander is a used car salesman whose brother Dan, severed in Vietnam, suffered from post traumatic distress and wound up dying in a drunk driving accident. Over time, suffering from delusions and paranoia, the Commander eventually schemed to get back at the government for all that he believed was their fault, that befell his family. He eventually found the men and women who would serve under him, including Destro and Bludd. In cartoon series, before the film, Cobra Commander was a military academy student who led an uprising. Though you could say that it was a lie he told. But other details contradict the film's origins.

 

Is he a dangerous mastermind in the comics? In the cartoon Destro and Baroness were more serious and menacing.

 

He was more serious. The comics were aimed at a wider audience than a cartoon aimed at kids aged five to eight.

 

Larry Hama--the Godfather of the Real American Hero era of G.I. Joe who wrote all of the file cards and every issue of the original Marvel run of the comic book--has said he never watched the cartoon when it aired, and so the characterizations took him by surprise when he eventually did see it. For instance, he said he thought of the Baroness as an American student who got radicalized not... whatever that accent was in the cartoon. And when he wrote Cobra Commander, he heard Orson Welles' voice. Writer Ron Friedman, who wrote all of the animated show's mini-series (you'll notice they all basically used the same formula) is the one primarily responsible for shaping the cartoon.

Hama is a Vietnam vet, and he brought a real authenticity to what was, for him, a war story. Friedman had a different background and more constraints, and he basically turned it into more of an adventure series.

 

Cobra's origins in RoC was rather stupid and out-of-character.

 

Very true, but then again Rise of Cobra itself was rather stupid and out of character.