So, a few days back I reported on ‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ being pushed back and it looks like there’s more than meets the eye here. Wait… wrong franchise. Moving along. We were all told it was so that they could go 3D to pull in a higher international gross. But from the get go there was plenty of people not buying it. Most were positive it was due to ‘Battleship’ sinking and a fear that they would not be able to compete with ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ coming out four days later. Some speculated it was to try and pull in Joseph Gordon Levitt after realizing that once ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ hits… well he’s going to be bigger than he already is.
Well… according to Deadline you were all wrong. Apparently after test screenings Paramount realized they had made some mistakes. Primarily… killing off Channing Tatum. Yeah… they killed him off. Crying fan boys on the internet ACTUALLY got something they wanted and guess what? It turned out bad. Who would’ve thought? Tatum wasn’t a star at all when ‘GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra’ came out. But after he became a ladies favorite with ‘The Vow’ and had one of the most successful comedies of the year with ’21 Jump Street’ they realized a mistake had been made. It became even more apparent when test audiences commented that the relationship between Tatum and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was a “bright spot”.
Sources stated that Jon Chu was “shell shocked” over the release date move. As was Hollywood due to all the money spent on marketing the flick for that date being plastered all over.
Will this affect people going to see it? Probably not. Can this possibly improve the film? I think so. I actually like Channing Tatum (I’m sure now the fan boys shall unite and burn me at the stake) And Ray Park seemed very confident in this movie when I spoke with him at Wondercon. So… lets hope for the best. And look… it just means you can go see ‘Prometheus’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘Ted’ five more times.
‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ strikes March 29, 2013