I was big into action figures when I was little. I had plenty of He-Man, some Marvel and DC Comics characters, a few Transformers, and even a couple of WWF Wrestling Superstars.
However, the population of GI Joes on my toy shelves dwarfed the combined number of all other toys that I owned. I had every character from my favorite cartoon, and even a few that I'm pretty sure the toy company just invented. I had a plane, a tank, a hovercraft, and a motorcycle with a sidecar. I loved GI Joe. I vividly remember being a kindergartener and arriving home from school to wait for the GI Joe cartoon to come on each week day. One day I flipped on the TV (our TV at the time actually had an on/off knob) only to discover that my favorite show was ending, rather than beginning. My mom tried to explain to me that they must've switched the time slot, and I bawled uncontrollably for the rest of the day. Every afternoon for the rest of the year I sprinted home from school to make sure I was there in time to adjust the rabbit ears and watch GI Joe battle COBRA.
Somewhere around the time I turned ten I transitioned from toys and cartoons to Nerf Turbo Footballs and collecting sports cards, and turned my back on the heroes of my early childhood. Some guys still sort of silently follow along with the progression of their childhood franchises, and keep up to date in the darkness of their bedrooms, but that wasn't me. I turned away. While GI Joe and others always have held a special bit of nostalgia for me, I honestly would struggle with a GI Joe trivia quiz at this point, and probably couldn't name more than 8-10 characters.
So, when I heard there were talks of making a new GI Joe movie, I was excited, but not ecstatic. I definitely didn't expect to experience the feeling that I did when the first still photos of the costumes were released. I was outraged. Rubber and spandex. All black. This wasn't GI Joe. This movie was going to be awful.
Then there was the Superbowl commercial. It was awesome. Despite a couple of very glaring CGI issues, it was badass. Is it GI Joe? I'm not sure. But there were guns and ninjas and Snakeeyes and Stormshadow. It may not be GI Joe, but it looked pretty badass.
In the several months since then they've released several less than compelling trailers, and my enthusiasm faded. However, in the last couple weeks the film has gotten some decent praise from reputable sources, and my spirits have been rekindled slightly.
It has been a week summer for movies so far, we really need this one to come through. I think that I am going to anticipate the worst in hopes of being impressed. The only thing I know is that I will be seeing the film this weekend...
...And knowing is half the battle.
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