G.I. Joe Classified - News & Updates

[nik]

I don’t think Joe lends itself to “cheesy fun” in live action the way He-Man does. I feel like they tried that with Chandler Tater and it didn’t work. Like I don’t know about *deadly* serious, but these are humans on earth engaged in armed combat.

Worked at a Valero for 15 years and there was this crackhead that came in all the time who seriously always called Channing Tatum "Tater Channing". Like not as a joke, that's what this dude thought his name really was. Of course, my siblings and I still only refer to him as Tater to this day.

 

[Fletch]

What's the current structure of G.I.Joe? I haven't been reading the comics, but I'm assuming they haven't strictly been a military unit for a while now, yeah?

Just some sort of anti-terror task force that draws from the military but operates outside the ban on military operating within US borders?

 

[Chooch555]

In the Energon U they are definitely US Military, but clearly off book.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Hawk was replaced by Zartan, possibly since the beginning so definitely dubious authority. He's created two teams, G.I. Joe and Night Force. Joes don't know about NF.

 

[Ru1977]

In the comics, they were definitely based on Delta Force.

 

[canprime]

In the Energon U they are definitely US Military, but clearly off book.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Hawk was replaced by Zartan, possibly since the beginning so definitely dubious authority. He's created two teams, G.I. Joe and Night Force. Joes don't know about NF.

Two things I wonder about this...

1- I wonder if they based this on the early supposed betrayal of Hawk that was some kind of long game double agent expose.

2- What is the end game for Zartan because I never really saw him as a long term, big plans, type of agent. He always was either a hired mercenary, or wild card that Cobra used for information extraction. I never saw him as someone staying long term in a disguise and planning out teams for use against Cobra, or the US government. I know they'll eventually give us a reason, and it is a different universe, but still make me wonder.

 

[mrboshek]

Worked at a Valero for 15 years and there was this crackhead that came in all the time who seriously always called Channing Tatum "Tater Channing". Like not as a joke, that's what this dude thought his name really was. Of course, my siblings and I still only refer to him as Tater to this day.

How often does Channing Tatum come up during a typical conversation at Valero? Next time I stop at Valero I'm going to walk in and say something like, "Whoo, I bet those gas prices wouldn't be so high if Channing Tatum were President!'

 

[Boy Wonder]

After the magnificence that was the He-Man movie, you CANNOT convince me that a live action Joe movie based closer to the cheesy action of the cartoon wouldn't be awesome if done correctly.
I do still want a serious version of a Joe movie, but they've butchered two attempts already so.... try something different, maybe.

Just saw MOTU this week and thought the same thing. I really enjoyed MOTU and thought it understood the assignment. Was talking with my friends afterwards who have a passing knowledge of MOTU, but were definitely turning to me for explanations of some of the more in depth references. Was talking about how most major MOTU fans would want the movie to look like Game of Thrones but with Gwildor and Clamp Champ. I thought the tongue in cheek approach worked really well with the source material and something similar could work for GI Joe. Just like MOTU shouldn't be Game of Thrones, GI Joe shouldn't be Apocalpyse Now.

Ultimately, they can do whatever they want. My main hope is that any movie doesn't eat up Classifieds and disrupt what they've got going. I never saw Snake Eyes, saw the 2nd GI Joe with The Rock and thought it was fun, but absolutely HATED the first one with Tatum.

 

[canprime]

Just saw MOTU this week and thought the same thing. I really enjoyed MOTU and thought it understood the assignment. Was talking with my friendsUnf afterwards who have a passing knowledge of MOTU, but were definitely turning to me for explanations of some of the more in depth references. Was talking about how most major MOTU fans would want the movie to look like Game of Thrones but with Gwildor and Clamp Champ. I thought the tongue in cheek approach worked really well with the source material and something similar could work for GI Joe. Just like MOTU shouldn't be Game of Thrones, GI Joe shouldn't be Apocalpyse Now.

Ultimately, they can do whatever they want. My main hope is that any movie doesn't eat up Classifieds and disrupt what they've got going. I never saw Snake Eyes, saw the 2nd GI Joe with The Rock and thought it was fun, but absolutely HATED the first one with Tatum.

Unfortunately for MOTU it seems like the general public has spoken. Much like with D&D before it, the general public doesn't seem too interested in funny/jokey sci-fi-fantasy. Similarly Thor: Love & Thunder showed Taika Waititi that too much "funny" detracts from the story and lore. Sure Filmation MOTU was ridiculous because it was an 80s kids cartoon. However even by the 90s BTAS had veered away from the idea that kids cartoons had to talk down to kids and just be silly. So making a 2026 live action movie in the same vein where you can't decide if you want to be serious or campy probably wasn't going to work.

ARAH always had a silly element to it back in the 80s. Again though it was a kids cartoon, but even at that it had some pretty mature stories (There's No Place like Springfield, World's Without End to name two). Also I don't think it was as silly as MOTU was in tone. So a movie should do it's best to avoid that style. I agree it doesn't have to be Apocalypse Now, but I also don't want Thor: Love & Thunder. My only concern with the pitch by Danny McBride is that the scope may be a bit too small scale for GI Joe. I'm sure they'll be at least one large battle set piece, but keeping it small force in a small town focused may be constraining.

 

[Boy Wonder]

I loved the DnD movie and genuinely think it's a shame that it didn't do well enough to keep going.

It's all about pacing and a movie understanding what it is. Like, I hated Love and Thunder not because it was funny, but because the comedy always steamrolled over the VERY heavy themes and moments that the story was trying to tell. The serious moments never had a chance to breathe before they shoehorned in a joke. Compared to GOTG3 which had genuine laugh out loud moments, but also drew actual tears from my face.

MOTU never really gets serious enough to feel like the jokes are over stepping their bounds. During the one or two serious moments of the movie, they're still given time to let the audience feel that emotion.

My mind's eye view of Joe is tied pretty closely to the cartoon where Cobra's plans involve starting a rock band or using ghosts to terrorize GI Joe and guns shoot lasers and no one dies. Needless to say, I hated Resolute.

 

[docsilence]

I loved the DnD movie and genuinely think it's a shame that it didn't do well enough to keep going.

Man, as someone who runs 1-3 games of D&D a week, that movie understood the assignment. The audience didn't get it though. Anyone who plays D&D knows it's absolutely alternating between earnestly trying to save the world and being complete chucklefucks. The darkest, most deadly serious game I run still has a running chat of obscene quotes we want to throw on tee shirts. Going with earnest but funny was true to the source material, but I think folks are right that audiences are deeply in their unfunny GoT era.

What is the end game for Zartan because I never really saw him as a long term, big plans, type of agent. He always was either a hired mercenary, or wild card that Cobra used for information extraction.

I have inappropriately strong opinions about how to write Zartan because of the file card series but I think most writers don't know what to do with him because Zartan is essentially a chaos/change agent. Cobra hires him but they never know what he's actually going to do. Some writers write him as a psychopath, some as an honorable villain. I suppose if there's going to be a character people can't get a bead on to write consistently it'd be the guy who can shapeshift, though. (I also think a lot of modern writers want to write him as a big picture guy, a big planner, but the old Hama file cards are like "this dude just does whatever the hell he wants, and that's what makes him scary."

 

[Alt]

Has anyone else had QC issues with Destro? My ab crunch is loose as you wouldn't believe but his right leg, the one with the pistol, is COMPLETELY frozen at the knee joint. Upper and lower knee are solid as a rock and hot water is doing nothing so far. I'm terrified I'm going to tear it off.

China or Vietnam?

Regardless, I've had that frozen problem before and it ended up just being fused within the pinless set up.

 

[PantherCult]

It is interesting that while geek culture consumed Hollywood, the worm has now apparently turned? Super Hero movies aren't the juggernauts they used to be and movies that a majority of real afficionados loved - D&D:HAT and MOTU - fell flat with general audiences. We were kings of pop culture for awhile, but now its back to the shadows with our nerdy interests.

 

[Alt]

I have a Fox Mulder conspiracy theory that media that is fun, positive, uplifting, and has good morals is being countered by The System.

Youtubers and social media people may not even be aware they are complicit, but because they kowtow to the algorithm and the way engagement thrives off of hyperbole and anger, they all have to go in on it.

Consider that Superman mentions that kindness is the real punk rock. Supergirl's message is you don't have to roll over and be nice as long as you're good. That's something I actually take to heart. MOTU opens some great conversations on masculinity and how it affects people, in reality or in ideation.

I've seen Supergirl's narrative flip to "who even wanted her". Y'all did. She was a breakout icon at the end of Superman. Most of the fan art community focused on her, she became a symbol. Y'all did, look, here's your own posts on the subject 350 days ago. 90 days ago. 30 days ago. Don't act like it was never an idea with momentum.

For a while now and any media - video game, movie, book - I've noticed the reviews just go all in. There's rarely a spread with outlier scores. It's always consistently Yes or consistently Trash, where you'd think someone would still love that niche game or hate that beloved movie.

Boot stamping on human face forever, etc.

My evidence is the Files, where Gamergate and Comicgate and other divisions are discussed and not redacted, and already implemented if you look. Fatigue us everywhere so there can be no reaction that matters.

 

[Damien]

Unfortunately for MOTU it seems like the general public has spoken.

Yeah... MOTU has been met with deafening applause by 90% of the people that went to see it. It's got an 86% positive with viewers at RT. And the majority of the discussion around the movie online anywhere you go, even miserable places like YT and Reddit, is positive.

I'd also argue that MOTU's tone was closer to Ragnarok than Love & Thunder. The former was Thor's most popular movie. By a wide margin. You could also say MOTU was closer in tone to the GotG movies than to Love & Thunder, and the GotG movies are beloved.

As I said before, I think it's ridiculous nowadays to base everything on box office numbers when that is impacted by outside factors to the extent that there's almost no way to even pre-judge what movie will do well at the box office and which won't. But Amazon have already come out and said they're happy with the film's reception and they're excited about the future of the franchise. So unless they just quietly never talk about it again.... we'll have to wait and see.

I don’t think Joe lends itself to “cheesy fun” in live action the way He-Man does. I feel like they tried that with Chandler Tater and it didn’t work. Like I don’t know about *deadly* serious, but these are humans on earth engaged in armed combat.

Given Joe came out at the same time as some of the cheesiest action movies ever made.... I dunno about that. I don't think Tatum's movies were intended to be light-hearted at all. I think they were intended to be 'deadly serious.' It just doesn't come off that way because they're poorly made films.
I also don't think there's anything to say about it being humans on earth engaged in armed combat. So what? LOTS of silly, cheesy, or fun movies are based around the idea of people fighting to the death. Mortal Kombat (all 3.. yes.. THREE and THREE ONLY) walk a line between psychotically violent and funny/silly. Guardians of the Galaxy all managed to walk a line between deadly serious and hilarious or goofy. That new Amazon movie with Bautista and Momoa is basically a comedy set to violent murder and gunfights.

 

[Ru1977]