G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA Early Screening: Not So Bad

The news of bad studio testing/screenings of G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA hit the rounds a month or so ago. One report said that the movie tested worse than almost any film EVER. Not the kind of word of mouth a studio wants. Well, Harry Knowles over at AICN caught an advance screening of the film. Here is what he had to say: On the cheese factor:

I was expecting this movie to be far more jokey, tons of cheese and really serious eye-rolling while groaning. Instead, what I got was a fairly straight adaptation of the script, which I always thought would work as a serviceable all-ages GI JOE movie. Although, this is a bit more violent than I was expecting. Blades can cut, death does happen in this universe, but it isn't anything out of whack with the rating. I don't believe there's any foul language – and all flirtation is kept in very good tastes (ahem, BAY!)

Comparing to other adaptations:

In my opinion this is a vastly superior adaptation than either of the TRANSFORMERS movies. For one, this really is a GI JOE story, not a story of a teenager with grandpa's glasses. Here, the world is in peril in a coherent way. It isn't just MEGATRON on a building screaming insults at a boy. But these bad guys, they seriously want to rule the world, not give life to Mountain Dew machines.

Overall:

But ya know what? It IS a G.I. JOE movie and it was pretty damn cool!...Of the BIG live action SUMMER films – this is one that you should have quite a bit of fun with.

Wow--I hope he's right. The comic book industry could use another huge hit to keep the momentum rolling.