District 9 Trailer Kicks G.I. Joe Trailer’s Ass. Today in Film Bloggery 05/01/09

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies The reactions to the new G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra trailer are, as expected, pretty negative. But it’s almost as if bloggers had their write-ups pre-written, because the thing is not that bad. Maybe I just have low expectations and so therefore wasn’t expecting much to begin with, but considering all the crap that movie blogs get excited about on a regular basis, I’m dubious. Those criticizing this trailer so harshly are obviously just going along with the fashion of trashing on this movie. I’m not saying it looks good, but I might actually prefer to see this than, say, the new Transformers sequel.

And if District 9, which does indeed look amazing via its new trailer, is actually “this year’s Cloverfield, then I might also prefer to see G.I. Joe than that, too. Of course, if we go by trailers alone and not presumptions, the little-known-about District 9, which appears to be a faux-documentary sci-fi flick, completely wins the fight over our summer moviegoing dollars. And I’m certainly not alone in seeing the Peter Jackson-produced movie as the champion today. Let’s compare the responses to each trailer, from the usual suspects:

• Alex Billington of First Showing thinks G.I. Joe looks even worse than X-Men Origins: Wolverine:
  

  this is the epitome of big dumb action movies. Normally I can sit back and enjoy this kind of crap on ocassion, but this time this just looks so bad, that I’m not sure I’ll even be able to enjoy it at all. Try again next time, Stephen Sommers.

• He has much greater interest in District 9:
  

  Now this is the trailer I know I’ve been waiting to see forever!…Let’s just say that you need to watch this trailer, as it’ll surprise a lot of you, since no one knows what to expect. Could this be the next Cloverfield?

• Mark Graham at Vulture feels the trailer for G.I. Joe “disappoints on a few levels:”
  

  Not only is there no glimpse of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his heavily anticipated performance as the Cobra Commander, but it sounds to us like Sienna Miller just might have decided to speak in her normal British voice instead of the exaggerated Russian accent that we’ve come to expect from the Baroness. Oh, the horror!

• And while he’s the one who makes the comparison to Cloverfield, he believes District 9 “could end up being one of the sleeper hits of the summer.”
  

  it’s not that we think you’ll need to ingest a full bottle of Dramamine…What we’re referring to is the fact that this film not only combines documentary-style filmmaking with an outrageously awesome sci-fi premise, but also that it was stealthily produced on a relatively low budget.

• Mark at I Watch Stuff makes some negative comparisons between G.I. Joe and some other disappointments:
  

  Classic Stephen Sommers. No substance, all poorly computer-generated lack of style.

  Where are all the ridiculous vehicles and weapons? Pretty much all I saw was a modified Hummer and the underwater city from The Phantom Menace. They’re missing the whole point of G.I. Joe. It’s not about jumping around in Halo suits

• His comparisons for District 9 are more positive:
  

  makes it seem like it’s a mixture of the extra-terrestrial-coexistence film/TV drama Alien Nation, a little Independence Day, and apartheid, but also likely better than all of those things. Particularly apartheid.

• Devin Faraci at CHUD is so in love with the G.I. Joe trailer that he seems to be joking. But he’s apparently not:
  

  It’s like this new trailer for Paramount’s GI Joe was cut just for me. They open with a shot of Cobra’s evil underwater headquarters. I LOVE THIS. And it turns out that Cobra’s evil weapon is some kind of green super-rust? I AM IN.

  I’m not even kidding.

• He seems much more geniune about the District 9 trailer:
  

  District 9 looks terrific. That said, if I was working on the V reboot series I’d be a little worried. And if I was Gale Ann Hurd, I’d stop talking up a remake of Alien Nation. It looks like Blomkamp may have slam dunked this.

• John at The Movie Blog seems to want to say he likes the trailer for G.I. Joe, but he just can’t, probably because of the trendiness to be negative, and so he comes up with a whole list of reasons why he thinks it will “suck balls:”
  

  Let me set the record straight right off the bat. I am not a G.I. Joe hater at all. I am hoping this movie rocks…And no matter how much I hope, how much I cheer, G.I. Joe will (in my opinion) suck a great and powerful suck of epic proportions. And dear heavens I hope I’m wrong… but I don’t think I am.

• Meanwhile, at the same site, Rodney doesn’t expect much from District 9 either. From a comment he writes on his own post:
  

  this feels a lot like a really done fan film to me, and though it might be a good premise (which I think the documentary style interviews are a good fit for) I am just not seeing anything that makes me WANT to see this.

  My interest is purely from a “Why is PJ all up about this guy” point of view. If I tripped over this on my own, not knowing his PR history, I likely woudln’t have even talked about it.

• John Scott Lewinski at Screen Rant warns that the G.I. Joe trailer may cause “CGI fatigue:”
  

  the tone so far looks to venture a little too far into camp. The action comes off way over the top, while the CGI skirmishes look not too far removed from the “one per half-hour” frame rate of the original animated series. The great war between the defenders of freedom and international terrorism is just looking a little childish in these trailers — in an era when we’re fighitng the real thing every day.

• In his headline for the District 9 trailer, though, Screen Rant’s Rob Keyes says it “looks amazing.” More from his reaction:
  

  While we haven’t seen much news on the upcoming film, Screen Rant reported at the beginning of April what the movie is all about and it sounded very interesting to say the least. Now, we finally have the official trailer for District 9 and it’s really damn cool.

• Neil Miller at Film School Rejects sees G.I. Joe as being a potential guilty pleasure:
  

  this film has potential to be some good old fashioned fun for the 12-year old inside all of us. It certainly appears to be aimed at a younger audience (even younger than say, Transformers 2), so take that into consideration…let it be known that I am personally still giving this flick the benefit of the doubt based on the cool factor I’m seeing in the first two trailers.

• But again, he’s much more excited about District 9:
  

  The effects in the trailer look quite good, and while it may not be as flashy as a Star Trek or Transformers it may still be the most intelligent and thought provoking science fiction film of the year. Well, second most anyway… go see Moon!

• Ryan Adams at Awards Daily has a good defense for why he’s actually excited for G.I. Joe:
  

  I can honestly say I like the way cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen shoots action flicks. Transporter 2, Transformers, Wanted. No matter what you think of these movies plotwise, shotwise they gleam with a wet sexy gloss.

• He has a much simpler, yet possibly more excited, reaction to the District 9 spot:
  

  Yikes, gorgeous production design. This is shaping up to be a platinum year for sci-fi.

• Erik Davis at Cinematical is, like me, dubious of other bloggers’ reactions to G.I. Joe:
  

  A lot of these web guys make me laugh; some of them think Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is Epic OMG FTW Awesome, but then crap on G.I. Joe by calling it silly, lame and a waste of time. Truthfully, it’s apples and oranges to me — they’re both big-budgeted boxes of popcorn entertainment that don’t promise to be anything more than “Wow, that looked pretty cool.”

• Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet written anything on the District 9 trailer.

Now it’s your turn to compare the two. First up is G.I. Joe, followed by the trailer for District 9:

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