I’ve made it no secret that I didn’t really like GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, a dull, boring, thoughtless action romp that cashed in on a name and little else. I was more than a little surprised to see a sequel coming, but GI Joe: Retaliation seemed to have a better handle on things, even if it’s solution to the poorly received first film was “kill everyone from the first movie”.
But now, with a little over a month before it’s release, we’ve gotten word that the film has been delayed from it’s original June 29th release, and will now instead hit theaters nine months later on March 29th. The reason?
The sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation was supposed to come out this summer on June 29th. But I’ve learned that Paramount is moving the movie nine months to March 29, 2013, to add 3D. “We’re going to do a conscientious 3D job because we’ve seen how it can better box office internationally,” one of the studio execs just told me. “Jim Cameron did all of Titanic‘s 3D in post – and look how well that movie turned out.”
On the one hand, this might be good for the film. This summer’s pretty stacked with releases, and it was going head to head with Amazing Spider-Man, which has way more hype and clout backing it. But a nine month delay being announced less than a month before release doesn’t tell me the studio has a lot of faith in the film, and adding something as gimmicky as 3D feels like a rush job to save some face.
