Stephen Sommers fired from GI JOE?
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Rumors are circulating that the early screenings for GI JOE have been so disasterous that Paremount Studios are considering firing the film’s director.
The rumor goes like this; after a test screening for the upcoming Summer Blockbuster proved so awful, Paramount studio exec Brad Weston called for drastic measures, including post-proudction rehauls to at least make the film watchable, the hiring of film editor Stuart Baird to try and salvage the project in the editing room and most shockingly, the sacking of Sommers and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura . Now, we don’t know how much of this true. A horrible test screening for GI JOE seems likely and the attempt to improve a big-budget tentpole picture in post isn’t unheard of. But the firing of a director, seems unlikely and other reports from websites and insiders say that Sommers was simply banned from the editing room for the remainder of post (like that’s any better.)
No matter how much of this is true, it’s all leading to one nearly indesputable fact; GI JOE: the Rise of Cobra will not be as good as Star Trek.
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I love how a studio is so full of itself, it places the movie’s faults onto the hired-gun Director, not on the writers of the script where it belongs. A Director can only do so much with what they are given to work with. There are rare cases where a Director is able to elevate the material of a mediocre script (The Faculty), but there are also scripts so bad, they can’t be saved by even the most accomplished Directors (War of the Worlds).
This is the part of the job I hate. Call it. Time of death, 2:51 PM.
Having not read the script or seen the movie I think it’s a little early to judge who’s at fault here (if anyone).
Are we expecting much in the way of writing from a “popcorn” movie like G.I. Joe?
@ but there are also scripts so bad, they can’t be saved by even the most accomplished Directors (War of the Worlds).
Why do people hate Speilberg’s WotWs? I love WotWs.
I did as well- up to the very end when they get to Boston and the VO. But everything before that I really enjoyed.
Although I can’t help but wish that he had used the theme from Close Encounters the first time the aliens popped out of the ground.
You asked, so here goes….
I can’t speak for others, but I don’t hate it. It has its moments, it’s just not good overall. Koepp and Spielberg have been better than this, both separately and together. Aside from cannibalizing scenes from Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds insults its audience too often.
SPOILERS BELOW FOR WAR OF THE WORLDS
You’ve got a protagonist who’s a jerk for no reason, and a couple kids in desperate need of five across the eyes. The fact that the mother leaves them with him makes me question her parenting skills as well. Basically, there’s no one for me to root for/care about. Not by much, anyway.
These aliens (or just their massive ships/Imperial Walkers) are underground for ages, and no one discovers them, not once this whole time. They’re supposed to be bad ass, highly advanced aliens who have been watching us for millions of years, but they can’t figure out how to survive once they get here, and they’re stumped by a bicycle and a mirror.
The son character abandons his sister to go along with the military, and he survives? Really?
They run into a crazy survivalist/conspiracy theorist who, given the way he’s been acting, should have been dead already, but manages to survive just long enough to put our “heroes” in danger by conveniently exposing himself suddenly and getting himself killed.
The EMP knocks out everything, including Tom’s wristwatch, but camcorders still work somehow?
Tom Cruise conveniently figures out how to bring the remaining tripods down and he’s the one who has to tell the military what to do, something so obvious that they should have been able to notice/figure out rather easily.
….I could go on, but you get the idea. Having said all that, here are the elements of the movie I do like. 1. Beautiful, striking cinematography. 2. Tom Cruise, though playing someone I don’t like, still gives a good performance. 3. Creative production design and solid special/visual effects. 4. Speilberg still has a knack for handling tension and setting atmosphere/mood.
Rebuttal:
I’m gonna get a bit more personal than I’d like to on this site but it was my honest reaction to Tom Cruise’s character in that movie:
Tom Cruise was playing an insanely better looking and younger version of my own father. Down to the job, the house he lived in, the Queens-ish (was it Queens or NJ? I haven’t seen the movie since it came out but it had that burrough-y feel) his parenting skills, the reaction to his daughter eating hummus and pita, wanting to be there but not really wanting to be with his kids, his kids being far more educated than he was, and his ex-wife’s family despising him.
So, that character, obviously instantly pulled me into this movie. For me, this movie was the first time I saw a “disaster” movie that really made me go, these people are my people.
And, to be fair, a lot of your criticisms are of the original book. The concept of the common cold killing them has always been one of the best, IMHO, subversive themes in all of sci-fi: Wells was trying to tell us that for all out technology, all our “king of nature” attitude- the fracking common cold took down the big bad invaders. Not our military, not our brains, our skills, our technology- but a single celled organism. Which, considering influenza outbreaks were everywhere at the time as well as the industrial revolution also speaks volumes to the times he was living in.
Personally, my favorite aspect of the movie was that it was about the everyday people. It was about the millions of people who’d be trying to evacuate and none of the buildings that blew up were landmarks. You never saw the president or the big generals discussing grand plans with the scientist who knows these aliens better than anyone. The only military you saw were the bottom barrel grunts who did most of the dying. WHICH I LOVED SO MUCH that I can see past almost everything else. And I LOVED that the action DID NOT TAKE PLACE IN MANHATTAN. It was about the people in tbe borroughs, the suburbs, and the country. I loved that no one knew everything that was going on and that a full explanation of the aliens was never given. Hell, I loved that the aliens looked like xenomorphs from the Alien movies.
I even thought the family was pretty real. I liked the fact that the wife’s new husband really was the better man than their father even though he was presented as having money. I loved the reporter who was just seeing the biggest story of her life. I loved the way he showed people just staring at the things as they popped out of ground instead of running, which YOU KNOW people would do.
I LOVE that the movie brought up class. So few things DO these days. I loved that scene where the people try to kill them for their car. Because peopel WOULD in that situation. Far more so than Signs, this movie really did represent the way people would REALLY react in the event of an alien invasion.
Yes, I do agree- Tim Robbin’s character was crap, and in it Spielberg fell into his typical “kid in peril” problem. You could chop that out and it’d be better for it.
The ruin of that movie, for me though, was the end. The son being alive ruined the whole scene where Tom’s character lets him go finally. And, what? Boston was just chilling out having drinks whilst most of NY was getting blown up to the stone age????
Although, to be fair the novel DOES end with the narrator reuniting with his wife so I GUESS that’s why they did it… but it still smells funny. And honestly, coming off the heals of Minority Report and AI was just ANOTHER case of Spielberg refusing to end his movie on a deserved bittersweet ending. (NOTE: I am not against happy endings. Just undeserved endings.) I long for the days of Empire of the Sun. One of the only truly great, perfect, bittersweet, ambiguous endings he ever gave us.
Okay, I rambled on for so long I forgot this page was about GI Joe. Suffice it to say, whilst I agree with most of your criticisms I found the good far outweighed them.
One bad ending couldn’rt ruin the best popcorn flick Spielberg’s made in a long time
I just don’t get it.I guess I agree with most of your criticism. But surely these are just minor concerns when considered against the films’ strengths.
“I love the sustained atmosphere of horror and suspense. And the effects are awesome and well utilized. But on the other hand it’s weird a camcorder still works and there was bad parenting advice. It’s a real mixed bag.”
really?
well, the endings faithful to the original…….so that was how it was always going to end. If they had changed the ending all the other people would complain about that too, they where doomed either way.
this is not a good way to make an argument Prettz. Does the ending work or not? Your conjecture that the ending can’t be changed otherwise someone would complain is not very relevent.
Which ending are you referring to, the cold or the part in Boston?
Because if it hadn’t been the cold that killed the aliens, than yes, I would have been mad but I could have lived without the schlocky reunion that undermined the scene where he let the sun go and had to choose between his kids even though there’s a schlocky reunion between the main guy and his wife in the book. (I haven’t read the book since I was about 12 years old so I can’t really remember more of the details about it)
To be fair War of the Worlds has been adapted so many times by so many different people that I don’t think there’s too many hardcore fans out there whining about an ending.
And if there are any they’re all still too busy fuming over Independence Day. (Which, I do love, but for a whole different set of reasons.)
Also, watch this in conjunction with Close Encounters. It’s really interesting to see the difference in theme, tone, and general film making that Spielberg has achieved in 20 odd years.
@Rusty James:
Not relevant? How do you figure that? If an ending works or not depends on how people take it, and my point is that half the people would be pissed either way. I wasnt making a comment on if the ending was right or bad, I was making the comment that if they had changed it, then just as many people would be upset, so they really couldnt win on that front.
@Sunshineyness:
I ment the cold, I’d actually forgotten about the family reunion and the fact it was never explained how the son managed to make his way there ( and beat them there no less) that part I agree was pretty stupid.
@ I wasn’t making a comment on if the ending was right or bad
That’s pretty much my problem. We’re discussing what does or doesn’t work about the movie. Your comment is antithetical to that. An unsupported assertion that the ending can’t be changed because otherwise some uncited person would complain.
This group of unruly HG Welles fanatics didn’t stop Spielberg from making countless other deviations from the book (updating the period, giving the protagonist a family etc). But somehow the ending is set in stone.
The whole idea of art is that artists express themselves by making meaningful decisions. If your going to take that away then the art of cinema is reduced to pictures flashing on a wall.
It’s the same problem I had with patton oswald’s Watchmen’s rant against ungrateful nerds.
Oswald: “Just appreciate that it exists”
Ungrateful Nerd: “No.”
I apologize if I was rude about it. I apologize if I’m being rude still. But I love to discuss film and my goal is not to offend but to facilitate insightful discussion.
Rusty- Out of curiosity did you like the ending with the common cold or no?
Prettz – As I’ve said, I’ll defend that ending to the day I die as one of the best in all of sci-fi history and it truly is deserved. For all their grand technology the aliens overlooked the one tiny microbe on the planet and that was their undoing.
Honestly, I don’t know what would have been the best ending in regards to the mother and Boston. Maybe if they could have just had her and her husband/parents climbing out of a bombed out basement alive and well and Tom’s character left having to account for the son and finally showing regret for his shit parenting to her. It would have made for a nice 3/4 happy ending, which are usually my favorite endings in movies like this.
@Rusty
I dont think your being rude, I just think we’re talking about differant things. If you are just asking if I think the ending “worked” then yes, it’s not the most cinimatic endings ever, but I think that having them go down by the common cold is a great way to show that no matter how powerfull you are, that even the smallest oversight can take you down.
@Sunshineyness:
I’m in complete agreement with you.
Re: The Ending
I think the ending of the book works quite well. It’s a humbling commentary on place as rulers of Earth. Our dominion is challenged first by mighty interplanetary coquerers then by the lowly microbes turn out to be the true rulers of Earth.
The movie gives all that the short shift. I think there’s a problem inherent to adapting a famous ending like that. Tim Burton ran into the same issue with the Planet of the Apes remake.
It’s okay though because WotW works so well as a survival story.
Bonus ending commentary:
I’m completely baffled by all the complaints over Justin Chatwin being alive at the end.
I can’t believe that anyone thought for a second that a)Spielberg would let the kid die and b) the kid was dead even though we never saw a body.
It never even entered by mind that I was supposed to think the kid was dead.
The fake out death in Wall*E bothers me waaaaay more. Jim Gordon’s fake out death in DK bothers me more and I love that film.
This rumor has already been proven to be a load of bunk.
http://chud.com/articles/articles/19818/1/GI-JOB-HUNT/Page1.html