New GI Joe: Rise of Cobra trailer...

Or...they could have shown THIS on the MTV Movie Awards a couple weeks ago... just saying. It still looks insanely dumb, but this actually looks like a decent amount of fun. Of course, there's a bare minimum of dialogue, and quite a bit of the action cuts is stuff we've seen before. But this still looks almost old school with its emphasis on human to human combat and (CGI-enhanced) stunt work right alongside the newfangled vehicles (and such planes and cars were always a part of the GI Joe terrain). The new trailer (to premiere with Transformers 2 on Wednesday) basically seems like a direct response to those rumors from early last week involving turmoil on the set (allegedly, director Stephen Summers was fired and locked out of the editing room, with famous re-editor Stuart Baird called in to save the day).

This has the kind of stuff I want to see in such a film - ninjas flying out of planes and sword fighting with other ninjas, mortal combat over a vast chasm in an evil lair, etc. I still think its stupid to have your end-trailer button be a scene where the Joes basically endanger innocent bystanders to save their own butts, but that's just me. I'm not saying the movie isn't going to be garbage (after all, the second trailer for The Avengers is still an action-film classic), but this does look like harmless fun. We'll know the score in a few weeks when Paramount decides how soon to start screening this thing. If they end up waiting till the last minute (like Transformers 2, which I'll be seeing Monday night), then we'll all walk onward in fear. Either way, like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, there remains potential for a wonderfully entertaining commentary track.

Scott Mendelson