A blogger from Nuke the Fridge saw a screening of the GI Joe trailer and just panned the living hell out of it. The studio sent them a "cease and desist" letter and they removed the post. The Blogosphere was suddenly up in arms over copyrights, censorship, and why Paramount really didn't want the post to be read. Well, the post is back up now and the truth is that it describes the trailer pretty much shot-by-shot and says it's bad. That's the "review," really - it "sucks." I can see how the company found this to be a violation (even though it is not), since the entire post basically just describes every camera angle in the footage and the real meat of the "review" is that it was "bad."
But that hasn't stopped most everyone from insisting Paramount didn't want the post read because they're afraid GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra will bomb. The Rundown would just like to allay our readers' fears by offering the following:
This "review" is for a 60-second trailer that hasn't even been greenlighted yet. Studios focus group their trailers for the same reasons they do their movies: to see how audiences will react. If the trailer is received as poorly overall as it was with this blogger, Paramount will recut it; you will probably never see this trailer. Further, lots of good movies have shoddy - even downright bad - trailers; the movies you don't want to see are the ones with good trailers, because you've already seen the best parts. The real reason this is getting all this attention is because Paramount asked him to take the post down, not because he panned the trailer.
At least one magazine made a good point about the whole mess, though: watch to see if any trailer for GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra is played during the Superbowl. If not, it may very well mean executives are hedging their bets and GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra may end up GI Joe: DOA.
I know all of you are smarter than the average webhead (because you're here, if nothing else!), but there's the Rundown on this little fiasco.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
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