The UPS guy delivered my copies of
G.I.Joe Resolute and
Rise of Cobra this morning.
Maybe it is telling about the kind of Joe fan that I am, but the first one I popped open was
Resolute.
Lots of collectors focus on things like the packaging and presentation. Of course. We are collectors. Details are what we are all about. If you want awesome packaging, then
Resolute might be a bit of a let down. The case holds the DVD. That's about it. The design is nice, but it doesn't have that over-the-top look and feel that a lot of genre-focused releases have these days. There is, however, cool artwork on the front and back covers. The back also features a blurb of text that seems to lean toward the
Rise of Cobra version of the Joe mythos. It ends with this intriguing statement “Every life is at stake....and even the good guys can die.”
This is clearly an attempt to let the casual consumer know what Resolute is all about. This G.I.Joe is as cool as you always thought it should be.
Inside the case is a disk. Just a disk.
After flashing logos, the DVD starts with trailers for
Rise of Cobra and
Transformers 2. For as much as you can look at both of those movies and focus on the silly parts, they are some really exciting trailers.
The actual DVD content opens with no fanfare or special animation. The main menu screen is a nice looking spread of cool graphics and art from the movie. It has all of the standard menu options you would expect. Including “Special Features”
The Special Features screen features a similar graphics-and-movie-stills spread and a list that includes “Now You Know”, “Interview With Filmmakers”, “Storyboards”, “Joe Files”, and “Previews”.
Now You Know is the teaser footage that initially got us all drooling for
Resolute. When it first came on I thought”oh, that” and went to skip past it. I have seen it dozens of times. But I was mesmerized once again. Wow. I could watch that every day.
The interview is pretty interesting. It features executive producer Steven Drucker, director Joaquin Dos Santos, and art designer Dan Norton. They talk about the guiding ideas behind the direction that
Resolute took and respond to some general questions and concerns raised by fans. This will be a very satisfying nod to fans who felt ignored by the newer direction of the Joe brand. They say, if I may paraphrase, “we know who our core fans are, and we know what they want.” There are other interesting behind the scenes details and tidbits. This is a cool feature, but don't expect your girlfriend to watch it with you. The interest level here is strictly FAN ONLY. It does make me wonder, though, why it was not presented as a running commentary as is standard on DVDs.
The Storyboard feature steps up the FANS ONLY nature of the interview to the next level. You have to really be into it to dig what is so cool about these. Fortunately, most of us ARE really in to it. If nothing else, it is cool to just scroll through and check out some of the artwork in its early stages. This is exactly the kind of thing you will happily flip through when you have put the DVD in but your buddies are still in the kitchen doing who-knows-what..or the pizzas have not arrived yet.
The Joe Files are probably the least interesting part. Maybe new fans will dig them a little more, especially since the pacing of Resolute is so quick that very little background is ever presented for the characters. I am writing this review for The Terrordrome, however, so I am just going to go right out on a limb and assume that anyone reading this already knows that Marvin Hinton always dreamed of being a gourmet chef. These files are not presented as a list that you can choose from, but rather as pages that you must “next->” through. .As a result, I honestly do not know who was included beyond Duke and Roadblock. I got bored. I don;t mean that as a slam on this feature. It is clearly not intended for long-time fans. The upside here, every other element of this disk IS designed for us. So, yeah, the files might be boring for us. But, maybe for some kid just getting in to the line, they will be fascinating. The certainly have a lot more information and insight than the very dull cards included on the
Rise of Cobra action figures.
The movie itself? What? You haven't seen it? Seriously? I don;t believe you. Ok, well. See it. No question. This IS G.I.Joe as cool as we always wanted it to be. This is the version that we were not quite smart enough to imagine when we were romping around on dirt piles and making explosion noises. The bad guys are really bad and the good guys are really good. The action is exciting and the animation looks really good. If you are a Joe fan, this movie gets my highest recommendation. The few complaints that have surfaced since it first aired usually amount to “not enough of X” or “not enough of Y”. I agree. I want more.
The sticker on the package boasts that this release contains “missing footage”. I haven't seen it yet, but it doesn't really matter. All we wanted from
Resolute was more, and this is offering more. I am just not sure, yet, where it is. I hope that it is in the big final assault scene. But, in truth, there is not part of the movie that I would not happily watch more of.
On the whole, all the peripherals are nothing too earth-shattering, but when the core content is this good, maybe you don't really need a lot of flashy extras,
This video hit sthe shelves today and has a suggested retail price of $19.99.
5 Flag Points
