The Rock is a hype man, born and bred. I guess that’s kind of inevitable when you grow up in a house with a dad and a grandpa who are both professional wrestlers. So any talking up of his film projects the guy does on Twitter should be taken with a grain of salt; he is a carny at heart, after all. Still though, it should be noted that after yesterday’s announcement that G.I. Joe: Retaliation was having its June 2012 release date changed to a March 2013 one (so that it could be converted to 3D) disappointed pretty much everyone else on the planet, The Rock seemed to be the only guy who was enthusiastic about the news.
Soon after the story broke, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took to his Twitter account and had this to say: “Commitment to make GI JOE a massive world event just got bigger. New release 3/29/13. Rock + Ass kickins + 3D = #AwwwwShit”
It seems that in Mr. Johnson’s mind, a finished film that’s already been heavily marketed and was set for release in a little over a month getting pushed back nine more months isn’t a sign that there are serious problems with the finished product, it’s just a sign that the studio is more committed than ever to making sure that it’s the most awesome movie possible. Kind of like how Marvel just gave Iron Man 3 an extra $60 million to play with, only completely backwards.
Confirmation of Johnson’s staunch enthusiasm in the face of anything isn’t the big news that came out of The Great One’s Twitter account yesterday, however. The intriguing news came a little later when he addressed a fan’s disappointment over the film’s delay. He tweeted: “It will be. Designing new scenes to enhance 3D. RT: @JimmyinGA: Was looking forward to GI Joe next month. Hope the 3D is worth the wait.”
Though the news that the film is going to be shooting additional scenes does little to assuage the fears that the real reason it’s going back in for tinkering is that it isn’t very good, the news that said new scenes are being conceived specifically to work in 3D does work a little to assure everyone that they won’t have to sit through a shoddy 3D conversion that nobody asked for in the first place. At least the 3D might look cool?
And, who knows? Maybe G.I. Joe: Retaliation really is just making this move in order to be bigger and better. Maybe The Avengers really did open more eyes than just Marvels to the fact that if you want a movie to succeed in today’s summer blockbuster climate it has to be crazier and more epic than anything anyone has ever seen. Maybe, when all the re-shoots have happened, and all is said and done, G.I. Joe: Retaliation will be the greatest action movie ever made. And if you believe that, The Rock has another one he wants to sell you…