Yo... Joe?

You all know I’m a huge pop-culture geek, who’s into comics and Star Wars and Transformers and such, but I’m going to add one more to the mix. I’m a HUGE G.I. Joe nut. At least, the version of G.I. Joe that I grew up with in the 80’s. As my family can attest, I had every toy short of the aircraft carrier when I was younger and go so far back with it that I can remember days before the “kung-fu grip” (actually, it was swiveling-arm joints on the 3 ¾” figures).

Anyway, I got excited when they first announced that a G.I. Joe live-action feature was in the works, but have been disappointed in the supposed story lines and casting decisions. I’ll get more into that on another post, but I’ve also been disappointed in the costume designs. They released this a while ago in USA Today:

It’s a shot of actor Ray Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) as everybody’s favorite character from the 80’s Joe era, Snake Eyes. The fanboy reaction was mostly positive; I was less than thrilled. It’s an okay shot, until you see the full costume in better light:

All I can say is, “What’s with the cargo pants and the Batman-molded body suit?” It’s actually kinda faithful to the original design, but I would’ve preferred seeing him in costume similar to what the rest of the cast is wearing.

Things looked a little better (no sexual reference intended) with the reveal of the next character a couple of days ago, Scarlett. She’s played by Rachel Nichols, who’s appeared in the TV show Alias and most recently in the movies P2 and Charlie Wilson’s War (quick note: she’s listed as a cast member for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek as an Orion slave girl, yowza!):

Before you jump all over me for the pic of the hot redhead in the skin-tight outfit, this is what Scarlett looked like in the “classic” version:

Still, it looked like things might be okay, depending on how they filmed it. But then I got word that they released pics of the rest of the cast, which can be found at the website What Would Tyler Durden Do? (http://www.wwtdd.com/). I thought maybe Scarlett’s outfit would be just her costume, not the basis for costumes for the rest of the cast. Ugh. I’m sure that all of the characters will show up in their “normal” attire in the movie, but, still… I’m not getting a good vibe.

Even though knowing is half the battle, the other half is getting movie executives to make appropriate changes. Oy.