Earlier in March, we found out that Hollywood’s Asian American token director Jon Chu was going from singing Bieber’s “Baby” to hollering “YO JOE!” In other words, he will be directing the much-anticipated sequel to G.I. Joe.
Actually, calling it a “much-anticipated sequel” is like saying, “much-anticipated prostate exam.”
In a recent interview with Box Office Magazine, he went on and on and on about his childhood love for the G.I. Joe brand and talked about making a movie about, as the cartoon theme song states, “A real American hero”:
I’ll never claim to be the greatest auteur of all time and I’ll never claim to know exactly what I am doing, but I know I love movies. And when people cheer when the hero comes on and boo when the villain comes on, there’s an energy that I love about that. And Joe, to me, it’s just natural extension of the symbol of a hero. Joe fits in to that idea of what it means to be a hero, what it means to be a leader in this world when you don’t know what a leader means anymore, especially as Americans.
How inspiring.
It’s good to see that Chu is getting work. Having Asian Americans behind the camera is just as important (if not more) as having them in front of the camera (whether it be porn or otherwise) — but G.I. Joe 2? Really? He also did dance movie extravaganzas Step Up 2 and Step Up 3D. Is Hollywood just giving him the shaft with these sequel projects? His better work is actually stuff that isn’t attached to a franchise — his directorial work with The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers TV series and that 3D Bieber doc were quite good (so I’ve heard). Speaking of 3D, he talked about possibly doing Joe in 3D.
Solely based on the first installment of this franchise, a third dimension could not save this franchise. However, featuring Asian characters Quick Kick and Storm Shadow in wild and wacky buddy cop-esque scenarios could.
