Refining / re-imagining the costumes

[Timstuff]

I was pretty forgiving of most of the design choices made in the first movie, even though a lot of people insisted that it was unacceptable for Duke to wear anything other than a WW2 paratrooper uniform and that it was shameful for the Joes to wear black. Yeah, they looked a lot different from the originals, but I found it acceptable since they are a military unit and it was an origin story. However, there were some things that bothered me, like Cobra Commander's helmet, the mouth on Snake Eyes, and the overall lack of iconic "markers" on most of the characters. Again, I found this forgivable since it was an origin story, and none of the characters had quite become themselves yet, but it left a lot of room for the sequel to make improvements. Here are a couple of suggestions I have (feel free to contribute).

Cobra Commander's hood. I know that with GI Joe 1 they said it was "too KKK," but we'll have a new director now so maybe this can change. I think that Cobra Commander should go back to wearing a small mouthpiece mask like he had as "The Doctor" (including his "doctor" voice, which I though sounded a lot more like CC than the other one), and have the hood draped over it. Unfortunately, in GI Joe Renegades Cobra Commander looks more like The Doctor / Movie!Cobra Commander, so that might just plain be what Hasbro wants the character's modern image to be. I could accept that, since the movie Cobra Commander is more of an evil scientist than a wannabe dictator, but still I'd prefer to see the hood present in some form.

Zartan's look. This one would actually be pretty easy to implement. It's just a hood, which is pretty common if you're operating in a hot / sunny environment, and he doens't even need an actual mask, per-say. He gained the ability to shapeshift thanks to his nanite treatments, so he could simply make the skin around his eyes darker to reduce glare, and it could be in the general shape of his "mask." Athletes use grease markers to reduce glare in this way, too. He's a master of disguise so he's often in disguise anyway, but he's also an assassin and sniper, and when his mission does not involve disguise it would be cool if he sported a slightly more classic look.

Differentiation between uniforms: In GI Joe 1, GI Joe was still a fairly new organization, and even the "veteran" Joes hadn't been there that long. I like the idea that they have some standard equipment and uniform elements that are present in all the uniforms, but if they keep having them wear the same all-black getups from Rise of Cobra it's going to get old fast. Like real-life special forces, it should be implied that Alpha Joes get a bit more freedom in customizing their loadouts and uniforms. Not to the point where you'd have dorks like Bazooka wearing football jerseys, but, for example, their armor might have different camoflauge color schemes, and they might have differen parts of the armor depending on how much mobility they need and which parts of their bodies are going to face more gunfire. Duke might opt for shorter sleeves on his uniform and sand/gravel camo on his torso armor with some additional pouches for carrying stuff, while Heavy Duty might opt for no sleeves at all and have jungle camo on his pants. I'm OK with Scarlett keeping a black uniform since she's a stealth operative (and it looks sexy), and Snake Eyes obviously has to wear black, but for the most part I think a little bit of color and customization could go a long way towards making the uniforms look more individualized.

 

[mr. peasant]

Cobra Commander's hood. I know that with GI Joe 1 they said it was "too KKK," but we'll have a new director now so maybe this can change. I think that Cobra Commander should go back to wearing a small mouthpiece mask like he had as "The Doctor" (including his "doctor" voice, which I though sounded a lot more like CC than the other one), and have the hood draped over it. Unfortunately, in GI Joe Renegades Cobra Commander looks more like The Doctor / Movie!Cobra Commander, so that might just plain be what Hasbro wants the character's modern image to be. I could accept that, since the movie Cobra Commander is more of an evil scientist than a wannabe dictator, but still I'd prefer to see the hood present in some form.

Wouldn't quite work. One of the reasons why Cobra Commander's look was the way it was (as in the actual design, and not just the no hood thing) was because they wanted JGL's face to still be recognisable/visible. This had the benefit of actor recognition and the very valid point that it's very difficult to emote/act in a full mask. This is also why the Phantom's mask in Phantom of the Opera is a half-mask as opposed to a full one. Unlike cartoons and comics, there's only so much one's eyes can do. In live action, Expressive Masks don't exist.

Zartan's look. This one would actually be pretty easy to implement. It's just a hood, which is pretty common if you're operating in a hot / sunny environment, and he doens't even need an actual mask, per-say. He gained the ability to shapeshift thanks to his nanite treatments, so he could simply make the skin around his eyes darker to reduce glare, and it could be in the general shape of his "mask." Athletes use grease markers to reduce glare in this way, too. He's a master of disguise so he's often in disguise anyway, but he's also an assassin and sniper, and when his mission does not involve disguise it would be cool if he sported a slightly more classic look.

But isn't Zartan a master of disguise? It would be a bit of a wallbanger if he had a distinctive look or style to him. I think the way the movie went about it - with his habits and the tune that he whistles as cues - was a pretty creative/intelligent approach in identifying the character.

Differentiation between uniforms: In GI Joe 1, GI Joe was still a fairly new organization, and even the "veteran" Joes hadn't been there that long. I like the idea that they have some standard equipment and uniform elements that are present in all the uniforms, but if they keep having them wear the same all-black getups from Rise of Cobra it's going to get old fast. Like real-life special forces, it should be implied that Alpha Joes get a bit more freedom in customizing their loadouts and uniforms. Not to the point where you'd have dorks like Bazooka wearing football jerseys, but, for example, their armor might have different camoflauge color schemes, and they might have differen parts of the armor depending on how much mobility they need and which parts of their bodies are going to face more gunfire. Duke might opt for shorter sleeves on his uniform and sand/gravel camo on his torso armor with some additional pouches for carrying stuff, while Heavy Duty might opt for no sleeves at all and have jungle camo on his pants. I'm OK with Scarlett keeping a black uniform since she's a stealth operative (and it looks sexy), and Snake Eyes obviously has to wear black, but for the most part I think a little bit of color and customization could go a long way towards making the uniforms look more individualized.

I don't think giving each Joe a distinctive camouflage pattern would be a little silly. It makes much more sense if they wore suits with different patterns according to the mission/environment or if the suits could adapt different patterns accordingly. Plus, Hasbro can sell more toys.

In terms of personalising the Joes' looks, I think the much maligned Sigma 6 had the right idea. While the Joes all wore the same basic uniform, each of them had custom touches in terms of articles of clothings/accessories that they wore that added personality. For instance, Heavy Duty would wear a do-rag and cargo trousers on top of the suit while Duke would sport a tactical vest and cowboy-style double holsters.

 

[cronosred]

I didn't hate Cobra Commander but so much of it felt like a Darth Vader knock-off I really hope they work on his look for the next film and get rid of the enhanced voice.

 

[Timstuff]

BTW, here's how Cobra Commander looks in the Renegades series:

I guess that a look like this could grow on me. It's the big ol' bubble dome over CC's head at the end of GI Joe that I didn't like, and it kind of negates the argument that a hood wouldn't have allowed for enough expression, because the helmet was covering his whole head anyway. Maybe something in between his "Doctor" mask and his "Commander" mask would be the ideal.

 

[cronosred]

Cobra Commander's hood. I know that with GI Joe 1 they said it was "too KKK," but we'll have a new director now so maybe this can change. I think that Cobra Commander should go back to wearing a small mouthpiece mask like he had as "The Doctor" (including his "doctor" voice, which I though sounded a lot more like CC than the other one), and have the hood draped over it. Unfortunately, in GI Joe Renegades Cobra Commander looks more like The Doctor / Movie!Cobra Commander, so that might just plain be what Hasbro wants the character's modern image to be. I could accept that, since the movie Cobra Commander is more of an evil scientist than a wannabe dictator, but still I'd prefer to see the hood present in some form.

I really like your idea.

 

[TheVileOne]

To people that say Cobra Commander can't work - Darth Vader.

 

[zmystico]

To people that say Cobra Commander can't work - Darth Vader.

Yeah but JGL doesn't have a voice like James Earl Jones, even the actual actor in the Vader suit didn't sound intimidating like JEJ does.

 

[mr. peasant]

Precisely. While Darth Vader worked, he required double the talent - a physical actor and a voice actor - to pull off.

 

[TheVileOne]

But that's the point. It could've been better.