I swear I heard my keyboard purr when I typed that headline. Those of us who cover weekly box office totals have been in a rut for seven weeks, and like it or loathe it, Dear John gives us something new to talk about.

Despite tepid reviews, Dear John shocked prognosticators by soundly beating Avatar this weekend. Dear John hauled in $32 Million to win the weekend over Avatar, which made an additional $23.6 Million.

I didn’t see Dear John, but I do find it interesting that everyone continues to underestimate the female ticket draw. The book by Nicholas Sparks was very popular, and currently boasts a 4.5 reader’s rating on Barnes and Noble’s web site. Didn’t Hollywood learn anything from New Moon? Rabid female book fans = box office gold.

Side note, I was shocked to receive an email from my very own parents, who have not seen a movie in the theater in over 5 years, sharing that they saw a matinee of Avatar in 3D and loved it. I quote, “We both wanted to live in that forest.”  Um, what?

This coming from a couple who still enjoys dial-up internet. They voluntarily donned 3D glasses because they felt that this movie just had to be seen. I only mention this because this is precisely why the movie has made so much money.  There are people going to see it that don’t ever go to movies, and that is quite a feat.

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Two years ago, there wasn’t much to be said about a film that was only based off of a toy line. Then a dude named Michael Bay came along and changed all that, making over a zillion dollars with two films about robots that change into other things. The movies weren’t exactly rich with story or character development, but they did the source material justice, which is all most fans wanted. One would think that a movie about a secret squad of soldiers would be more believable, but sadly, this wasn’t the case.

There is more than enough source material to play with, given the G.I. Joe toys, comics, and many incarnations of the TV show and Director Stephen Sommers’ other projects including Van Helsing and The Mummy have a decent story and are both relatively entertaining. For this film, however, it felt like Sommers left the passion and creativity he had for his previous films at home when reporting to the set of Joe — which is pretty evident in the first five minutes of the film.

It’s easy to pick on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for its poor dialogue or predictable story because when you force lines like “he’s a real American hero” into a scene, it warrants ridicule. When it comes to the story, it’s predictable because it is a blatant ripoff of another film, when the main villain brainwashes his victims to do his bidding, identified by a small lesion on the neck. It’s also funny how you can call this movie The Rise of . . . when the entire film is lacking in any rising action.

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Last night during the MTV Movie Awards, which we highlighted for you here, they debuted a few new clips from some of the most anticipated movie releases coming up this Summer. One of those clips was this new one from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which we’ve brought you some details about before and are pretty excited about. What can I say, the movie looks cool.

And now, the full length of the footage is available online. In fact, its right there below for you to watch and enjoy. I think it looks kinda cool and maybe you will too. The footage features some of the main characters from the film doing their “Real American Hero” thing including Duke (Channing Tatum), Baroness (Sienna Miller), Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans).

The action looks great and all the actors seem to be taking their roles very seriously — which is a good thing. This could have easily devolved into camp. But so far, it looks like its just a fun, straight up action movie. Thank goodness.

Check out the footage after the jump. The Stephen Summers directed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hits theaters on August 7th.

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We’ve been covering this one for a bit now and are pretty darn excited for it to come out. Well, at least some of us are. Now, over at Empire Online, they’ve got the first look at the brand new international poster for G.I.Joe: Rise of Cobra.

The film, based on the hugely successful line of toys, features Sienna Miller, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum as Duke, the hero who is part of an elite military force that must take down an evil organization bent on world domination: the sinister and mysterious Cobra.

The Stephen Sommers directed film hits theaters on on August 7, 2009. Until then, be sure to check out the full poster after the jump.

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