The current trend in sequel box office returns is tied to perception. Gone are the days of diminishing returns as a rule, these are the golden times for franchises. How the general public feels about the franchise is now king, and the thing about feelings are, they can be changed.

Case in point, GI: Joe: Retaliation.

The franchise had a below average first film that left a sour taste in the mouths of cinema-goers. It did have a strong opening weekend and final total gross so a sequel was inevitable, but something had to be done to ensure the public perception didn’t bury the new film before it had a shot.

Warming the hearts of movie executives everywhere, GI: Joe Retaliation proved that franchise perception can be fixed and sequels to poorly received films have a shot to come out as strong as its predecessor without waiting on word of mouth or reviews to set in.

Hey all! As I am sure some of the regular readers of The Flickcast have noticed, my favorite part of the Con season is taking pics at them. Unfortunately, due to some professional responsibilities, I was only able to get down to one day of WonderCon this year.

But because my time was limited, I didn’t waste it on panels and the like. Instead I hit the floor with camera in hand and got as many pics of the Wondercon sights as I could.

While WonderCon doesn’t have the size of San Diego or New York Comic Con, the fans there weren’t any less fervent with their cosplay love. This year I saw a lot of new and original costumes I had not seen before. While a pimped out Boba Fett was present, I also saw for the first time Paper Mario as well as a group of female X-Man villains. Alongside the working R2 units, there was a life sized Wall-E that sadly the picture doesn’t do justice as it captured all of the personality of the movie and brought it to life in front of us all.

Yes, the first G.I. Joe was pretty to look at, but dumb. Much like its star. Of course, even if it was not everything it could have been, the gang at Paramount must be an optimistic bunch and so, there’s a sequel on the way.

This time the movie is called G.I. Joe: Retaliation and it stars Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis and Jonathan Pryce in a story featuring COBRA’s infiltration of the U.S. Government and the Joes saving the day.

It’s directed by John M. Chu and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Those are some pretty accomplished people, maybe this won’t be as bad as we think? Maybe.

At any rate, there’s a new trailer for the movie for you to check out. Look for the movie itself to arrive on March 29, 2013.

Check out the trailer after the break.

Fan films or, in this case, fan series, are often hit or miss. Sometimes, they can be something really special and show the fans love and support for the material. Other times, they can just be embarrassing to all concerned.

Fortunately, this new one we’ve recently found, G.I. Joe: Initiate, falls into the former category. In other words, it’s not an embarrassment.

On the contrary, it’s a well put together piece full of fun action and obvious love for the characters and history associated with the franchise. In truth, this comes across a lot better than recent big budget GI Joe movies have.

Check it out after the break. If you like it, head on over to the filmmakers website and give their sponsors some love. They’ll appreciate it.

When we heard that GI Joe Retaliation was pushed back to May 2013 we were bummed. The trailers did a great job of getting everyone excited about a new GI Joe film, which is a minor miracle in and of itself. The original word was to do a ‘proper’ 3D post convert, which kinda sounded like BS, and it turns out it was.

Deadline is reporting that mediocre to poor test screening results and cold feet from killing off the first film’s star Channing Tatum in the first act are the principal reasons for the delay. Which is funny, because one of the aspects that fans were rallying behind with the new film was the balls to kill of the characters that didn’t work in the first film.

Now we are in an odd place. On the surface, this can be seen as a good move, allowing the filmmakers time to make better a film that many of us were looking forward to. On the other hand, if this is all the work of the studio who wants nothing more than to shoe horn a rising star into a franchise that he already proved ill-equipped to lead, we may have lost something fun.

No one will know for sure until next May, but at the very least this film will go down as an interesting what if moment in film.