Cobraaaaaaa!!

Just looking at this face, you’d never guess that it’s the face of a man destined to conquer the world, would you? But it is, and so is he. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has just been revealed as the face under the hood of Cobra Commander in the upcoming G.I. Joe feature film.

The raspy-voiced megalomaniacal figurehead of the international terrorist organization known as COBRA, Cobra Commander has long been one of the most revered villains in modern pop culture (amongst men in their 30’s who were once in their very easily influenced  pre-teens during the 1980’s).

For those not in the know, G.I. Joe was one  of the most successful cross-market franchises in the history of paper money. A child would watch the cartoon which contained advertisements for the toys which reminded you to read the Marvel Comic Book. Many a non-comic book reading fan lived by this comic book series until it’s cancellation or until they became bored (whichever came first). The revived series by Devil’s Due is still raking in the cash and delivering a much-loved monthly comic that hits all the right notes for the fans.

Genius.

If the mind-controlling power evident in this marketing project were properly harnessed, you could convince the children of the U.S.A. of just about anything, couldn’t you? Oh wait, I think that’s been done.

Unlike the Transformers film which could lean on special effects to draw in the public, this G.I. Joe feature film is running exclusively on the nostalgia market (one of the biggest and most easily win over demographics ever made… just show a face or image that an audience member recalls from the ‘better days’ and rake in the dough).  So far, the cast consists of a mish-mash of character actors (Ray ‘Darth Maul’ Park as Snake Eyes?) and relative unknowns (Christopher ‘Dr Who’ Eccleston as Destro?), leaving many to wonder what this Frankenstein monster of a film is going to look like.

We’ll have to wait until 2009 to find out.