When a Main Character SUCKS. . .

*spoiler alert* if you even care. Things get blown up. Bad guy gets caught.

Last week, the entire family, including kiddo, went to see GI JOE: *deepens voice* Rise of Cobra in the theaters. I knew it would be a good blowing things up kinda movie, but I was heartily disappointed in the main character of Duke.

I should have been warned by the rating in our local paper--two out of four stars--and the comment that Duke was generic so fans can imprint their own memories on the character. Uh, reviewer left out 'two-dimensional', 'contrived', 'cardboard', and 'lacks motivation' along with generic. Now, as much as I'd love to totally blame it on the actor (sorry, dude, can't even remember your name and don't care enough to look it up), I can't. Not privy to the way movies work, I do know all characters are a combination of screen writer's words, actor's interpretation, and director's vision.

And all three of them sucked with Duke's character, or lack of.

As a movie whole it was a good movie, BUT (there's always a but, isn't there?) without the secondary actors it would have totally sucked pond water. I think this movie got away with something that a book couldn't do.

--Have a main character whose basic motivation was missing or simply not strong enough. Granted, I haven't read every book out there, so there are probably likely candidates that I'm unaware of.

I didn't get it. The whole reason behind the problem of Duke and The Baroness (evil female who was engaged to Duke) was because he promised nothing would happen to little bro.
--IT WAS A WAR ZONE, people! Even the stupidest person on the planet knows he had no control over that type of promise.
Duke then goes to the funeral, but doesn't say anything to his fiancee.
--This is so soap opera that it is ridiculous. Just talk to her, idiot. Yeah, this is the 'contrived' part of the equation.
Then we find the fiancee boo-hooing in her sleep and she gets injected by some sort of nanobot thing. Later, we discover bro alive and making these nano thingamajigs, SO how much time has passed since the funeral? No idea, but they make it seem like months and not the years it would need to be.

Sorry, got side tracked. Duke sucked. The 'romance' and back story with the Baroness sucked, though I liked the hard-ass Baroness character. Ripcord, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes and the General were the best of the movie. Liked the romantic subplot between Ripcord and Scarlet. Liked the internal conflict between Snake Eyes and his evil counterpart (forgot his name).

I certainly hope they give Duke more of a personality for the next movie. And will there be a next one? Hell, yeah, they set it all up neat and purty-like.

But the only other thing I can offer is this . . . Do Not Write A Cardboard Character in your stories, unless you want your readers to make your book fly.
--Uh, and not in a good way, especially when it hits the other wall and you realize the publisher was cheap with the glue and an explosion of paper pages litters potential reader's living room. Yeah, quickest way to lose your following. Jus' sayin'.

Write on!