8. Under Fire?

G.I. Joe's troubles did not end when shooting wrapped.

Buzz on the film began to switch back to negative as the first images appeared and complaints about the accelerator suits seeming two cartoony from fans spread across the web.

Then, this past June, the real controversy began to flare as rumours circulated that Sommers had been ditched.

"After a test screening wherein the film tested the lowest score ever from an audience in the history of Paramount, the executive who pushed for the movie, Brad Weston, had Stephen Sommers, the super hack director of the film fired. Removed. Locked out of the editing room," said one poster on Don Murphy's message board.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura quickly worked to dispel the rumours, effectively debunking stories of trouble in the editing room (where word had it that editor Stuart Baird had replaced Sommers at the order of the studio) and test screenings.

"Everybody was happy, the studio was happy, the filmmakers were happy, the audience was happy with the movie," the producer told Latino Review.

"We had three test screenings, three different times and tested it and each time it just got better and better. We started off in a good place and we ended up in even in a better place, which is what you hope on a film from testing it."

And as for Sommers being fired?

"He did a very good job. The movie tested well and it couldn’t be more false that the studio in anyway did anything negatively to Steve.

"Nothing that doesn’t happen on every other movie, which is that you constantly work and work and work and you make it better and better.

"We had a delay on visual effects so we waited a long time to finish the movie but that’s the only thing.

I don’t really know why that would be interpreting it negatively but I guess it was."

The negative buzz swelled until the first screenings began to happen. And then something changed.

Online critics praised the film as fun and action packed, the very definition of a blockbuster.

As the film prepared to invade cinemas, it's looking less like a mockbuster and more like a successful franchise in the making (and yes, Sommers already has sequel ideas).

Now it has to win the battle of the box office...

Next: Attack!