G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra Movie Review

August 9th, 2009

3230753295_fba2a243bf G.I. Joe is the true definition of what we call dumb fun. The movie consists of so many cliches that you could play “Name that Movie” during most scenes in the film. Not that I’m saying the movie is very bad or stupid, it’s just well, okay. It is bad but it isn’t as bad as you would imagine.

The movie starts with a flashback of around a generation ago wherein an arms dealer during the medieval era was sentenced to shame for selling weapons on both sides. After that, we get a glimpse of one of the arms dealer’s descendants named McCullen. Sounds like a fast food for firearms if you ask me. Anyway, we now meet Duke and his friend “Ripcord” transporting some high-tech nano-weapon of mass destruction and well the rest of film follows with huge explosions and weird-sounding shockwave based weapons.

The plot is normal at its best. We get a huge twist that you would probably predict the moment you see the “scientist” appear on screen. The movie also relies a lot on flashbacks that well, for some characters explains a lot. The flashbacks of other characters do explain a bit of history but actually just show off how good some kids are in Kung-Fu.

I don’t want to be a stone-hearted critic here but the whole love story angle involving Duke was one of the cheesiest, corniest, and one of the most cliche ways of inserting a love story into an action movie. The whole love story actually kind of ruined one of the characters for me since at first the character seemed so “bad-ass” then after a while turned into a lovesick puppy out of nowhere.

The best moment of the film probably is the whole reason behind the title “Rise of Cobra”. The whole planning stage of how Cobra Commander came to power is extremely enjoyable and really sends that whole shock into your spine. Although the whole thing was predictable, the execution of how it came into fruition was a joy to watch.

As far as movie adaptations go, I have no idea about the G.I.Joe franchise but according to some fans it “ruined” their childhood memories. Don’t get me wrong but aren’t “remakes” or “adaptations” made so that it could be enjoyed by all viewers and not just the fans of the source material? G.I.Joe does that so well that the only recognizable part from this film to the actual source material are the two ninjas who were just there so there could be some high flying kicks and punches. I enjoyed it fairly well. It didn’t look like a “The Village People Movie” like the original cartoon seemed to look like due to the modernization and “sexing it up”.

As for visual effects, this movie disappoints. There were a lot of obvious CGI replacements and unrealistic visual effects. Also, I will stand by my opinion that one of the scenes had a huge “clipping” problem. That means objects abnormally pass through each other. If that wasn’t bad enough, the sound effects also tend to range from plain to just absolutely cartoony. I guess Stephen Sommers wanted to make a movie for his kids rather than the other demographics that actually work to earn money to watch his movie.

All in all, the movie is “okay” at best but never actually does anything special aside from the existence of one of my favorite actors Joseph Gordon Levitt. Levitt lifts the movie from being “yuck” to “tolerable” the moment he appears on screen. Also, if you’ve been following this movie right from the start you’d probably know what his awesome role is. Anyway, compared to Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, G.I.Joe has more plot but the problem is the plot has no reason whatsoever until the ending is revealed. Also, G.I. Joe has so many ideas stolen from other movies as well as themes based on a lot of stories. At least Transformers was the original movie with huge transforming robots.

G.I.Joe: Rise of Cobra gets 3 stars out of 5

[rating:3]

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