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Based on Hasbro’s immensely popular action figures, G.I. Joe is the ultimate elite fighting force, engaged in an extraordinary action-adventure matchup of good versus evil! In G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the G.I. Joe team, armed with the coolest hi-tech gadgets and weapons, travels the world from the Egyptian desert to the polar ice caps in a high stakes pursuit of Cobra, an evil international organization threatening to use a technology that could bring the world to its knees. more info
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Fun!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’m one of the rare 30something guys that didn’t really play with GI Joes or watch the cartoon, although I liked the comics (Marvel and Devils’ Due versions), which had a more mature, complicated presentation of GI Joe, so I came into the movie without a strong childhood connection. I’ll split my review into Plot, Characters/Acting, and Visuals/Action.
-Plot: First off, I could not help but notice how much of the plot was pulled from the Devils Due GI Joe comics; the nanomites and Destro’s history are directly from it, which I liked because it added some extra depth. This is not a thoughtful, Dark Knight-esque movie, but a summer action film. Despite that, the plot had some great twists and turns; character histories were also especially good. I liked the Duke/Baroness/Destro/”Doctor” connections, and the Snake-Eyes/Storm Shadow history was well presented. What was best though, was the presentation of Cobra. these are not the incompetents from the cartoon, they are brilliant, clever, and vicious. They actually destroyed the Eiffel Tower for crying out loud! Most action flick villains aren’t that accomplished, so props to them for being successful. There’s also the very nice setup for the sequel that actually got me clapping. The only thing I did not like was confusion about who the Doctor was; I kept confusing him with Mindbender. Sometimes it seems they tried to stuff too much into the film, but overall it didn’t drag.
-Characters/Acting: Getting some good actors helped out with this; Sienna Miller as the Baroness made the movie; she may not have had the accent, but the icy viciousness was there in spades, and makes glasses sexy. I also liked Arnold Vosloo as Zartan, but he didn’t get anywhere near enough screen time; hopefully that will change for the next movie. The ninjas were both perfect. As for Duke, I agree with others that he was pretty flat. However, Duke was always the “good guy” who didn’t really have a personality in the comics, so I partly think Tatum had nothing to work with. The “Doctor” was on the other extreme; the Commander was always like that, but I felt it was done in a way that detracted, so the interactions between Duke and the Doctor were tough to take. There were some good lines too; “Duke wasn’t born, he was government issued!”.
-Visuals/Action: Very nice. The CGI looked pretty good, and the explosions were aweseome; the car chase through Paris was a particularly good one, especially the part with the train. Based on that scene alone, you know chars definitely get hurt in this movie! The nanomites were pretty good. Fight scenes were great, although I felt the Storm Shadow/Snake-Eyes fights should have been better and longer; I actually liked the fight between the kid versions of them better; no holds barred there! The girlfight between Scarlett and the Baroness should go into the Top 5 Best Girlfights of all time, and really shows off how the female chars are some of the most dangerous chars in the movie.
To conclude, GI Joe was an excellent action flick that contained some good plot (better than Transformers 2 anyway), did great homage/respect for the established characters, and some very nice setups. It’s not thoughtful or brilliant, but does make for a good time.
A piece of my childhood taken away from me
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
As any 31 year old male, I have strong emotional ties to G.I. Joe…from the theme song to the PSAs. That being said, I went to the movie opening night, knowing full well that this did not contain the “special sauce” that made G.I. Joe amazing.
I was so upset by this trash getting passed off as a movie, I wanted my money back, my wife’s money back, and an apology from everyone starring in that movie for wasting my time.
My wife said that there were tears in my eyes. This is how upset I was. FIVE MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE.
Did you know in this G.I. Joe alternate reality, that water displaces ice? I wasn’t aware of this, but after watching ice fall to the bottom of the ocean floor, it’s true.
The military uniforms in this movie were obviously changed from real Army uniforms. Nobody in the services wanted to be associated with this movie.
The whole Mindbender/Cobra Commander thing was just…too much. Too much. Too many leaps of faith. And I won’t even comment on the suits. I get it, they went modern, they went hip. But they could have done this so much differently.
Awful. I will not be buying this movie, or the nine sequels that will more than likely be churned out in the next few years.
I loved it, and I thought I’d only like it.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I expected to feel the same way about this movie that I did about the newer Transformers live action movies. Decent mindless fun that isn’t nearly as good or bad as the extremists on both sides claim. Instead I was treated to something that was much better than I expected. I think that it retained just the right amount of nostalgia to feel like it deserved to be called G.I.Joe, while at the same time being updated to modern storytelling. The familiar characters were a delight to watch, especially everyone’s favorite pair of ninjas Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. I really like what they did with the Cobra Commander for this movie too. When it was over, I was left eager to see the eventual sequel and hope they get right on it.
I can’t help it…I loved this movie
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I don’t know what it is yet. I’ve tried to figure it out but so far nothing. I go into these types of movies knowing they could be stupid (Transformers 2) or disappointing (Watchmen). I’m not expecting much…I mean, if I want Oscar performances or something with meaning I’ll got to an art house movie theater and catch something indie.
Whatever the reason, this movie just took me along for the ride and kept me entertained the whole way. Maybe it’s the great action throughout…maybe it’s the awesome marital arts between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow…maybe it’s the toned down hotness of Scarlett and the Baroness (they tease with their beauty, no need for anything excessive here). The movie grabs you with early action and keeps going. The story unfolds with tossed in highlights of the pasts of a handful of the characters so you can understand what’s going on but doesn’t waste any more time than is necessary. Looking for feelings and emotion? The touchy-feelly aisle is over there. This movie’s just here to entertain and keep you guessing in places.
Meanwhile the tech is great even if some of it is infeasible. But even that…I’m a military junkie so when things get out of hand, it’s hard not to notice…here, I didn’t mind it (okay, it was bugging me a bit at the end with the jet but that’s beside the point).
The movie’s a fun ride and gets you there without wasting too much time on boring scenes the director wanted in there for some unknown reason. The plot is actually not bad considering but it’s irrelevant in the end. This is about GI Joe vs Cobra (or what will become Cobra) and you’re here to have fun.
My only complaint about this (I got both Blu-Ray and standard DVD versions, by the way so this applies to both–what can I do, we don’t have Blu-Ray in the living room) is how they started packaging these movies. It used to be that when you saw “2 Disk Set + Digital Copy” that meant you got 2 Disks of content and a digital copy on one of the disks or on a separate disk. Now, they’re still calling it a 2-disk set but the second disk has all of 2, count them, 2 special features (a making of and a sfx doc). Especially with Blu-Ray…the whole idea is the disks include more storage space so you can fit the HD version but also fit a lot of other content.
To me, a film this big deserves the extra content and that needs to include a lot more than two featurettes. Honestly, let me download the digital copy or something and give me more like gag reels, docs on other parts of the behind the scenes stuff. Or else call it a 1 Disk + Digital Copy set and call it a day. Need another disk for the digital copy? Fine, charge me the extra $0.50 it costs to add the disk (including shipping!) and put it in there on a separate disk.
This is like what food retailers do with the reduced size packaging that “looks” like it hasn’t changed but is thinner, taller-but-narrower, or some other deceptive format. It’s obvious greed and is not appreciated, despite the price of the Blu-Ray. If it wasn’t for that, I’d give this sucker a five-star rating (rare for me). If you haven’t seen it and like solid action, grab this in either format.
Terrible, deserves zero stars
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I was truely looking foward to seeing this movie in hopes it followed a recent long list of good action flicks. Wow was I disappointed, this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. This movie had it all (in a bad way), terrible acting, poorly written script, and as someone else mentioned special effects that make Jurassic Park seem state of the art. Stay away from this movie, hopefully they don’t make another one of these, but sadly the way this story goes I’m sure they will.
Paramount …. You Idiots
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Why put the special feature on the same disc as the digital copy??? There is enough room on the Blu-ray disc for everything. Now I have to take out disc one (Blu-ray) to watch the the special features on disc two (dvd). The same thing was done with Hellboy II. Movie on the Blu-ray disc & special features on the digital copy disc (which is a dvd). The dvd nowadays aren’t handled with care as Blu-ray discs, so most dvd’s are scratched or have fingerprints when you take them out of the package.
Why not make a real 2 disc edition on two Blu-ray discs (LIKE YOU DID WITH TRANSFORMERS 2) & have the digital copy separate on a dvd that you can get rid of when it cannot be used anymore. Most of these so called 2 disc editions are just a 1 disc edition with a digital copy that can’t be used after a certain period or after a couple of downloads.
I have to take away stars because of how Paramount handled this release.
Kind of Laughable But a Little Fun
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Okay..the acting was terrible. Especially the lead character who seemed to clench his jaws every time he was in a scene.
The special effects, which I think they had to many for the producers to manage, were almost laughable at times. Have to say that
some of the visual were stunning though. Transformers 2 knocked this one out of the park.
Clearly one of the best movies of the summer.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was shocked after viewing this film that it had received such negative reviews. If you had high expectations like I did, for the summer flick WOLVERINE ORGINS and was sent crashing down, then give this film a try. IT KICKS MAJOR BUTT. There is non-stop action, in many ways it’s like X-MEN meets STAR WARS meets LEAGUE OF EXTRODINARY GENTLEMEN. I was blown away by this film. Are you getting the picture that I actually liked it? First of all for being based on a toy franchise and a cartoon, this film exceeds expectations. It is melodramatic, cheesey in some aspects but when it comes down to it you have to been an idiot to realize that it makes the movie that much more fun to watch. Dennis Quaid gives a very hammed up performance as the commander or general, of the Joes. Everytime he spoke I couldn’t help but smile to myself. The actress who played the Baroness was by far my favorite. For you parents who might be considering this film for your kids. There is some very low mild language. I think the worse that I actually heard or was made to notice is the word p*ssed off. There is an incredible amout of action violence but if you have already let the kids see SPIDERMAN, X-MEN, STAR WARS EPISODE III, then you should feel safe showing them this film. In some aspect I feel that this film could grow to be a cult classic. As far as the storyline, there are actually a few suprises that I did not see coming. I strongly hope that this will get a much-deserved sequel. I will be buying this dvd and actually a few copies more for Christmas gifts. DON’T MISS OUT!!!!
Garbage
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
If you know anything about GI Joe and like it as a child, don’t watch this movie. You will probably be as ticked off as I was. Directors and writers ruin so much these days. If I could rate it lower than what I did, I would have. The guy playing Duke shouldn’t be in any movie. He’s horrible.
A fun action romp that successfully captures the spirit of the original cartoons and toys.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I grew up watching GI Joe cartoons in the early 90′s, when reruns of the Sunbow series would air in the morning and the new episodes from DIC would air in the afternoon. I was crazy about the toys, and managed to amass quite an army back in my heyday. If you’re like me and miss the days of smacking around the iconic 4″ plastic soldiers in the back yard, this movie manages to re-capture that same feeling, but for adults. It’s big, loud, fun, and full of tanks, lasers, terrorists, ninjas, high-tech gadgets and all that good stuff that made us giddy for the show.
That’s not to say the movie isn’t without problems– first of all, the special effects are a very mixed bag. A lot of them look fine, but when they’re bad, it basically looks like a cartoon. Also, even though Channing Tatum certainly looks the part of Duke, the man simply cannot act. Also, Ripcord’s flirting with Scarlett felt completely forced, and his lines sounded like they were written by someone who has never talked to a girl. Also, many fans will probably be disappointed by some of the big changes made to The Baroness in the movie, however I liked Sienna Miller’s performance as her enough that I was willing to accept it. Younger fans probably won’t care about such changes that much, but the hardcore Baroness fans will.
That’s not to say the movie isn’t without some shining performances, though. As I said, Sienna Miller was good as Baroness, in spite of the changes to her character, and aside from Channing Tatum most of the cast ranges from pretty good to great. One of the real standouts of the movie though, was The Doctor / Cobra Commander. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that the movie version very successfully captured the essence of the cartoon version’s voice, but at the same time made it much more imposing and threatening sounding. Of all the performances in the movie, I felt that one was the true stand out.
And of course, with Snake Eyes being my favorite Joe, I have to mention him in here. I thought they nailed Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow pretty much perfectly, and my only complaint was that Snake Eyes was not in the movie more, and that we didn’t get a chance to explore his relationship with Scarlett (which was hinted at, but not elaborated on). Their fight scenes were awesome, and you’d be hard pressed to ask for a better on-screen interpretation of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow without resorting to trivial nitpicking.
Overall, this movie gets my seal of approval. It’s not perfect, but it was better than most of the other big-budget fair I’ve seen this summer. I only saw two movies in the theater twice this year: one was Star Trek, and the other was GI Joe. If you’re a fan of GI Joe, nostalgic about the 80′s, or simply enjoy big loud action movies and military stuff, this movie was made for you.
Terrible Film
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Gave me a vision of what Power Rangers would have been like on crack. Terrible film, poor acting, decent action, poor writing, and the visual effects in many places make Jurassic Park look state of the art.
This movie was a horrible Pile of %#$(
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I don’t Care if you are a child, Adult, Nostalgia GI-Goe guy, this was perhaps the worst action movie you can print a Popular label on.
The Story is basically Guy magically got onto the GI Joe Thing and his Ex-Girlfriend is the Russian girl from Gi-Joe, Except she doesn’t have a russian accent at all. %#$( not even Commander Cobra isn’t in this movie. NO ONE IN THIS MOVIE WAS FROM THE ACTION FIGURES. Trust me, Save your money
Never watched cartoon, but like this for what it is
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I never watched the cartoon as a child or collected the dolls/toys either so I can’t tell you how this movie stacks up compared to past works, what I can tell you is I went to see this movie yesterday not expecting much and was pleasantly surprised at what I did see. I was afraid not having been a fan I would not be able to follow what was going on, however this is more of an origin film and they do a great job of walking noobs like me through it. I had a blast watching this movie from start to finish, and this movie had some of the coolest action sequences I’ve seen this year.
Here is a brief plot synopsis, the movie takes place in the not too distant future where weapons expert James McCullen played by Christopher Eccleston has created a weapon that uses nanotechnology to basically eat through anything including whole cities. He sells four of these warheads to NATO, and Duke played by Channing Tatum and Ripcord played by Marlon Wayans are soldiers in the U.S. army and are tasked with delivering the warheads. During the mission the pair are ambushed by the Baroness played by Sienna Miller, however they are saved by Scarlett played by Rachel Nichols, Snake Eyes played by Ray Park, and Heavy Duty played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje members of a secret black ops group known as the Joes.They are then taken back to The Pit the Joe’s command center in North Africa. Here Duke, and Ripcord convince General Hawk played by Dennis Quaid to let them join the team for this mission as they know the Baroness personally from the past.
The rest of the movie is a battle between the Joes and the double crosser James McCullen and his group of genetically altered soldiers over these warheads. There are some amazing fights in this movie I especially like the scenes with Sanke Eyes who’s like some kind of super ninja and his rival Storm Shadow played by Lee Byung-hun. The whole car chase scene in France was amazing as well. This movie definitely snuck up on my top five movies of the year list, I’m going to give it a 4 out of 5 and would definitely recommend seeing it on the big sreen, to anyone who likes a good action flick.
Yo Jo
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Sure it could have been better. What movie couldn’t be? Where they really went wrong was those space-aged suits that were just too futuristic for my liking. The Storm Shadow/ Snake Eyes conflict was amazing and I can’t wait for Storm Shadow to have his revenge. Where was Snake Eyes’ dog? The baroness is a goddess and I hope to see more of her in an evil role again. This movie really sets things up for the next one when (SPOILER) Cobra Commander takes control of Cobra and delivers the pain. GI Joe is action packed.
Absolutely nailed the GI Joe concept
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The original series (yes I am that old) was a big toy commercial, and it was always about the vehicles and a big battle at the end.
When I first saw the trailer I said “WOW that looks awesome!” and when I saw it in the theater I was totally pumped the whole time. People who complain about the acting or the CGI are seriously deranged. Its a movie based on a glorified series of toy commercials…gimme a break. I thought everything was perfect, especially Snake Eyes. His entrance scene was spectacular. The power suits were cool, and weren’t over used. There was lots of cool vehicles, and all of the characters were developed and brought to life. I admit that it should have been obvious, but I was surprised by the ending.
This is what Transformers should/could have been if someone at some point had realized that giving it to a director with no talent might lead to a piece of gutter garbage.