"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra": An entertaining summer movie that is pure fun

I don’t think any film has had such a mixed reaction as G.I. Joe has received. During the production of the film news and rumors were very scarce with only a few set pics leaking every now and then.  When the public got its debut look at the film during the Super Bowl there were still some out there that were skeptical about the film despite seeing Snake Eyes doing an insane flip over a car.  News on the movie then went back into stealth mode until midsummer when some distressing rumors came forth that said the movie was a complete mess, tested terribly and that director Stephen Sommers was fired.  Thankfully the rumors turned out to be rubbish and G.I. Joe is probably the most surprising movie of the summer as it’s an enjoyable summer action movie that despite the changes stays true to the G.I. Joe cartoon and comics as it features a stylized world with some wonderful over-the-top action.

G.I. Joe is a live action cartoon. It doesn’t try to be serious or present viewers with an in-depth look at the Joes or the mythology of the world. The film simply gives everyone the basic premise of the characters and what’s at stake and from there it’s straight non-stop goodness.

The basic jest of the film is that a mysterious and tech advanced group is trying to steal 4 nanotech warheads, weaponized nanomachines capable of eating through anything.  After a failed attempt at stealing these warheads is foiled by the Joe's, soldiers Duke and Ripcord soon find themselves in the battle with this mysterious organization and also find themselves as the newest members of G.I. Joe. For Duke this battle isn’t just one to finish his mission of protecting the warheads but it’s also personal as his former fiancée is aligned with this terrorist organization and is now known as the Baroness. Duke, Ripcord and the Joe's soon find themselves in a battle with an enemy that seems to always be one step ahead but no battle is ever too much for G.I. Joe.

The plot for the film is simple but it never tries to be more than it is: a longer version of a Saturday morning cartoon or an elongated version of a video game cutscene.  Unlike "Transformers 2" G.I. Joe doesn’t have any lame romance subplots or sections where the film drags due to boring military banter or comedic segments. The film isn’t anything to write home about as far as the story is concerned but it certainly gets the job done in making the viewer feel like they’re in the world of G.I. Joe, a world where the weapons are huge and powerful and where the heroes and villains have massive underground lairs in Egypt and the Arctic.

Most importantly the movie does an admirable job of portraying the characters. Aside from making the Joe's an international organization with members being of Russian, British and Moroccan descent all the characters stay true to their cartoon/comic counterparts.  The film really doesn’t change things up too much or try to add an extra layer of depth to the characters or mess with their general characteristics.  Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) is still a beautiful and extremely smart while Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is still the go-to man for heavy weapons with the only exception being that he’s British. The actors themselves do a wonderful job with the characters given the script. Channing Tatum does a solid job in the role of Duke despite having a few stiff moments and not exactly living up to the standard gruff leader role. If anything I kind of liked how Duke wasn’t really the standard stereotypical military hero. Instead Dennis Quaid gives us the standard military leader performance with his portrayal of General Hawk, leader of the G.I. Joe unit.  Quaid turns in a nice performance but I wished he would’ve been in an action scene of some sort.  I also expect people to be surprised with Marlon Wayans portrayal as Ripcord. I know most of us expected Marlon to be the comic relief role but that really isn’t the case.  Yes, Marlon does have a few jokes in the film but so do the other Joe's so it’s not the usual stereotypical “comic relief black guy” scenario.  Marlon actually does a nice job of balancing the comedic and action moments with a few of the quieter scenes he shares with Scarlett.

The villains side of the cast is equally well represented in terms of acting and how the characters are portrayed.  Christopher Ecceleston (Doctor Who) does a wonderful job as James McCullen aka Destro and despite not wearing the famous metal mask for the majority of the movie the character is what we know of him to be, a Scottish arms dealer with a penchant for power. Christopher does a terrific job with the role as he has the perfect mix of egomaniacal arrogance and general thirst for power.  Some fans out there may be a tad turned off by how The Baroness (Sienna Miller) is handled as she’s now American and was Duke’s former fiancée. But other than that the Baroness is the tough femme fatale we know her to be and Sienna certainly looks hot in the role as most of her attire consists of leather with push-up support.  The relationship the Baroness has with Duke doesn’t drag the movie down at all nor does it feel too forced.  The moments the two characters have as well as their flashback scenes are probably the only time the movie ever gets really serious or sappy. But these scenes are brief and actually serve a nice purpose to fleshing things out a bit.

Of course how could I forget to mention how the film handles Cobra Commander. The film is of course subtitled "The Rise of Cobra" so we all know it’ll give look at how the insane leader of the Cobra organization came to power.  In that respect the movie may disappoint some since it isn’t really Cobra heavy in terms of origin and of course the final Cobra costume is a bit meh in how it doesn’t really feature any of the core traits we know Cobra to have in his various costume iterations. But aside from the slight misfire in the costume department the character is the absolutely insane and maniacal character we all know and love.  The voice that Joseph Gordon-Levitt uses is just terrific as it has that wonderful Saturday morning cartoon feel and the scene where he finally lifts his breathing apparatus is just priceless due to the look he has and the laugh he uses.  The film could’ve benefited from some more Cobra goodness but I’m sure we’ll get that in the sequel.

On the action side of things the movie doesn’t disappoint in any departments.  The action is fast, intense and most importantly unlike other movies (hi Transformers 2) you can actually tell what the hell is happening on the screen.  Stephen Sommers doesn’t use shaky cam and instead gives viewers a very clear look at the action and actually uses some terrific transition shots for some of the action scenes.  Each action scene in the movie has its own unique feel so it doesn’t feel like you’re just watching the same explosions non-stop for two hours.  The first action scene where Duke and Ripcord’s convoy is being attacked by the Baroness and her squad of Cobra Vipers is an exhilarating scene that really sets the tone for things to come.  The Paris chase scene with the Accelerator Suits is actually one of the best action scenes I’ve seen this year due to how much fun it is from an over-the-top standpoint.  Seeing Duke and Ripcord firing their submachine guns while flipping and dodging over cars is a blast and is something we haven’t seen before. Another thing that’s fun about that scene is that a majority of the cars that get wrecked in that scene are real instead of being CG, and as we all know it’s always more fun to see real stuff get wrecked or blown up in various ways.  The movie caps things off with a very nice underwater battle between the Joe's and Cobra at Destro’s massive lair.  I really can’t recall the last time a major movie had an underwater battle of this scale outside of "Thunderball", a film that Stephen Sommers said influenced him and you can clearly see it.  Even with dozens of ships battling and massive weapons firing off the action is still clearly defined and it’s never of case of seeing tons of motion blur, bunch of objects move around and then seeing a massive explosion.  The action in G.I. Joe isn’t fresh or truly innovative but it’s enjoyable and does an excellent job at giving viewers something that they haven’t really seen before.

Having good special effects backing up the action is always something that is important to any movie.  In the case of G.I. Joe the special effects aren’t stellar but they get the job done. To be perfectly honest there are a few scenes in the movie where the effects look a little shoddy or mediocre but thankfully this isn’t the case with the major scenes.  The Paris chase scene and underwater battle is where the effects shine the most and with the underwater battle having the slight edge in terms of overall quality.  The effects in the film aren’t amazingly stellar or on par with "Transformers 2" but the quality, such as a few Accelerator Suit scenes looking off, never truly detracts from the overall experience of the film so it’ll never be a case of you saying “omg this movie is ruined by the special effects” that is unless you’re an effects snob, which I am, and I wasn’t even turned off by a few of the effects shot that could’ve used more polish or adjustments.

"G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra" isn’t a revolution in filmmaking but it doesn’t try to be. The movie knows it’s based on a popular toy/comic/cartoon franchise and it fully embraces that and creates a wonderful summer action movie that fulfills what it was trying to achieve. The film has a fun and enjoyable feel to it that almost harkens back to the good old days of 80s action movies that kept things simple: the good guys were good, the bad guys were bad and the action was big.  Despite the changes to some of the story and characters the movie is a faithful adaptation of what the franchise is all about and it should please fans of the franchise and action movie fans alike.