I decided to go into this movie with my expectations near rock bottom. I expected a mindless, big budget, over the top summer movie. We had an agreement. As long as the thing kept moving, entertained me, and didn’t try and take itself too seriously, I would overlook gaping plot holes and a litany of other ridiculous goings on.
G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra serves as an origin story. Not for the Joes, which has already been created by the start of the movie, but for (as the titled suggests) the Cobra. This prequel-type plot line does, as I’ve mentioned in other reviews, take away much of tension in the film’s plot. Cobra Commander probably isn’t going to die in this one, as the film is called “Rise of the Cobra”. I also just spoiled the movie’s ending for you, at the end of this movie, Cobra will have risen (but you probably guessed that already). I say this because it puts you in the right frame of mind for this movie; it is clearly more about the journey than the destination.
The plot itself is decent enough to keep you entertained, but if you’ve ever watched an action movie like this before, you’re going to see all the twists coming from a mile away. My initial reaction was “Well, a kid would probably enjoy this,” but then I got to thinking about the value of nostalgia. I’m not sure if this movie was directed a kids. Kids today aren’t really familiar with the G.I. Joe series, and so probably weren’t draw to this movie at the outset. This puts us in a weird middle ground, because the movie playing largely upon your nostalgia, but they make a few major changes to series’ (for lack of a better word) “cannon” to make the flick a bit more palatable to the general population. These changes probably won’t sit well with any Joe die-hards, so we’ve eliminated the nostalgia factor. Personally, I loved the cartoon, but I wasn’t ever really obsessed. I never read any of the G.I. Joe comics either, so none of the changes really got me too up in arms. Other than the uber-nerd Joe devotee, most of you will probably be willing to roll with the punches.
In a previous review, I complained that Terminator Salvation suffered from too many in-jokes and series references. However, here I found that that was one of the movie’s biggest strengths. Whereas T4 wanted to be taken seriously, GI Joe knows how ridiculous it is. Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) has a lot of fun with the fan-service and references to the series, and it all fits in rather nicely. It gives the movie such a light-hearted vibe, that you become much more willing to overlook its flaws and just come along for the ride. That being said, I was extremely disappointed that there wasn’t a single reference to either “pork chop sandwiches” or “Mr. Body Massage Machine”. That was prime territory for a shout-out. Then again, bringing internet humor into franchises like this typically falls flat (See: X-3’s Juggernaut jokes), so I can forgive them passing on the reference.
From a character perspective, most of the roles were cast relatively well. Marlon Wayans hits the right notes as the obligatory comic relief, and Channing Tatum seems to be having fun with the release of this role (a welcome change from staring in moving about street fighting or Nicholas Sparks). This movie also features two redheaded chicks. Bonus points for that. From a character development standpoint, some of the characters are given much more backstory than others, all told in “Lost”-style flashbacks as the story progresses. A number of the characters get no story at all though, so I’m going to assume that they are saving something for the inevitable sequel. Still, it felt odd to focus so heavily on some characters while leaving other major characters entirely untouched.
As I said, this movie was definitely intended as prep for potential sequels. However, assuming the rest of the series maintains the easy-going popcorn-movie nature of the first one, I’d probably be down for the ride. I won’t shell out the $10 to see it in theaters, but it makes for some quality lazy Sunday morning fare.
After a hard day of fighting Cobra, I’d buy this movie 3 drinks as a way of saying thank you for taking something fun and enjoyable and not trying to reboot it into a dark, serious, war film. I might even throw in an extra beer if they promised to re-design the Cobra Commander’s outfit before the sequel, it’s just not cool.
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