G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra

The movie opened up very well with an excellent intro action set piece as Duke and Ripcord fought to save their “package” from an attack by the Baroness and her henchmen. Duke and Ripcord are soon saved by the current members of G.I. Joe (Snake Eyes, Heavy Duty, Breaker, and Scarlet) and brought to their secret underground Egyptian base, The Pit. They soon learn of this secret military special forces unit and want in, thus leading to battles with what will soon be (in the sure thing sequel) the evil terrorist organization of Cobra.

What worked for me in the movie was the devotion to the core concept of G.I. Joe, about a group of the best of the best of the best who all have their unique talents to bring to the team. The tech and gadgetry that stood out in the G.I. Joe comics, cartoons, and toys was thankfully present as well. I loved the character design of Baroness, which seemed very true to the original source material (besides certain plot points which I’ll get in to), Storm Shadow, and especially my favorite character of the series and toys, Snake Eyes. He was the last G.I. Joe character I bought… a conscious moment as a fifteen year old boy who had fought maturity for as long as he could, only to allow himself just one more treasure of youth. I also enjoyed the backstory of McCullen, who will soon become Destro, as well as Zartan, who I know will be the ultimate badass in the coming sequel.
Lastly, my one main grievence with this movie. The special effects.

People will no doubt compare this G.I. Joe movie with Transformers. And in the end, both original movies have their good points and equally bad points. But the one clear factor that makes Transformers stand apart from this G.I. Joe is that the effects were so much better and damn near photorealistic. In G. I. Joe, they’re just not. Stephen Sommers is known for directing features that have lackluster CG (“Van Helsing”, “The Mummy”) and he continues this trend. In the end it hurts the movie. With Transformers, despite a few terrible screenwriting choices, you could walk out and say, “Who cares because the effects were groundbreaking.” Not so here.

In some ways, I wish Michael Bay would have directed this first G.I. Joe movie. He has the American military in his pocket and shoots military vehicles so well. I understand that G.I. Joe is high tech however fans will remember that the original cartoon and toys had real life interpretations of real military vehicles. They had tanks, F-16s, Cobra helicopters, and Cobra even had the A-10s. If you go back and look at the way Michael Bay shot the military portions of the Transformers movies, THAT’S how it should have been done with G.I. Joe. There are plenty of lesser known experimental aircrafts that could have been used for the production as well. However, sadly enough, we’re stuck with sometimes sub-par CG representations.
The little things need to be fixed as well for the sequel. They have to get rid of those lips on Snake Eyes. The character designs for Cobra Commander need retooling (stick with the blue hood damnit), as well as for the Cobra soldiers. The fight sequences between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were great, but could have been so much more memorable if only Sommers would have pulled the camera back so we could see these duels ala The Matrix and Ray Park’s (he portrayed Snake Eyes) Darth Maul final sequence in Episode One of Star Wars. Pull back Mr. director. Pull the camera back for those fight scenes! The best fight scenes were between the young Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Those fight scenes were shot with wide angles where you could see each and every brutal move.

Overall, the movie was a good start to a hopeful eventual franchise. It reminded me of the very first X-Men. That’s the best comparison I can come up with. The first X-Men had lackluster effects at times and a subpar story, but they got enough right (Wolverine, Professor X, Cyclops, Magneto, etc.) that allowed a sequel, which really pulled it off. Even some of the story elements are similar with Duke being saved by G.I. Joe (Wolverine was saved by the X-Men) and an imposter posing as a political figure when Zartan took over as the president in disguise (In X-Men, Mystique does the same as a senator).