G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra [Blu-ray]

 

 

Create your own review

Ordered the item back in December, and it still hasn't been shipped. I don't understand why it's taking so long, usually Amazon is really good, but on this occation I'm completely disappointed.

I am a hardcore GI Joe fan, but only Real American Hero and its continuations. As such I am very critical of some of the liberties taken with the characters in this movie, but in the end I was pretty satisfied with the movie. Read on!

Rise Of Cobra is interesting in that Cobra and its commander don't really exist for most of the movie. Instead, Destro and his M.A.R.S. organization are the heavies, with some support from the beautiful Baroness Anastasia DeCobray, the ninja Storm Shadow, and Zartan the master of disguise. Thus, this movie chronicles the rise of Cobra Commander and his terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

It is the "near future". The original Marvel comic as written by Larry Hama was based on actual military tactics, history, and machines, while enhanced with lots of futuristic touches such as laser cannons and Jump-jet packs. This movie updates the franchise for the new millenium. New technology here include nanomites, accelorator suits, and other gadgets. Yet even so, updated versions of classic vehicles such as the Night Raven jet and V.A.M.P. jeeps appear. Basically, just as GI Joe was futuristic for the 80's, this is futuristic for the now.

The acting here is bad bordering on terrible. This Channing Tatum guy can't act at all. Dennis Quaid pours the cheeze-wiz on every line of dialogue that General Hawk delivers. Marlon Wayons (Rip Cord), Rachel Nichols (Scarlet), and Sienna Miller (Baroness) are passable. The heavies tend to get the best roles and the best actors: Arnold Vosloo (Zartan) steals every scene he is in, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is surprisingly serpentine as Cobra Commander. Christopher Eccleston is good as the Scottish arms dealer Destro, just menacing enough while also dignified and cool. Also, it's nice to see Jonathan Pryce in anything.

The direction, by that hack Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) is gawd-awful. He throws awkward flashback scenes in frequently with no real sense of flow. Check out The Watchmen for how to effectively do a flashback. His action scenes are pretty damn exciting, but you get a sense that a better director could have provided some more fluidity.

I'll give you an example. The climactic sword fight between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow is decent, and Ray Park of course is the best at what he does. However, when you compare what he does here as Snake Eyes to what he did as Darth Maul, it's underwhelming. That's because the director doesn't know how to shoot a scene like this, that should be an epic monumetal battle.

And speaking of Darth Maul, what's with the blatant Star Wars ripoffs? "Stay on target! Eject!" Double-bladed sword fights, taking place in a room that looked a hell of a lot like like the one in Phantom Menace?

And what's with Brendan Fraser's cameo? Did he ever speak more than 4 words in a row, or was he basically just grunting?

Anyway, if you can ignore these quibbles what you have here is a sci-fi action film with some cool gimmicks and is very enjoyable. The die hard Marvel fas get a Larry Hama cameo, as well as nice touches like Breaker chewing some bubble gum and General Hawk in a wheelchair. Even Storm Shadow's fate echoes back to what happened in the Marvel series, and I can't wait to see it play out in the next movie. Even though I think Snake Eyes taking a vow of silence is beyond stupid.

DVD special features are pretty scarce even on this 2-disc edition. There are no deleted scenes so, unfortunately, I am certain that some sort of deluxe edition is coming. That scene from the trailer when Destro asks, "What did you say your unit was called again?" and Hawk responds, "I didn't," isn't in the movie. There are definitely scenes out there that didn't make the cut. You get the audio commentary track with the entertaining Sommers (I may not like his work but that doesn't mean I don't like him as a person) and two featurettes. I think this lack of extras is a bit of a ripoff and I could care less about the digital copy.

This movie is obviously the first of a franchise (Dennis Quaid is signed to three films) and it really whets the appetite for the next film. There's even a cliffhanger/teaser ending. You only really get to know five or six Joes so I'm anxious to see who will depicted in the next film. My personal wishlist includes Stalker, and I hope Major Bludd shows up too.

If you're a fan of action films and you don't care about acting or realism, you'll dig GI Joe. If you're a diehard like me, you'll love seeing some of the toys you owned flying around on screen. I would say that GI Joe was a more successful adaptation than the dreadful Transformers films.

Three stars. Very flawed, but acceptibly entertaining.

When military partners Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) get involved in the super covert ultra team G.I. Joe thanks to botching up supervising the delivery of nano-mite war-heads on behalf of the US Army, they join the team to try and track the war-heads down before they're unleashed on the world. To make things even more difficult for Duke, his ex-girlfriend, Anastasia "Ana" DeCobray (Sienna Miller), also the "Baroness," is part of the team responsible for stealing the nano-mite war-heads, and he is torn between trying to figure out what happened to her and also doing the right thing not just for his country, but for the whole world.

Yet Duke and Ana aren't the only ones with a past. Opposing ninja warriors Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) go back to when they were children and trained under the same sensei. It wasn't until a tragic event in their youth drove the two apart, only to meet now, years later, and settle their conflict once and for all.

With only the safety of the world resting in the hands of the best of the best of the best, team G.I. Joe has their work cut out for them as they try to save the world from the rising C.O.B.R.A.

This movie is lightning. Seriously. Right from the first minute straight through to the last this sucker moves at breakneck speed with non-stop action, fireballs, lasers, bullets, super-powered armor, kung-fu, car chases, car crashes, aerial battles and a whole ton more.

It's been awhile since I've seen a movie where I felt like I was moving at the speed of light and G.I. Joe delivers that in spades. I went in expecting an action movie. I got it. I went in expecting a military movie. I didn't get that but instead got something between the Avengers, Desert Storm and James Bond. It didn't feel like an army movie and for that I was thankful because, though I like history and military fiction, I have a hard time watching army movies. Don't know why. Just can't get into them. Also, all that olive green is nauseating after a while. Thank goodness that stupid color is absent in G.I. Joe. They wear black, thank you very much.

The overall plot was cool. The problem was the pace. It was just way too fast. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the flashback sequences throughout the movie and even the fact the movie starts off in 1641 instead of the present day. More specifically, I was impressed the flashback sequences didn't happen to just one character, but to several, each segment adding to that character's history and giving us something more than a man or woman with an agenda. We actually get to understand their motivations because we get to be there with them and see how they came to be what they came to be.

There was something else I had a hard time buying, but I'll leave it there because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it yet.

In the end, this film delivered a lot and truly embodied the idea of "rise of the cobra." There was origins galore, the ones not mentioned above being Destro and the Doctor. There will no doubt be a sequel because there's obviously way more story to tell.

Rating this film was tough because there's no way to be critical of it without coming off unfair. I mean, really, the effects were 5 out of 5. No challenge there. The explosions alone were awesome never mind the Eiffel Tower falling, the nano-mite green mist effect, those blue electro pulses--craziness. The story? Well . . . how's 3 sound? Yeah? Okay. Tell you what: I'll meet you halfway and we'll settle on 4. Cool? Cool.

Oh and one more thing . . .

Go Joe!

A.P. Fuchs

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 7 customer reviews...

 

4.0 out of 5 stars solid movie. thoughtful plot.
not super in touch with the original series, but gets good marks. excellent use of some of the characters. Read more

Published on May 11 2010 by Dr. Scott K. Moffat

5.0 out of 5 stars Non Stop!
GI Joe had all the makings of another boring remake of a classic TV show- The cliched bad guys, the hot chicks, good vs. evil battles, etc. Read more

Published on Nov 25 2009 by Foreverwolf

3.0 out of 5 stars Why the huge price difference in Canada?
I love Blue-Ray films and agree that piracy is not a good thing so why is Amazon charging an excessive amount for a Blue-Ray DVD that sells on Amazon US for $19.99? Read more

Published on Nov 17 2009 by Blue-Ray Fan

4.0 out of 5 stars "Would you look at that? Real American heroes..."
Short attention span summary (SASS):

1. GI Joe goes global, hi-tech and impossibly awesome
2. Read more

Published on Aug 21 2009 by Amanda Richards

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 7 customer reviews...

Search Listmania!