GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra

I have waited for over 20 years for this live action adaptation to come to the big screen. 20 years of wondering if it would ever happen, and more importantly - how it would look - the creative liberties, the commercial sellout, the need to appeal to kids as well as 30 somethings like myself. How could this film possible be made without the goofy and eccentric characters looking like they stepped out of a 1980's cartoon? The answer is finally in theatres, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Fanboy excitement has been constantly battling my more rational side ever since I heard that this film was going to be a reality. I followed the rumors and news updates from day one and was expecting a mindless action film attempting to break box office records. After all, this is Steven Sommers directing, and he has done little more than special effects action vomit with the Mummy franchise and Van Helsing.

For those who don't know (and knowing is half the battle...) GI Joe is an elite global special forces group where agents have eccentric uniforms, specialties and quirky code names such as "Heavy Duty" and "Ripcord". They also have state of the art technology and a virtually limitless budget. It makes a great 4" tall toy, but some of the coolness is lost in translation to the screen. I never before realized how cheesy the whole concept is, and watching grown men try to act out these characters is kind of sad and shatters some of the innocence of my youth.

I feel about GI Joe even more affectionately than I did for Transformers. And that is why I am being generous with my criticisms. I could not have made a better film than this. It was over 2 hours of non-stop action, and there was minimal filler mixed in with outstanding visual effects and futuristic technological gadgets. It was entertaining as hell, and oh how I envy the 10 year olds who get to see this.

The plot is what you would expect from something like this: [SUSPEND BELIEF] Evil organization (with limitless budget) tries to strike fear into the citizens of the world through nano-biological attack (or something like that) and can only be stopped by this one particular unit of super soldiers. Let's be honest, people won't see this for the plot anyway. The plot is an excuse to blow things up and show off exceptional special effects.

Channing Tatum leads the international cast along with Marlon Wayans, Dennis Quaid, Sienna Miller and many others. The acting is what you expect - most of their work was probably done in front of a green screen anyway. The surprise for me was Joseph Gordon Levitt as Cobra Commander. When I read about the choice to cast him in the role, I was a little perplexed, but he pulls it off fine - even using the trademark voice modulation that fans of the cartoon will recognize and appreciate.

They did a good job with the story in the sense that they covered all of the necessary character development and back stories, but did so briefly - uncovering an incestuous web of brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, girlfriends, etc. It seems like each of the good guys has some hidden connection to at least one of the bad guys, but that's the way that the comics were written, so it works [SUSPEND BELIEF].

The film obviously leaves us with the setup for a sequel (or more) and honestly, there is a lot that they could do with the franchise with an almost endless line of characters and weapons and storylines. [SUSPEND BELIEF]

I can't slam the film too much, because Sommers presented it in a fresh, action-packed and ultimately respectable package. The effects were some of the best I've seen and clearly there was no expense spared. The preliminary budget was set at $170 million, but they could have easily exceeded that, and the number of scenes justified it.

My only real complaint is that the direction during action sequences was unusually jerky, and I do think seamlessly integrating effects so that there isn't that blur to mask inferior visual effects will be the next task of the industry. It will happen, but I understand that the technology is just not quite there yet so I can't knock them too much.

Like I said, I couldn't have done a better job, and I was taken back to a simpler time when it wasn't so difficult to suspend belief. There was an excitement to seeing some of my favorite characters (Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow) on the screen, and although acting, directing and story were all just mediocre, the action and pure summer blockbuster fun carried the film just enough for me. 7/10.