Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Grade: B

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a movie based on a toy line and TV show, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. The movie mostly centers around two characters, Duke and Ripcord, who are set with the task of protecting and delivering a case if stolen war heads that contain a new advanced technology of nanobots that destroys all in it's path (similar to the G.O.R.T from the new Day The Earth Stood Still) until a killswitch is activated. They are ambushed by a woman known as the Baroness. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by a covert team of elite fighters known as G.I. Joe and help protect the case. They are them put through rigorous training and testing in order to join the group. At this point the warheads ends up being stolen by the Baroness and her troops. It is discovered that she works with arms dealer James McCullen and that he has plans to use the warheads on heavily populated cities. As the G.I. Joe team goes from the states to Paris to the north pole in order to stop them from using warheads we learn about Duke and the Baroness' past and we see the rise of a group known as Cobra.

I would like to start by saying that after some rumors I had heard and some problems I had read about during the production of this movie, including a little bit about the script being rushed in a couple of weeks so the movie could go into production during the writer's strike, that my expectations were very low for this movie. Good news is this movie really surprised me and turned out to be a fun summer popcorn movie. There were some really corny parts and some very dumb lines (the Baroness complementing a woman on her shoes as she's shooting her gun trying to get people to exit a building) and some kind of ridiculous parts but overall it was fun and the action was good. This movie is loaded with CGI and special effects which both made the movie interesting and kind of hurt it as well as they weren't always the best effects.

I am also glad that the "accelerator suits" weren't used that much in the movie. These suits look like Iron Man rip offs and were one of the dumber parts of this movie.

Channing Tatum (She's the Man, Fighting) played the role of Duke. He's not the best actor, actually he's really not that good at all, but he looks the part so oh well. Marlon Wayans (Little Man, White Chicks) plays Ripcord, the comic relief who just won't stop hitting on Scarlett who seems to have no interest in him. I guess since Ripcord is the "comic relief" this casting was ok but I still can't believe Marlon Wayans tried to do action. Dennis Quaid (Vantage Point, In Good Company) plaed the role of General Hawk, the leader of team G.I. Joe. The movie also featured Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Heavy Duty, Christopher Eccleston as James McCullen, Sienna Miller as the Baroness, Rachel Nichols as Scarlett, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as "The Doctor", a quick appearance by Brendan Fraser and Ray Park as Snake Eyes, easily the best part of the movie.

If you want a good action flick and don't really care much about acting or plot go see this movie, as I said before it is just a fun summer popcorn movie.

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