G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra | Review
‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’ is an “average joe.” It’s a typical summer-blockbuster film, and certainly isn’t anything to rave about, but it’s a surprisingly fun and entertaining crappy film.
Directed by Stephen Sommers (‘The Mummy’, ‘The Mummy Returns’), ‘G.I. Joe’ stars Channing Tatum as Duke, the main character, and a typical soldier. Duke and his right-hand man, Ripcord (Marlon Wayans), end up getting ambushed early on in the film by a mysterious group consisting of The Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun). Duke and The Baroness somehow know each other, but before we find out how, Duke and Ripcord suddenly receive backup from the G.I. Joe. General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), one of the leaders of the Joe’s, explains that “when all else fails,” they [the G.I. Joe] don’t. Upon learning about G.I. Joe’s, Duke and Ripcord request to be a part of the group.
The plot involves nanotechnology-weaponry, and how the “Cobra” group, which is what The Baroness and Storm Shadow are part of, plans to use them for something like taking over the world. The plot gets very messy and convoluted in the middle. Why the Cobra group had to test one of their nano-mite missiles in Paris was never made clear, though it did pave the way for a cool chase and interesting special effects. The Parisian scene demonstrated the G.I. Joe’s power-suit of some sorts, and seeing the main characters using them on screen was pretty cool. This scene is probably the most interesting action scene in the film, all the others are just okay.
The film boasts a star-studded ensemble cast that, even though some are mediocre, make the film more entertaining and bearable than it should. Channing Tatum’s character is “meh” (c’mon, he acts the same exact way in every film he’s in, like ‘Step Up’ and ‘Dear John‘), but Marlon Wayans is great for comedic effect. Sienna Miller plays up her character very attractively and badass. Ray Park’s and Lee Byung-hun’s rivaling characters were interesting and fun to learn about (there were many flashbacks) and their charcters were cool. Dennis Quaid has a small role and he did fine – a typical Dennis Quaid character. Brenden Fraser received a small cameo, too. Of all the actors in ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’, I was most excited about Joseph Gordon-Levitt (‘(500) Days of Summer’, ‘Inception‘) being involved. Gordon-Levitt doesn’t have much screen time in the film, but he has a somewhat interesting role that becomes more apparent near the end of the film. Many critics praised Gordon-Levitt’s performance in the film, and though I also like him a lot, I didn’t see anything to praise about. Gordon-Levitt’s character was supposed to be a “surprise” in the film, but it wasn’t much of a surprise to me, and his portrayal of this character is nothing special.
Overall, ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’ is just an average summer-blockbuster film with okay special effects, okay acting, and a cheesy script. The film is very childish and cartoony in the same sense as ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen‘. However, ‘G.I. Joe’ is much better than ‘Revenge of the Fallen’, shorter, more fun, and more charming. Both are adaptations of Hasbro products, and both are good to watch just for fun.
