G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra marks the second film based on a Hasbro toy line this summer, and I'm happy to report that this one is better than the other one. Why? Well, for two reasons. Firstly, G.I. Joe is forty minutes shorter and secondly, its more family friendly. Still, saying G.I. Joe is better than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is faint praise at best.
Directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing), this take on G.I. Joe is a cartoon come to life–literally. It features Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayons as a couple of soldiers who join an elite military super force in an effort to put a stop to an evil organization hell bent on destroying entire cities with new weapon technology.
I think that's about the gist of it. Truthfully, G.I. Joe is pretty convoluted. There's a lot going on and very little explained. It's mostly things going boom! Actually, watching this film is sort of like watching two seven year olds play with G.I. Joe action figures in a sand box. Furthermore, G.I. Joe is incredibly derivative, shamelessly borrowing from far superior movies like Total Recall and Star Wars. Adding insult to injury, Sommers includes a couple of Mummy cast cameos that are positively groan worthy.
There are a few sequences in the picture that are somewhat entertaining (included; a clever homage to G.I. Joe with kung fu grip), and were I ten or younger, I probably would have been enthralled with the proceedings. As it stands however, I'm older than ten and I had a really hard time getting passed the numerous lapses of logic, the laughably bad dialogue, and the underwhelming special effects.
Tatum is likable enough and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a lot of fun as the mysterious Rex, but overall, this is a really silly movie. Actually, it reminded me quite a bit of Team America: World Police only in this case, I was laughing at the movie instead of with it. Now had Sommers and crew put "America, F*** Yeah" on the soundtrack, it might have taken the movie to a higher level.
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