Rating of
4/4
Review - G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
Delorted - wrote on 12/15/09
Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is how you adapt a toy line. Bratz? Transformers? Horrible movies alike. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, however, doesn't just get it right, but rather they excel at something no one thought was possible: a really awesome adaptation of an already established toy franchise. Wow, that's rather specific, but regardless, this is what I'm here to review.
In a top secret military base in a top secret location work several top secret world government officials doing top secret things to defend the world from top secret forces. Their current mission: Stop a new group of terrorists known as Cobra. Our story centers around two soldiers who are unwittingly recruited into the fight after a rather messy weapon retrieval operation by Cobra goes sour.
This is by far one of the most entertaining action films I have seen in a while. The whole film is pretty much non-stop action, and the effects are surprisingly very well done. Aside from one very odd scene involving a school of fish, the computer generated effects are very believable, even if at times the Joes in their enhancement suits do sort of move like Spider-Man. There are some great moves and some really awesome ship battle sequences, one of which involves one of the most unique, awesome transitions I've ever seen in a movie.
The film does really falter when it comes to the script. The story is great, and the characters are fleshed out, but in order to explain the characters they use several flashbacks throughout the film. They're a big distracting in the way they are done, but they never last too long and the flashbacks themselves are rather interesting. There are some points at which the dialogue is pretty bad, but not enough to bring the film down any points. While the film does end rather open-endedly, it's just so awesome that I would graciously accept a sequel.
One quick thing I have to mention is the blatant stereotyping throughout the film. It's not too harsh, but it is obvious. The two lead females in the film both act very stereotypically like women when the occasion calls for them to act a bit more professionally. I don't mean anything against women by this aside, I just think a woman complimenting another woman on her shoes during a chase scene is sort of uncomforting, no matter how much it's played up for laughs. I also found it annoying that they would design the women's armor with Batgirl-esque breasts on the chest instead of just making the suit fit them efficiently without trying to make it fashionable. I mean, I get why the producers wanted that, but really, it's unnecessary. All of this can be overlooked anyway because the rest of the movie is just so awesome.
The people who made this film were able to take a toy franchise that went from being the male equivalent of Barbie to the rather effeminate male equivalent of something like Transformers, and made into one really awesome toy selling machine. If there's a sequel in the works, you know I'll be ready for it. Go Joe!
FINAL VERDICT: 4.5/5
