G.I. Joe is an action film based on the popular Hasbro toyline of the same name.The film is directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns,Van Helsing) and stars newcomer Channing Tatum as the hero “Duke” and Marlon Wayans portraying his closest friend and ally “Ripcord”. The film also has roles and appearances for a lot of fan favorites from both the Joe’s and Cobra command as Duke and Ripcord serve in the our nation’s military escorting a dangerous warhead until they’re entourage is ambushed and they are attacked by the Baroness and members of Cobra who attempt to steal the warheads but are thwarted by Snake Eyes, Heavy Duty, and Scarlett of GI Joe. They manage to rescue Duke and Ripcord and transport the warheads to their secured base. All events are highlighted even more as Duke manages to recognize Baroness as a figure from his past.
The main premise of the film is that Cobra Command wants to claim the warheads for use toward their terror plots. The warheads are comprised of a new technology that can deteriorate any surface on contact, and also allows for the primary substance within the warheads to expand its coverage at an astonishing rate. Cobra is comprised of a chemically amplified army that lacks fear or pain creating a terrifying legion of foe’s in the battlefield. Leading the legion are Storm Shadow and Baroness who’s expertise in the battlefield actually lead a team to infiltrate directly into GI Joe headquarters and steal the special warheads right out of the Joe’s grip while dealing a devastating blow to key members of the GI Joe crew and leadership. Managing to subject the the mass general public to their acts of tyranny the Joe’s then attempt to counter Cobra’s actions and attempt to recover the remaining warheads and bring a stop to the Cobra command empire.
The cast was full of odd choices to me. Channing Tatum in the lead character role as Duke? Why let a virtual ‘unknown’ lead such an important property as G.I.Joe? Well, after the dust settled it turned out that Tatum actually did a fairly decent job portraying a young-ish officer in the ranks. Of course with movie adaptations come some artistic liberties, and as such the characters and roles are a little different in this film than they were in the 80’s cartoon. Duke starts off as a soldier in the U.S.armed forces and encounters the Joe’s while on tour. His closest friend and ally ‘Ripcord’ is entertainingly portrayed by Marlon Wayans. My initial reaction to his casting is that he might attempt to bring his over the top humor along with him in this film until my senses kicked in and I remembered that this guy is actually a very talented actor. A look on IMDB reveals a few dabbles into dramatic films as well as comedies. Overall the cast was fairly solid, everyone giving decent performances… even if the cast is comprised of mainly Alumni from the Mummy films. Yes, can certainly look forward to a colorful cameo from Mr. Brendan Fraser!
Something that was a bit more than disappointing was the actual special effects found in the movie. The car-chase scene where the Joe’s gear up in special exo-suits in order to attempt to thwart a terrorist attack, and I have to say that those are some mighty cheesy looking outfits when in motion. In this day and age you have to understand… the audience isn’t dumb and have higher expectations than what was presented. After seeing over a decade of consistent improvements to overall 3D films and technology we simply expect more. Cars flail… but awkwardly. They run in the suits… but look like puppets running through syrup? I’m not sure what happened to the budget, but I’m starting to think more going to the effects department would’ve been greatly appreciated!
Walking into the movie I couldn’t help but expect this to be a bad film due to general consensus on the internets. After actually watching the film, I can say that my gut tells me that this was not a great film.I’m not saying the film was terrible, but overall I feel that there were a lot left to desire from a franchise as rich as G.I. Joe. Now don’t get me wrong, this film isn’t terrible at all. There was a lot of the film that I thought was done very well, and a lot that I in fact enjoyed. The cast was enjoyable, and a lot of the action scenes were very intense and I can honestly say that I sat through a lot of that film looking forward to a good ninja fight here and there. Overall, I thought the story was weak. It did a decent job of introducing the characters and Cobra commend terrorist group, but overall the script was weak. I don’t want to cite too many examples to avoid any spoilers, however, I will say that there should not be a scenario where the best scenes in your film are some of those that don’t involve any speaking whatsoever.
Overall, I feel this film was a fairly good attempt at bringing the G.I. Joe franchise to the big screen, and I am definitely looking forward to any future installments into the series.
