I’m not even sure where to begin with this movie. From the very beginning you knew it was going to be interesting because of the giant Hasbro logo projected on to the screen. You are reminded from the start that this was nothing more than a 30 minute toy commercial back in the 80s. Never the less, I really wanted to like this movie. And for the most part I did enjoy it inspite of several groan worthy scenes. The dialoge was bad. The action was great. The story was beyond thin. Did I mention the action was great?
Honestly the action sequences are the only good thing about this movie, which is good since it’s supposed to be an action movie. But it didn’t completely pull off being a GI Joe movie. While the characters were a mismatch of skills and training, like the cartoon, everyone looked the same. There were no cool different costumes to distinguish people. They all wore the same black body armor that could easily have been in any other action movie. The fight choregraphy was very well done though I found it hard to believe anyone could move easily in the costumes. The weapons were very cool, even if there were no red and blue lasers. It was pretty fun watching the different ways the Vipers got killed. And the fact that they killed at least one Joe was something which did put the movie ahead of the cartoon.
Over all I would wait to rent this one night when you have nothing else to do. Or maybe check it out at the dollar theater if you really want to see it on the big screen. If you really want to watch a good GI Joe movie, check out GI Joe: Resolute on cartoon network or DVD when it’s released. It’s what The Rise of Cobra should have been.