Review of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) by Ola G — 01 Jan 2013

In the near future, weapons master James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) has created a nanotech-based weapon capable of destroying a city. His company M.A.R.S. (Military Armaments Research Syndicate) sells four warheads to NATO, and NATO troops led by American soldiers Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are tasked with delivering the warheads. Their convoy is ambushed by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), whom Duke recognizes to be his ex-fiancee Ana Lewis. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Breaker (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). They take the warheads to The Pit, G.I. Joe's command center in Egypt, and upon arriving rendezvous with the head of the G.I. Joe Team, General Hawk (Dennis Quaid). Hawk takes command of the warheads and excuses Duke and Ripcord, only to be convinced to let them join his group, after Duke reveals that he knows the Baroness. McCullen is revealed to be using the same nanotechnology to build an army of soldiers with the aid of the Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), planning on using the warheads to cause panic and bring about a new world order. The G.I. Joe Team need to stop McCullen and the Doctor before it's too late...

Based on the Hasbro toy G.I Joe, we get a pretty modern and violent live version of the concept. A popcornish blow em' up movie with pretty stiff and maybe a bit "boring" characters. The effort of the movie is put in the action, explosions and violence and nothing else really. In a way I kind of like this live action version of G.I. Joe (even if we in Scandinavia don't have the same relation to the toy as people have in the US), but I did see parts of the animated version in the late 80s. I reckon a big minus is the casting of Tatum and Wayans, two actors with not that much of a acting register, thus the main characters become almost too cartoony. But, then you have characters such as Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes that balances out the less intriguing characters. "G.I. Joe - The Rise Of The Cobra" is pretty much straight forward over the top cartoon action, thus you get what you expect. Nothing more, nothing less.