For the longest time, I defended this movie. I was really excited to see a GI Joe movie, that I just went along with it. But now, almost a year later, having seen and heard all the facts, I've just gotta say, it stunk. Admittedly, it wasn't horrible, and there were a few things about this movie that I enjoyed, but overall, this movie was a real disservice to the franchise I loved as a kid.
In the movie, the NATO-funded organization MARS Industries, led by wealthy arms-dealer James McCullen XXIV, develops a set of warheads loaded with metal-eating nanomites, a perfect weapon of mass destruction. When the covert military organization GI Joe hears about this and learns that MARS is a front for the terrorist organization COBRA, they set out to stop them and, along the way, recruit two new members, Duke and Ripcord. That should about sum up the plot.
Now, I could nitpick this movie to death, and I have, but the main problems of this movie boil down to 3 things:
1) Not enough GI Joe references: The movie may call itself GI Joe, it may have the GI Joe team, Cobra, the Pit and several characters named after GI Joe characters, but this movie does not resemble the GI Joe series at all. And I don't know how much this matters to anyone else, but it bugs me: the catchphrase, "Yo Joe!" only appears once in the whole movie. It's at the very end and spoken by a British guy. For this reason, or maybe some other reason entirely, it just doesn't sound right. And that really annoys me! Now, maybe if they called it something else, like Team America or Anti-Terrorist, Inc., maybe it wouldn't have been as bad, but they called it GI Joe which makes us compare it to the GI Joe franchise, and as far as I'm concerned, the two are unrelated. Just call it something else.
2) A poorly written story: The plot makes absolutely no sense. The focus of the story, the warheads, are not explained enough to be an interesting plot point. The movie jumps around too quickly from on location to the next, which is just confusing. In addition, the movie is advertised as an origin story and we don't see an origin for either GI Joe or Cobra.
3) The director is unfamiliar with the source material: That's right. When I heard that Stephen Sommers was going to be the director of GI Joe, I knew that the movie was in good hands, there was no way they could screw this up. Needless to say, I was really confused with the final product. And then, I learned that Sommers had never even heard of GI Joe prior to making this movie.
...
Are you freaking kidding me?!
Well, it certainly shows.
But for all my complaining, there were a few good things about it. The action scenes were the highlight of this movie (except for the Pit scene). I loved the accelerator suits. Most people argue that the Joes don't have Iron Man armor, but I say whatever, it looks cool. Many of the actors were well cast, Dennis Quaid as Hawk, Christopher Eccleston as Destro, Ray Park as Snake-Eyes (the man with real superpowers) and Rachel Nichols as Scarlett. My favorite character was Ripcord. In contrast to his friend Duke, Ripcord was funny, he was active and he had a personality. Also, the special effects were impressive. The final action scene had me on the edge of my seat. Heck yeah!
Overall, this is an okay popcorn flick, but as a GI Joe movie, it's an epic fail. If you're into mindless action scenes, get some friends together and check it out but if you're a die-hard GI Joe fan, avoid this one. It'll just make you angry.
In the movie, the NATO-funded organization MARS Industries, led by wealthy arms-dealer James McCullen XXIV, develops a set of warheads loaded with metal-eating nanomites, a perfect weapon of mass destruction. When the covert military organization GI Joe hears about this and learns that MARS is a front for the terrorist organization COBRA, they set out to stop them and, along the way, recruit two new members, Duke and Ripcord. That should about sum up the plot.
Now, I could nitpick this movie to death, and I have, but the main problems of this movie boil down to 3 things:
1) Not enough GI Joe references: The movie may call itself GI Joe, it may have the GI Joe team, Cobra, the Pit and several characters named after GI Joe characters, but this movie does not resemble the GI Joe series at all. And I don't know how much this matters to anyone else, but it bugs me: the catchphrase, "Yo Joe!" only appears once in the whole movie. It's at the very end and spoken by a British guy. For this reason, or maybe some other reason entirely, it just doesn't sound right. And that really annoys me! Now, maybe if they called it something else, like Team America or Anti-Terrorist, Inc., maybe it wouldn't have been as bad, but they called it GI Joe which makes us compare it to the GI Joe franchise, and as far as I'm concerned, the two are unrelated. Just call it something else.
2) A poorly written story: The plot makes absolutely no sense. The focus of the story, the warheads, are not explained enough to be an interesting plot point. The movie jumps around too quickly from on location to the next, which is just confusing. In addition, the movie is advertised as an origin story and we don't see an origin for either GI Joe or Cobra.
3) The director is unfamiliar with the source material: That's right. When I heard that Stephen Sommers was going to be the director of GI Joe, I knew that the movie was in good hands, there was no way they could screw this up. Needless to say, I was really confused with the final product. And then, I learned that Sommers had never even heard of GI Joe prior to making this movie.
...
Are you freaking kidding me?!
Well, it certainly shows.
But for all my complaining, there were a few good things about it. The action scenes were the highlight of this movie (except for the Pit scene). I loved the accelerator suits. Most people argue that the Joes don't have Iron Man armor, but I say whatever, it looks cool. Many of the actors were well cast, Dennis Quaid as Hawk, Christopher Eccleston as Destro, Ray Park as Snake-Eyes (the man with real superpowers) and Rachel Nichols as Scarlett. My favorite character was Ripcord. In contrast to his friend Duke, Ripcord was funny, he was active and he had a personality. Also, the special effects were impressive. The final action scene had me on the edge of my seat. Heck yeah!
Overall, this is an okay popcorn flick, but as a GI Joe movie, it's an epic fail. If you're into mindless action scenes, get some friends together and check it out but if you're a die-hard GI Joe fan, avoid this one. It'll just make you angry.