Just got back from seeing G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
So many critics assail big dumb movies like this, calling them… well, big dumb movies. Other fans are apologists, who say that the audience should “turn off their brain and enjoy it.” I fall into neither one of these camps, and I view the movie-going experience as an immersive one – I look for a movie to transport me into another world, a world where the movie-makers tell their story and present their characters and their primary goal is to provoke a response from an audience – fear, laughter, joy, terror, or tears.
Well, as a moviegoing experience, G.I.Joe is, for me, incredibly successful and mighty entertaining. I couldn’t stop smiling, as Director Stephen Summers piles more and more stuff into this movie, making me drool over the equipment as I figure out how many of the new toys I can afford to buy (and justify buying to my wife).
I’m gonna throw this down, as well: in many ways, it is as entertaining and impressive as the original Star Wars.
Yes, I know, I know – blasphemy. But let’s take a look at that now-classic 1977 movie – with it’s cheesy dialogue, improbable plot and cool special effects, many critics dismissed that movie as well (only later did some critics “come around” to liking the film). George Lucas admitted long before he finished the first movie that “at heart, I’m a toy maker.” What better modern-day equivalent to what Lucas did in ’77 than to make a bombastic action fantasy based off of actual toys?
Now, this movie will never have the impact that seminall film did, but I have to say that this movie delivers the same type of over-the-top “did you see that?” moments the original Star Wars did, moments that the prequels never captured (save for some fleeting traces of greatness, lifted up by the audiences aspirations more than anything else).
Enough about the visceral reaction… some more things I’d like to note: the movie, over 2 hours long, never stops moving – there’s not a “droopy middle” like so many summer blockbusters have. Christopher Eccleston as the main bad guy is great, and is not nearly as big a scenery-chewer as I feared. Snake Eyes, played by Ray Park, kicks so much ass, even with a mask that inexplicably had lips. The Paris chase sequence in the middle of the movie was AMAZING, worth the ticket price by itself. The call-outs to the original cartoon and the original figure was a very nice touch. Finally, the plot is as thin as your typical James Bond film… and that’s just fine for a summer popcorn movie.
In closing: combine Star Wars with James Bond, mix in the nostalgia of the original 1983 cartoon and toy line as well as a splash of Team America: World Police, you have G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra. It’s a mixed drink that when you look at the recipe, sounds horrible… but it goes down smooth and does the job.
It ain’t high art, but I LOVED it.