Don’t watch G.I. Joe, it’s about as appealing as an abortion. This isn’t realistic/serious G.I. Joe, and it isn’t pure cartoon fun G.I. Joe. No, this is a third variety; this is pure, unadulterated shit. It’s hard to imagine how, with such a wealth of source material to cull from, a person could create something so profoundly awful. There is a lot of blame to go around, but I’ll split it up into the triad of idiocy, in order of terrible influence; Channing Tatum as Duke, Marlon Wayans as Ripcord, and Stephen Sommers, a director by name only. These forces, gangrenous by themselves, join to create a Chimera of vomit inducing cinema the world has never known.
First and foremost, Channing Tatum makes an abomination out of the character of Duke. Tatum wastes no time shoving his ridiculous slurred speech and mock thug swagger (wherein he appears to be leaning back and peering through squinted eyes at absolutely all times) into everyone’s face. You may expect such school yard antics to elicit derision, but Duke gets only the utmost respect for his nonsensical mannerisms. You can almost smell the Brute cologne, and hear the Air Jordan necklace jingling around his neck. Tatum is a gigantic ham. I don’t know what it would have cost to put Kiefer Sutherland in the role, but it would have been worth it. Even Thomas Jane (or anyone) would have been a better choice, an older take on the part. In the cartoon, Duke was the shit. In the movie, Duke is just shit. I’ve given each Joe a new codename for this review, and from here on out, Duke’s codename is ‘Dook.’
Second, Marlon Wayans is awful as ever, and this is no surprise. The Wayans have always been terrifically terrible in everything they ever made, Marlon more so than any of the Wayans. Why would you cast such a blowhard? For comic relief? Martin Lawrence could have single handedly turned this into the comedy hit of the summer! To appeal to black audiences? Surely there is a more charismatic choice than Marlon Wayans. The noticeably aging Wayans comes in as the second worst character behind Dook, mainly because while Channing Tatum is ignorantly confident, Wayans is trying too hard. Ripcord (codename ‘Shithorde’) has a specialty in flying, but I think the real talent is in aggravation. It is a well known principle of filmmaking that you should never, under any circumstances, cast a Wayans brother. If this were a movie where the Joes had to undergo sex and ethnicity changes to crack a terrorist plot, I might feel differently.
Third, Stephen Sommers incompetent handling of this movie rounds out the pack. Small elements of the film prick out like little shards of glass, irritating the senses and creating the deep sense of unease. One glaring example is the strange set of plastic lips on Snake Eyes face plate, never seen in any incarnation of the characters, and bizarre beyond belief. Who said, ‘you know what Snake Eyes needs? He needs a pair of plastic lips, since he never talks, ya’ know!’ Another is Scarlett, played by Rachel Nichols, whose new codename is ‘Tits McGee.’ Tits McGee is presented as a feminist character, too smart and tough for relationships, violently independent. From this introduction, she turns into a giggling schoolgirl, her shirt always unbuttoned, armor always protruding, eager for the attention and protection of Shithorde, a wholly idiotic buffoon. Surely she could do better, and surely the character deserves better, but instead we are treated to her jiggling bosom, as she runs on a treadmill, for a well over a minute. This gem of a scene takes place in a workout room where Joes can lift weight topless and look at dumb motivational posters. Baroness (codename ‘Ol Leather Skin) is no better, another strong woman, who turns out to be completely dependent on men for her identity. In G.I. Joe, women are property, owned by competing idiot males, and they are only too happy to swoon in their man’s arms. Maybe in the sequel we’ll get to see the far superior Lady Jay, but I doubt it.
Sommers also delivers some of the worst CGI of the summer, and the CGI takes up a goodly portion of the screen time. G.I. Joe blatantly steals so much from Iron Man and Halo. The accelerator suits are poorly animated, but far from the worst. The design cues are ripped straight out of the aforementioned popular franchises. Slow mo’ scenes are on display to evoke the first Transformers film, and the pyramids are shown fleetingly to try and steal some epic cred from Transformers 2. Instead of trying to be everyone else, the movie should have found its own identity. Furthermore, you can kiss the American part of G.I. Joe goodbye. In this reality, it’s a NATO like force, chartered by many nations, and located in (laughable) Egypt. I’m sure Egypt would have no problem with an international military base in the desert, especially when the inevitable Israelis/Arab war breaks out. If nothing else, G.I. Joes were Americans, albeit with their quirks, and this by itself is a huge bastardization of the franchise.
Heavy Duty (codename Ambiguous Sexuality) is British! He is meant to be ‘super tough’ but is faking it so bad, and is so fashion conscious, turns out to be the only gay member of G.I. Joe, save for Breaker, who I suspect is a eunuch. In the G.I. Joe I remember, Heavy Duty was named Road Block, and he made hilarious rhymes about blowing up the forces of Cobra. When Cobra breaks into Joe HQ, you’d think they would take the time to kill General Hawk, maybe cut off his head just to be sure. The force field guns Cobra uses does evoke the deathless nature of the cartoon battles, where everyone jumped out of the tank right before it exploded. Man, what I wouldn’t give for a HISS tank though. The vehicle design is downright lazy, maybe for easy toy manufacturing, but Tits McGee’s stint fighting in an optic camo suit at least made me daydream about a Ghost in the Shell movie.
The movie has exactly two good things going for it. First, Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a great job. He is a great actor after all, usually attempting weightier stuff than this, but the bad movie doesn’t steal his thunder. From his time in Dook’s squad, when Dr. Mindbender seduces his scientific passion with new weapons technology, to his turn as Cobra Commander (where he looks unfortunately like a cross between Keanu Reeves and Darth Vader with his helmet off), he makes the movie bearable. He understands how to play a world domination bent bad guy with flair. The best action scene in the movie, a flashback where Dook and Cobra Commander (Rex) fight through an African shanty town (I’m pretty sure they stole some stock footage from Blackhawk Down) gives a nice sense of ‘real’ combat sans force field cannons, with a modicum of danger. Second, Storm Shadow is completely true to the characters roots, played by Lee Byung-hun, with ridiculous self seriousness and athleticism. Storm Shadow is the right mix of brooding introspection and bombastic braggart. But that’s it; these are the only bright spots in the whole sordid affair.
On the whole, G.I. Joe as a counterterrorist team is a huge failure. Zartan (Arnold Vosloo, The Mummy, and Marwan from season 4 of 24) manages to kill and replace the President. Despite destroying plenty of Paris, the Joes fail to stop Cobra, and the Eiffel Tower is still felled. G.I. Joe HQ is easily penetrated, and the senior command easily neutralized. What a shitty team. The appearance of the USS Flagg is a nice finishing touch, but it’s too late. It makes me nostalgic for the 1987 animated movie, which had more art and originality in a single frame than this entire movie. To top everything off, Cobra’s base is destroyed by ‘sinking’ ice. A horrible rap song plays over the credits. I caught some of the lyrics. “I’m so 2008, you’re so two thousand and late.” Stephen Sommers, Channing Tatum, and Marlon Wayans can all go to hell. They’ve done enough damage, taking their time molesting my childhood icons.
That is hands down the best review of a film I have ever read.
While I can’t say anything nearly as brutal as you have, I do agree with you about 89.9%!
I don’t completely agree with your take on Storm Shadow. Even though the character was well played, his back story with Snake Eyes was changed beyond belief. That would be fine for a uneducated filmgoer, but any G.I. Joe fan would gladly march up to the studio and kill the writers for that one.
Second, do your research. Road Block and Heavy Duty are completely two different people. In fact, they are cousins in the comics and cartoons. Maybe Road Block would have been a better choice for the film, but it would have been a lot worse to see some black dude rapping all through the movie. Trust me, I’m black… I know.
Good to hear Joseph Gordon-Levitt brought it. Big fan of him and I expected he would shine. How was Christopher Eccleston?
Ice floats. Hummer H2′s suck. The entire cast of The Mummy is not appropriate for EVERY film Particle accelerators and nanotechnology have nothing to do with eachother. The north pole is EXETREMELY cold. People who wear mask may simply be hiding their identity rather than disturbing and unsightly features. A person who has the gall to state the technology depicted in his movie will be available in the near future and then create a finale where the polar ice caps sink onto and destroy the underwater base is an asshole. Nanomites, no matter how incredible and unknowable to a shithead like Stephen Sommers, do not exponentially reproduce and expand out of a canister to consume whole cities. (Hell, why destroy infrastructure rather than people? Destroy the people your problem is over. Destroy their buildings and you will have millions of angry people out to get you.)
Nice review, but is heavy on the spoiler territory. We don’t learn * spoiler warning * Rex is Cobra Commander until the very end and we also don’t learn that Rex is the doctor until 4/5ths of the movie is done, which is supposed to be the “twist”, however crappy, of the movie. Also, Zartan killing and replacing the president is the ending and last scene of the movie. * end of spoilers *
While people who will be watching GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra probably have already done so this past weekend, some who haven’t may not want some of, again I use the term loosely, “twists” known.
And yes the acting was extremely bad and Doctor Who’s Christopher Eccleston was in my opinion the worst of the bunch, his accent kept switching back and forth between Scottish and British.
Just my two cents and I apologize if the spoiler tag was already used in the review.
Joshua, at BSC reviews of film and TV can inherently have spoilers with now warnings. The reason for this is that there is so much pre-release build-up for films now that if not including spoilers a review (in written form) resembles very much a preview with a thumbs up or thumbs down , and we don’t need an more of those. With books I agree, but I feel like there is much more room to operate, and spoiling a book that may not even be out yet is problematic
Also, Eli’s piece is part of his column, so it’s very much open season as long as he doesn’t land me in front of some tribunal!
Snake Eyes was always my favorite Joe. As soon as I saw his mask in the previews, I knew this movie wasn’t for me. I’m being kind, I threw up in my mouth a little every time I saw the preview. The whole International Joe idea was just idiotic and a weak attempt to be pc.
Fantastic review. I couldn’t even harness the plot from the commercials, and it looked like another piece of shit involving shotty special effects, blatant cleavage, and terrible spoof acting.
Your review confirmed that. Thanks. Another $20 I saved thus summer.
GI Joe the movie is awesome. it focuses mainly on nanotechnology. this movie should have been made a couple of years ago.
This movie was pretty cool. Dont know why everyone is getting so bent out of shape out of a movie based on a cartoon.
Thank you for saying what I was thinking.
Apparently the sequel is on the fast track.
I live in Germany and G I JOE will hit the cinemas within this week. I watched the trailer and wanted to see the film. But I read several reviews including yours. AND they all are negative. So many reviewer can’t be wrong. Thank you for your frankly words. Now I know I will spend the money for another movie.
I’m definitely going to see it, though I have to admit I’m pretty sure I’m not going to love it. Probably a DVD purchase for me though.
pawn65 says:
August 10, 2009 at 9:04 am
This movie was pretty cool. Dont know why everyone is getting so bent out of shape out of a movie based on a cartoon.
*A movie based on a cartoon based on tiny action figures.
if you enjoyed this movie, you enjoy paint running down a wall, or maybe shitting your pants as a hobby. Two hours I can’t get back. How do you explain the Vipers feeling no pain, then yelling as they get hit by things ??? Hmmm ??
What a horrible pile of shit this movie was. I was a HUGE fan of GI JOE as a kid and seeing what they did to it made me want to puke. Seriously, I walked out of the theater so pissed off at what I had just seen that I wanted to punch someone in the mouth. I wish they had never made it. I am hopeing that this movie will disappear into obscurity along with “the punisher” with dolph lungren only to be redone right in a few years. What a joke!!!
Second best film ever made, after Transformers 1.
As if hot chicks, great tits, mad action and ridiculous stories is a bad thing?
Snake Eyes rocked, fight scene as a kid rocked.
Duke and Ripcord good pairing.
Can’t wait for the directors cut extended version – good one Sommers – bring on GI Joe 2
Haters – get your hands of your tackle and get a life
wolverqueen, you’re codename is PlantyMcPlant Plant. Take your studio talking point wares elsewhere. Let’s break it down shall we?
-step one, name drop Transformers
-step two, name the selling points of the film
“hot checks” “great tits” “mad action” “ridiculous stories” who talks like this? Studio public relations hacks, thats who. Your speech tries to sound hip and progressive, but is so analytic and on message its stiff and obvious.
-step three – more franchising, Snake Eyes (he is like Wolverine kids)
-step four – more franchising, unsubstantiated endorsment of main characters.
-step five – the DVD will be even better, you should go buy the DVD John Q Public, “good one Sommer” yeah right, endorsing the sequel.
step six – blanket dismissal of critics with more fake hip progressive buzz words- “Haters – get your hands of(sic) your tackle and get a life
The studios released some fake positive reviews to aintitcool before the film came out, and the language and stiff semantics were almost identical to wolverqueen’s pro-studio nonsense. It might work if it weren’t so glaringly obvious. You can use ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ words all you want, but you don’t sound the least bit believable. At least your post is worth a good laugh.
This whole critic review is false, this review was done by a sexist woman who is only reviewing this based on the things she hates. This review was horrible, only talking about the way she hates the characters and not focusing on the plot of the movie at all.
The dark knight is the absolute best storyline, best actors (except for rachel), that could be put into one movie. You can hate on other movies except this one. When ever I thought this movie was at it’s peak, it kept going. Heathlands ledger prepared for his part like a pro and acted it. The joker could not have been played by anyone better than someone who locks themselves in a room for 30 days. The whole storyline was well placed together. It seemed like something I would read in one of the original comics.