GeekStrike

Here in FilmStrike, we will share our view on movies and films past and present and aim that FilmStrike will increase your enjoyment of this wonderfulart medium. So, are you wondering to watch that new movie currently on the silver screen? Wish to know about classic movies or films that are less known? Do you want more about the film industry? Come right in to FilmStrike! For this edition of FilmStrike we review the new movie GI JOE: Rise of the Cobra.

SAY IT WITH ME! COBRALALALALALALALA!

I would be the first to admit that I did not have very high hopes for the GI Joe movie. I thought it will have the same vibe as the Transformers Movie. Its hard to describe it, but it will be in the lines of: “Oh my God! What’s going on! Why are they doing this? Holy…! GIANT ROBOTS and Explosions! WEEEEEE!” Except that there are no Giant Robots. Adding the final nail to the coffin is the indisputable fact that giant robots ARE cooler than men in fatigues.

I will say so right now. This movie is better than expected. It’s no Oscar winner, but its fine as far as Summer Action Blockbusters go. Other critics will probably be blasting this movie for being loud, violent and lacking in “message”, but that means they miss the point of Summer Action Blockbusters : Movie-goers do not need to have their souls crushed everytime they watch a movie.

The Basic Outline

Introducing the GI Joes. (From the left) The Hero, The Chief, The Smart Guy, The Chick and The Black Best Friend

This modern take on the GI Joe mythos beings with our potangonist Conrad “Duke” Hauser (Channing Tatum) and his black best friend Wallace “Ripcord” Weems (Marlon Wayans) on a mission to deliver missiles of mass destruction from Kazakistan (don’t ask) back home. When they are attacked by female fatale Anastasia “Baroness” DeCobray (Sienna Miller) and her elite band of “evil” soldiers, Duke immediately discovers her to be someone from his past. After some fighting and a rescue from the GI JOE team, Duke decides to face up to his past and joins the GI JOE. The rest of the movie involves alot of fighting, explosions and globe trotting as the missiles change hands a few times.

The Review

Barring the special effects, action and explosions, the strongest point of this movie has to be its script. The plot is not very deep, but it manages a few surprises here and there. The story moves along at a brisk pace, taking a backseat to the action itself. This is usually a bad thing, but the “just right” pacing of this movie actually supports the simplistic story and it does not suffer from the “plot confusion” that Transformers had. Despite being exactly 2 hours long, only the last 3 minutes of the film felt draggy. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of large plotholes and inconsistencies, a cardinal sin summer action movies tend to suffer from.

I wanted to place something witty. But I figure more pictures of girls never hurt.

The dialogue has a few genuinely funny moments, but fails to truly establish the personality of the characters. This is forgivable, as there are many, many characters fighting for the scarce screen time between the action sequences. Speaking of surprises, the way the movie reveals the Cobra Commander is very well done and should actually managed to surprise some viewers. Other than a quick “hear-it-or-miss-it” line, the audience will probably not guess how the the Cobra Commander is significant to the storyline until the reveal itself (Unless you already read spoilers!).

As far as the acting goes, the cast does a admirable job despite the lack of material to work with.

Channing Tatum (Duke) seems to be a raising star with the large amount of exposure we have of him recently. The man has not really mastered the art of acting (ho-hum performance in “Fighting”), but he does decently as the only acting he needs to do here is to “look determined” for the whole movie. Marlon Wayans (Ripchord) is a good actor, but he is relegated to the sidekick role of the plucky and somewhat uncool comic relief. He still manages to make the character likable and should be a crowd favourite.

This is Snake Eyes. He's doesn't act at all, but we forgive him. He's a NINJA AFTER ALL!

Rachel Nicol’s (Scarlett) performance is relatively weak, but since she is always shown with Marlon Wayans it savages her character a little (the audience actually has to pay attention to her). Ray Park (Snake Eyes) is obviously not acting here, despite being a major character. His talent in martial arts-based performance gets overshadowed by the fact that much of the movie has him being buried by the special effects, the fact that none of his face is visible and that he has no dialogue. The rest of the good guys do decent, but their roles are hardly challenging and relatively minor.

This is Storm Shadow. He is a HIGHLY VISIBLE Ninja!

As for the bad guys, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Doctor) performed very well, managing to convey the insanity and obsession of the typical mad scientist masterfully. This man has the best performance of the actors in the movie, but that’s also because you see so much of him. Another dark horse here is Lee Byung-hun (Storm Shadow), who manages to give his character additional depth giving the audience a glimpse of a tortured soul. The man can act, and his character is lucky enough to get the more visually impressive martial arts scenes in the movie (i.e., when the character is not buried by the special effects). Of the two ninjas, he was the one that shone brighter (not that the white costume has anything to do with it).

This is the prologue to one of the better ship-to-ship fights in recent memory.

Finally, we come to the strongest point in the movie: The action and the special effects. Action scenes are generally well-done and NOT overly chaotic or messy. In fact, most of them are genuinely fun and actually comprehensible. The powered suit chase featured in the trailer seems corny at first, but its surprising well executed in the movie itself. The scenes get better and better till it cumulates to an epic underwater battle. This is one of the few shows in a long time to feature a full-on ship-to-ship combat reminiscent of the space battles of the old Star Wars movies and its both fun and awesome to behold.

This scene is fun. No matter how corny it looks.

Martial chorography is one of the strengths in the movie. Most of the fight scenes featuring Storm Shadow are both cool and fun, not to mention 2 of the 3 intense hand-to-hand fights between Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. (Small Spoiler: They are not in ninja suits in one of them)

First of the Kickass Fight Scenes!!

Strike factor

(Out of 10)
All in all, GI Joe is a good summer movie to kill some time. You should check it out if you have a time over the weekend. Its not incredibly good, but its a fun way to spend 2 hours.