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Sunday 9th August 2009, 02:17
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra review
Jon: I'm going to a run a risk here of contradicting/repeating my Transformers 2 review, so I'm choosing to not re-read that first. Feel free to hoist me by my own petard. This is based on a kids' comic/TV show that I've never really read/seen - here in the UK we had Action Man, which was a licensed version of GI Joe, but never really had the same impact - I had one back in the day but remember very little about it. As such I approached this with the bare minimum of knowledge about the characters or any in-jokes. I also had a healthy dose of low expectations after a ropey initial trailer and plenty of bad buzz - with hindsight no-one seems to know where that came from, which I think is telling.
Approach this with the understanding that it's basically a live-action cartoon and I think it'll stand you in good stead. The characters are defined with broad strokes and stupid names, the plot is fundamentally good vs. evil, there are gaps in logic, and yet....and yet, and yet, and yet.
At about the half-way point there's a well-executed chase through Paris, and from that point on I had a metaphorical, if not actual, grin on my face. It's all so cheerfully ridiculous, and yet played just straight enough that you can go with it. It's absolutely not a critics' movie - the script's functional at best (the line "deploy the sharks!" will forever hold a special place in my heart), the acting likewise, despite a fairly solid cast - Channing Tatum is Whalbergian in his blandness, but fortunately it's more of a team effort, despite him being the ostensible hero. However, I came out of it having had a blast.
This is where the Transformers 2 comparison comes in, because I recall saying very similar things about that. The difference is though that on many levels Transformers was actually awful, being far too long, wildly uneven in tone (leering at Megan Fox, genuine peril, childish humour, etc.), with characters you could barely identify, let along care about, etc. I still enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but I felt slightly bad about that fact.
By contrast, GI Joe picks a level and sticks with it, namely the cartoon I mentioned before. Much like the cartoons of my youth, there are moments of levity, moments of tension, but they're well balanced. And most importantly over the course of the film we get introduced to all the characters, all human, with stupid but memorable names, and degrees of back story for most of them - it's hardly The Godfather, but it hits the rudimentary basics of film-making. That's not a reason to praise it too highly, but it's at least a reason not to tear it to shreds.
As such, it's a far easier recommendation to make than Transformers 2, which needed a lot of qualification. This will still only appeal to the teenage boy/action junkies among us, but let's be honest that's a fairly hefty chunk of the movie-going public. I feel I'm almost over-defending it against the unjustified bad press this was getting before release, but that's the point - it's unjustified. Could it have been a better movie? Absolutely, but just because something can be improved doesn't mean it's garbage in itself.
Fundamentally, GI Joe is a solid, uncomplicated movie. For many people that will translate as "stupid", which is arguably true, but my point is that rather than watching it while also driving virtual trucks through the plot holes, it all hangs together - bad guys want to cause chaos, good guys want to stop them, there's minimal exposition, nicely-constructed set-pieces, and enough characterisation that you care, at least to some degree, what happens to people (more than can be said for Transformers 2). Plus it doesn't overstay its welcome - rather than the 150 minutes of that movie, GI Joe comes in at about 1h 45 - far more reasonable, and makes the whole experience more enjoyable.
As such, if you're of a mind for a relatively mindless action movie, give this a go - I'm not going to sell it too hard, because I can't honestly say it'll suit everyone. However, for those who saw Transformers 2 expecting an entertainingly dumb explosion-fest and came away feeling a bit too dumb and overly exploded, this is almost certainly more the kind of thing you were after - I liked it a lot.
Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer