G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
By Daryl Tan
Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayan, Sienna Miller, Rachel Nichols, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Said Taghmaoui, Ray Park, Byung-hun Lee, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Dennis Quaid, Jonathan Pryce
Official website: http://www.gijoemovie.com
To set the record straight, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is meant to be a guns and ammo, macho-man flick, not a socio-political commentary about nuclear arms accumulation which many would have liked it to be. Director Stephen Sommers promises an adrenaline rush, and delivers a multitude of them throughout the course of the two-hour long show.
Tasked with delivering four nuclear warheads, good guys Duke (Channing Tatum), Ripchord (Marlon Wayans) and the ordinary military men under their charge are ambushed by forces from the evil Cobra organization. Spearheading the Cobra troops is the Baroness (Sienna Miller), in a leather dominatrix outfit so tight teenage boys might just choke when attempting to avoid drooling like chimps.
Only Duke and Ripchord survive the onslaught after an elite team from G.I. Joe rescues them. Both uniformed hunks are then flown to the elite global security organization's headquarters in Cairo where they enlist to battle the sinister MARS/Cobra forces, helmed by arms dealer McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) who's hell-bent on world domination.
While no viewer would, or should expect a profound message behind G.I. Joe, the least screenwriters could have offered was a sensible plotline. Just think: McCullen unleashes a nanomite-filled missile on Paris, decimating the Eiffel Tower. No one in the film remotely understands what this Scotsman is up to. Even the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce) quizzically asks his aides, "Don't they have any demands?"
Nevertheless, fanboys of the G.I. Joe graphic novels will be satisfied by the sheer amount of firepower and high-tech gadgetry on display. Seeing Rachel Nichols (as Scarlet) and Sienna Miller sizzling hot in, and out of their second-skin suits is also bound to set pulses racing. While Channing Tatum might have played square-jawed jock Duke in a most understated, unexciting fashion, we should be thankful ham actor Mark Wahlberg, the original choice for the role, didn't get the nod. We wouldn't want a Duke who's either cursing or tearing in every other scene. Marlon Wayan's wise-cracking Ripchord falls into the Jar Jar Binks category: it's either you love him or you can't wait to tear his guts out.
What I found most pleasing about G.I. Joe was the film's pacing. Sommers doesn't bog us down with tedious, melodramatic back-stories and romances characteristic of many contemporary flicks. The action takes its time to build up after a stunning opening firefight, piling up the tension until the climatic confrontation between the Joes and Cobra.
Cinematography, for me, was also another highlight. The superbly choreographed kitchen fist-fight between ninjas Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow as young tykes is aesthetically beautiful, while brutal enough to give any Donnie Yen kung fu show a run for its money. And for those who baulked at the trailers of Duke and Ripchord in their accelerator suits, the real deal turns out way better as the full visual impact potential of this high-speed chase scene is captured spectacularly through expert camera positioning and movement.
For a more ingenious and more intelligent similarly-themed flick, I'd encourage you to catch Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team America: World Police instead. But going into the theater, I was expecting only three things from G.I Joe: lots of violence, lots of fun, and a smatter of vivacious ladies. The film didn't disappoint.
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