★★★★☆
To celebrate the release of Gi.Joe:Retaliation I have reviewed the 2009 take on the Gi.Joe toyline. Is this going to be a visionary, imaginative take or is this going to be a Deja Vu of Transformers 2?
Above[Cobra Ship going through the fire of destroyed tanks]
The film begins with a scene showcasing the origin of the Clan Mcullen. Now the problem I have with this small prologue is why is it here?Yes it shows the past of James Mcullen,our antagonist but we never see more flashbacks of this character. It could of been completely non existent. Now we switch to the not too distant future. This answers the questions later in the film:The unusual looking thing in the picture and so many other things. We now see James Mcullen,present day successor of the man we saw in the first scene.Christopher Eccelston's performance reminds me of some Guy Pearce's villain performances. He isn't steal or wooden but everything on his performance is perfect
The Nanomites,killer robot insects are a good creation,a little bit stupid and really used for special effects. They use them to create the most destructive sequences of the film and they create the old characters from the 1980's TV series. Now we are introduced to Duke and Ripcord. My first,small problem is what was wrong with the casting director?Surprised that the casting director chose the creator of the Scary Movie series to star in a serious,techno movie. Well I hear that Common was offered this role and I think that would have been an ok choice but would of changed the tone of the film. It is a sort of comedic film so with a I think a serious performance would of changed the tone to a serious film. Marlon Waywan's performance is quite enjoyable although he has a endless bunch of bad jokes in every scene. Duke played by Channing Tatum is an emotionless log. Wooden and stale,not an enjoyable performance. To be honest he looks bored throughout the entire film and he doesn't make the film more fun. When bringing the warheads to the people who want them they get attacked by Cobra. The weird thing[in the picture] is Cobra's flying weapon that attacks the base and we're introduced to Baroness. Baroness played by Sienna Miller is a good, slick performance but still being able to showcasing emotions. She reminds me of Angelina Jolie's performance in the Tomb Raider movies:A little bit generic,fiesty but still a likeable character. Firstly the machine in the picture has lasers and this is one of my questions:Where did they get those lasers from?
Above[Baroness with Cobra's soldiers Vipers]
I would of liked an explanation but this isn't that type of movie. Then we are introduced to the Joes:Heavy Duty,Breaker,Snake Eyes,Scarlett and General Hawk. We see their abilities and them fight against Baroness and the Vipers. What I like about this film is the gadgets,technology and stuff like Scarlett portrayed by Rachel Nichlos has a techno crossbow blowing off a viper's head[not graphically] and this flying thing that the Joes use. What annoys me is that why don't the Joes have more advanced technology that Cobra has?It's annoying as if they're trying to make the division look weak and feeble with Cobra beating them easily. Baroness runs away and we see General Hawk portrayed by Dennis Quaid. Quaid is your old veteran,smart and gruff with this old swagger to him which is something I like about his performance. The CGI in this movie is bad,very bad. We see the Joe's marvellous techno base and on the way Duke asks "I want to be part of Gi Joe." and why exactly?We don't know why. Mcullen talks to Hawk and now we see that Mcullen is working with Baroness. I like that Mcullen is a threat even to his little lab rats and he has an attraction to Baroness. We see more hints to what happened in the past to Duke and Baroness which is teased for about a 1/4 of the film. Now we see that Duke used to know Baroness and we get a flashback:Baroness is Anne Rice and Duke had proposed to her. Joseph Gordon Levitt joins them as Anne's little brother Rex. Joseph in this role is a chessy,badly timed role. I do like the character arc but I don't think it was done in perfect execution. We get to see the Iron man rip-offs in a training montage backed up without the score but Get it on remix. Now I believe that this might of been a Sommer input not a screenwriter input. I hear that Sommers wrote an original script called Accelerator.
Above[Duke and Ripcord in Accelerator suits]
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Above[Iron man suit,2008 in Afghan]
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Above[Star Trek spacesuits 2009]
What is weird is 2009 passses on stuff but the filmakers don't know if they have done the same as another film. We are introduced to Dr.Darth Vader played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. Today he's a famous young prodege who's been in Looper,The Dark Knight Rises and so but then he was an unknown. DR.Darth Vader is creator of the Vipers as he has injected Nanomites into their soldiers.
A tracking beacon had been sent on the briefcase and Joes,tricked turned on the tracking beacon. We see a giant cartoon drilling machine burst into the Joe's base and we see a clash of the Titans. Firstly before the sequence we are introduced to Storm Shadow. Throug-hout the film we see flashbacks and flashbacks of character arcs which could of left the film so much more things to do. The fight in the base is enjoyable,fast paced and showing intense,skillful choreography done by Byung Lee and Ray Park. Now we are introduced to Zartan. In the original TV series he was a shape-shifter and they show that in a kinda realistic way: Zartan is a shadowy assassin saved for an important role not doing much throughout film unlike other Cobra agents. We see that he is injected with Nanomites that he can shapeshift. Even if the film is a bit stupid itself they try not to make the character look or feel stupid. Duke in the battle nearly kills Baroness,The Ninjas clash and after we get another flashback!Young Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow clash over food and Storm Shadows smashes the food he's trying to protect!We see the key to Snake eyes and Storm Shadow's rivalry which is really the only good thing about the flashbacks. We switch back to Cobra as Mcullen,Bar-oness and Storm Shadow plan to destroy Effiel tower as the Joes go on a high profile chase in Paris
This is a great sequence the chase a pump of fresh adrenaline. There is some humour and that's a good take. I did enjoy the sequence as it had an anti climatic destruction up there with the destruction of the White house in Independence Day and the Williamsburg bridge destruction in the Dark Knight rises. Duke gets captured and embarrassingly the Joes get captured by French Swat men. The Swat men are people,Ripcord is wearing an accelerator suit and they're all pretty good fighters. So it's embarassing because we would like some of them to be the Fugitives or so,going there own way but Snake eyes sneaks away and Hawk saves their skins. We see another flashback as Duke,Ripcord and Rex are in the army and Rex is killed. We see Rex's funeral and why Baron-ess hates Duke. I like some of the character arcs answered but some of the others unexplained is annoying. One of highs of the film. We go to the under ice base of Cobra with Dr. Darth Vader's identity revealed:Rex and the battle. They have sharcs,underwater submarine clashing with Cobra's underwater submarine. This reminds me of the Star Wars battles in space: Good entertainment. Anna turns good unexpectedly and the Nanomites missiles are set off. Ripcord using his wit and flying skills saves the world as he set's off into the white house. Mcullen becomes Destro with the Nanomites inside him and then they save the day!Rex becomes Cobra Commander with a fish bowl on his head...
Well a summary for this whole film is:A good,cartoony,laid back film with some flaws but overall good. The annoying things are Cobra Commander,Flashbacks and the pure stupidness of it all.
Gi.Joe:Rise of Cobra is available on DVD and rent now!