Review of the movie G.I. Joe – Rise of Cobra

G.I. Joe, Rise of Cobra, is a film that has just come out in August of 2009. Stephen Sommers (director) brings our favorite G.I. Joes to life in this film that pit’s the famous covert/elite group of warriors against a futuristic super-villain weapons dealer. In the midst of all of it, Cobra also comes into the picture, which is where you get the title. There were a lot of upsides and downsides to this movie, and here are some of my most basic thoughts on the subject.

First off, a lot of the characters are indeed very memorable. Duke (played by Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (played by Marlon Wayans, do very good jobs as what are to be considered the main leading roles. The movie begins and ends with these two, and they do a good job throughout, especially Ripcord. Their characters are believable, you root for them all the time (though sometimes wishing that Duke would get his head out of his butt and stop letting the Baroness live), and they do not disappoint.

Two of the best performances during this movie were by Rachel Nichols (Scarlett) and Ray Park (Snake Eyes).  Siena Miller did a good job of acting as Ana, the Baroness, although at times her character did seem to sort of just “walk around looking hot” as bullets missed her. There were times through the movie where she sort of just “looked good” through the action segments, though in all honest, she gets better as the movie progresses. In the final scenes, she is amazing. Rachel Nichols did NOT have this problem at all, delivering her character Scarlett in such a way that she completely made sense, and to be honest, was one of the best characters of the movie.

The storyline was decent, though at times the cut scenes and how characters were woven together was a bit cheesy – at times I wished that they wouldn’t have given you so much information, and that instead they would have just made another movie as a sequel. But you did follow the movie well, which is a good thing.

All in all, this movie was a hit. Great action, memorable characters, a bit weak on the part of the villains, but oh well,  this movie made up for it in more ways than one (and getting to see the red headed Scarlett working out in a belly shirt was one of these moments!).  Watch G.I. Joe, rise of cobra – you will not be disappointed.