G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Dir: Stephen Sommers (Van Helsing, The Mummy, Deep Rising)
Cast: Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Dennis Quaid, Marlon Wayans, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Saïd Taghmaoui, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christopher Eccleston, Arnold Vosloo
USA, 2009

Seen: August 7, 2009 at AMC in the ETX

Reason to see: It looked like boat loads of fun

I was hoping G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra would be a heck of a lot of fun, and it certainly was. Earlier this year I was perplexed when people said they 'just want to see a popcorn flick'. Now, I think of that term as fun, action and not much else matters. For me, I think a film does need more to matter. But then I saw G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra and had an 'a-ha' moment, because it was fun and action so I was feeling the love of the 'popcorn flick'. Not to sell it too short though. What tipped the scales to make it more than just a fun action film was the great ensemble cast portraying a plethora of charismatic characters. Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow was freaking awesome. Sienna Miller was a great as the character Baroness, bringing strength and attitude on the screen. Saïd Taghmaoui was charming as Breaker, Channing Tatum was perfectly cast as Duke and I even laughed at Marlon Wayans' jokes as Ripcord. I would have loved to see more of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Ray Park but considering the number of characters they each got an impressive amount of screen time for a film that hovers just under the 2 hours mark.

Before giving the impression of being a fangirl, I have to make note that I wasn't a fan of G.I. Joe in the past. Aware of the phenom? Sure. "Knowing is Half the Battle", ending the show with a PSA style 'message', action figure and all that jazz. But it didn't resonate with me so I take this film as seperate entity than that of anything in the G.I. Joe of the past. This film creates a near future contained world that is understandable and accessable. Does it push the line here and there? Of course. That is what near future action movies do!

I also want to acknowledge the design and styling of the characters who each had their own individual look. It was refreshing to see that the styles matched not only the characters tone but also their function, specifically it was refreshing to see women in action roles in an action film wearing clothes that they could fight in. Thank you!

Shannon's Overall View:
I thoroughly enjoyed it
I'll buy it
I recommend it as a fun action flick

18 minutes of preshow including 4 commercials and 6 previews: The Last Airbender, Astroboy, Old Dogs, Whiteout, 2012 and The Lovely Bones

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© Shannon Ridler, 2009


Woohoo to free T-shirts. Was worth getting to the 10:45am screening!


I didn't really notice the 'extremeness' of the ETX other than the rumbling sound during the preview. I may have been so absorbed in the film to notice.