I was never a G.I. Joe kid growing up – I don’t remember it being forbidden, but discouraged, but it was also always on opposite something else I wanted to watch. I went to see this with a couple of friends who were way more into the Joes than I ever was, including one that had read the comics in addition to watched the cartoons. I mostly treated the movie as a generic sci-fi action movie that happened to be based on licensed characters, and it was an interesting comparison.
I just spent a few minutes trying to write a synopsis for the plot and broke up laughing. I think that means it’s a true plot worth of the Cobra you know from the old cartoon. Think Goldeneye, but sillier. The writing is pretty bad, but in an entertaining ‘groanworthy’ fashion. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is a solid addition to the cast – he does well with lackluster material. I like him as an action star. Jonathan Pryce as the ‘President’ was fine. Byung-hyun Lee as Storm Shadow and Ray Park as Snake Eyes kept the martial arts action legit. Bruce Willis was having fun, but felt like a third wheel at times. Didn’t need him at all.
Look, I’m not going to say it was great. But the action sequences were crazy like you’d expect from G.I. Joe, and the Cobra superweapon was actually scary. Don’t concentrate on it too hard, is all.
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