Film Reviews

‘G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra’

Every young boy likes to play with action figures and director Stephen Sommers appears to still be doing it with this fast paced live-action cartoon version of the popular American Hasbro toy (a brand better known as Action man in the UK)!

The film get’s handled with the same frenetic enthusiasm as Sommers previous films (The Mummy 1& 2, Van Helsing). With guns, gadgets and girls beating the hell out of one another, often wearing as little as possible, it has a lot going for it – we even get a bungee jumping ninja for goodness sake!

And for the explosion feast that it is the silly script actually allows for a plot which makes surprising sense as G.I. Joe – a specialized military outfit, not just one man – takes on the villainous arms dealer Destro (Christopher Eccleston hamming it up nicely).

It’s certainly not a subtle film either. In both action and dialogue it’s laughable, but as the team get’s given cyber suits and crash through a Paris backdrop as the Cobra threaten to take out a well known monument it’s hard not to get a little pumped up. Its videogame enjoyment mixed with slow-mo action and energy reminiscent of the ‘Transporter’ films. You can almost see the child-like hand of Sommers guiding his plaything’s across the screen.

Sadly, for every fun moment that manages to up the thrills we get another to knock them back down again. Pointless flashbacks delving into overcomplicated back stories and more than one awkward moment attempting to emotionally connect the love interests does little to fill out the clichéd characters which end up as plastic as the toys they play.

The fact it never takes itself seriously does help it along and nods to films such as ‘Team America’, ‘Bond’ and even ‘Star Wars’ make this stupid and throwaway but easy on both eyes and brain.

**