I was pleasantly surprised. Although the preview kind of represented this movie as being about G.I.Joes in some kind of souped-up suit and emphasized the technology and explosions--the truth is this movie actually did owe a lot to the comic books and the cartoom series I grew up with.
Not that I had G.I.Joe action figures myself. My brother did, though.
Anyway, it had a kind of plot, and some character development. I thought it might be a bit two-dimensional, but it really wasn't. For the kind of action movie that I go to see largely for the explosions and chase-scenes--well, yes, it delivered big-time on things getting obliterated in surround-sound, and for what it's worth, the "things getting busted up" scenes were every bit as good as, say, a Terminator flick, but there was a quality--let's call it story?
The story starts with the original McCullen arms dealer, who in a story-setting moment, explains that his family of arms dealers will run the wars of the future, right before being sealed into an iron mask. His descendant, played by Christopher Eccleston (a Doctor Who! being very villiany!) is an arms dealer with a really great nano-weapon, that is being transported by Duke (Tatum Channing) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans, who is actually really funny and good in this. As in, I think another G.I. Joe movie with more Ripcord would be nice. His scenes with Scarlett--Rachel Nichols were pretty enjoyable.)
Anyway, as Duke and Ripcord and their military contingent are transporting the nanoweapon, they are set upon by a bunch of very bad guys,apparently led by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), who was one of my fovorite characters of the old cartoon (but had a kind of Eastern European accent back then) and is just another super hot and dangerous, black-clad, assassin-skillz chick with cool glasses, who happens to be Duke's ex-fiance. The transport team, but especially Duke and Ripcord, try to fight the baddies off, but it's the G.I.Joes team's intercession that really saves the day.
I'm going to stop right there--see the movie. Yes, the plot quirks do seem to be not merely foreshadowed, as telegraphed. See it!
Yes, it is about the toys, comics, cartoons you recall--and how cool is that? See it!
There is an underwater evil lair. There are backstories. It explains how "Cobra" came to be--and you'll also see gazillions of automobiles destroyed and even the Eiffel Tower gets smushed.
In other words, it really prepares you for G.I.Joe II: The Inevitable Sequel.
But I thought it was really fun. So see it.
It was a timely summer-style blockbuster action movie. My favorite kind.
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