G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Summary

“Knowing is half the battle.”

Paramount Pictures has just released both G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra and the sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation on 4K UHD. I had held off watching the two films, but with the release of Snake Eyes coming up, I thought it would be fun to check them out with my oldest son. The first film was directed by Stephen Sommers, who is probably best known for his film The Mummy starring Brendan Frasier (who has a small cameo here.) Having read reviews from when the film was released in 2009, I kept my expectations for the film fairly low. 

Like most adults my age, I grew up watching the incredible animated television series and reading the Marvel comic books as a child. In fact, at one point I dressed in camo and only answered to G.I. Jake. I think this at the very least makes me qualified enough to judge the film to see if it brings to screen what we enjoyed about G.I.Joe in the Eighties. Over the weekend I watched The Rise of Cobra.

The film begins in France in 1641 as the leader of Clan McCullen has been arrested. Instead of putting him to death, he is sentenced to wearing an iron mask.

In the not too distant future – McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) owns a large weapons dealer named MARS – Military Armament Research Syndicate. MARS deals with NATO. MARS has developed the Nanomites – a specialized weapon that is able to eat metal and continue to spread out destroying anything from tanks to buildings until a command is sent to disband. It’s a controllable weapon that can decimate a city quickly. The first delivery of the weapon is meant to arrive at NATO from the MARS WEAPON COMPOUND. Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) leads the convoy carrying the weapons. Their air support is shot out of the sky by an aggressively maneuvering and capable helicopter. Onboard is Baroness (Sienna Miller.) In an encounter with Duke, she doesn’t kill him when she has a chance because he used to be her fiancee when she was named Ana Lewis. Snake eyes (Ray Park,) Scarlet (Rachel Nichols,) Breaker (Said Taghmaoui,) and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) save the two remaining men and ask for the package. Duke refuses to let the package out of his grasp. The team shows Duke and Ripcord a hologram with General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) letting them know to ride with the Alpha team. They fly to a secret base in Egypt where they debrief. McCullen through a hologram examines the package. McCullen rides in a submarine to his underwater lair. He talks with Baroness via hologram and scolds her for the botched weapons theft. In his lair a mysterious doctor has found a way to use the nanomites inside of a group of super soldiers to have more control over them. Four years earlier, Duke had proposed to Ana and she had said yes. She had asked for him to keep her brother Rex (Joseph Gordon Levitt) safe. On the mission he had called in an air strike on a building five minutes out when Rex would be finished with his duties. The air strike he called in arrives early and The building is exploded with Rex in it. Having let Ana down, he couldn’t face her. The plot revolves around the struggle between the forces of the Alpha team and McCullen team which includes Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) and Zartan (Arnold Vosloo.)

Black Eyed Peas songs have aged poorly. So has this film. It is full of CGI that looks very dated now. I really enjoyed earlier films by Stephen Sommers – especially Deep Rising which I think is wonderful- but this film does not work very well on an adult level. It just feels like too much at all times. There is so much CGI and so little character development, I felt bored. That said, my oldest son (who is eleven) had no complaints when we watched it, likewise his six year old brother. They both loved it, so I am not sure that my complaints about the film are fully justified. Was this film written with a mid thirties adult as it’s audience? I don’t think so.

The casting in the film is not the issue. Whenever the action scenes focus on hand to hand combat – such as the flashback sequence that shows Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow fighting as children – the film works.  Storm Shadow is played by Korean actor Lee-Byung Hun who is a fantastic actor in the films I Saw The Devil and Joint Security Area. His pedigree is much better than the material he is working with and that feels like the case with the whole cast. Dennis Quaid as Hawk? That’s perfect casting. Sienna Miller as Baroness? I like it. The rest of the cast does what they can in their roles, but the dialogue is stilted and the film is really just a CGI generated movie that does not have much room for actors to act. The CGI does allow for the film to take place in crazy bases like in the show, but all one needs to do is watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier to understand how much better done these types of films can be.

At the end of the day, this movie is not what I wanted out of a G.I. Joe movie, but it made my two boys happy. If you are considering a purchase, knowing this is half the battle.

Video

It is no fault of Paramount, but the 4K UHD treatment for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is largely unimpressive. The issue is the source material itself which comes from a 2K digital intermediate. There is only so much that can be done in bringing a 4K to life from a 2K source. Texturally, there is not a huge leap from Blu-ray to 4K. That said, the HDR is employed with skill and makes some of the colors more vibrant. If I owned the Blu-ray, this would not be a significant enough upgrade to recommend a purchase.

Audio

Paramount has supplied a strong DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. This is probably the same track as on the prior release, but it holds up well. This is a good track. It is loud and forceful with a lot of LFE and immersion. Fans of the film will not be disappointed.

Supplements:

• • Audio Commentary with director Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay

Overall Scores: 

Video – 3.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 2.5/5

Overall – 3/5

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is just not very good for an adult audience. I was checking my watch frequently to see when the film would end which is a bad sign. That said, the casting in the film is solid and my two boys really enjoyed the picture. I think it is safe to say that the film was not written with my demographic in mind. The new 4K UHD of the film only offers a modest upgrade visually because the source was a 2K digital intermediate. This is the best presentation of the film, but it is only a recommended upgrade if you don’t currently own the Blu-ray or if you are a massive fan of the film.