G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) - Movie Review

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra stars (in no particular order) Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans, Rachel Nichols, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jonathan Pryce and several others. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Cobra Commander, although he doesn't reveal himself until the end as the mastermind behind the whole story of the movie. Cobra Commander played everyone off each other as best he could, but eventually was caught. Oops, I gave away the ending. Wait, if you have ever seen a G.I. Joe cartoon or read a comic book, then you should know that either Cobra Commander is caught or escapes. One of his lieutenants is usually caught as well.

I do have many favorite scenes in this movie but what I like the most is the special effects. The plasma cannons are pretty good, and the way the editors slowed them down for full effect was pretty cool. The nanomite warheads taking out the Eiffel Tower was pretty awesome. The different weapons that each character used was pretty cool, like the suits that Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) war running across Paris to stop The Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Stormshadow (Byung-hun Lee). I also liked when Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) was injected with nanomites in order to change his face to look like the President (Jonathan Pryce).

One of my favorite scenes is when The Baroness, Stormshadow and Zartan locate the G.I. Joe base and attack. They are there to steal the nanomite warheads for McCullen (Christopher Eccleston), who actually made them but wants them for himself. After a long fight The Baroness and Stormshadow escape successfully with the warheads.

My next favorite, the best scene, is the chase scene through Paris. There is a lot going on in this scene. You have Snake Eyes (Ray Park) on top of or underneath the vehicle that The Baroness and Stormshadow are in. Duke and Ripcord are chasing after the same vehicle wearing suits that enhance their every move. Duke and Ripcord even jump over, or through as is the case for Ripcord, a train. The train incidentally flipped the vehicle in which The Baroness and Stormshadow are in. The scene culminates with Stormshadow firing one of the warheads at the Eiffel Tower. The nanomites eat half of the tower and many other metal objects before Duke is able to hit the kill switch.

I am only going to describe two scenes this time, since I described some of the special effects and the weapons that were used by some of the characters.

I give this an 8 out of 10 stars though, even though I liked the special effects. There just wasn't much of a story. The writers, director and producers tried to put in some of the back stories of many of the characters, but it just didn't work for me. If it wasn't for the special effects, and Rachel Nichols as Scarlett, the score would be lower. Rachel Nichols is hot, more so as a redhead. Just my opinion.