MOVIE REVIEW: "G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA"

     With the overblown success of the Transformers movies, the obvious choice for any toy franchise turned into a movie is of course G.I. Joe. If you were born anytime between 1977 and 1990 (and most likely, a boy) you grew up with the 1980's "G.I. Joe". As Hollywood yet again takes everything you loved from your childhood and make it into a multi-million dollar blockbuster and to sell more toys to a whole new generation of kids (and guess what...it's working!).
     M.A.R.S., run by James McCullen/Destro (Christopher Eccleston) is the world's leading weapons technology developer and their latest weapon of mass destruction are warheads containing metal-eating nanomites. As a NATO force transports the weapon, they are ambushed by COBRA, "a ruthless, terrorist organization, determined to control the world!" along with The Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) As new recruits Duke and Ripcord join the G.I. Joe team along with Snake-Eyes (Ray Park) and Scarlet (Rachel Nichols), led by General Hawk (Dennis Quaid). It's a race against time as COBRA plan to use the nanomite weapon to destroy the major cities of the world starting with Paris and the Eifel Tower.
     The movie is saturated with the usual CGI special effects, over the top action sequences and the typical martial arts fight choreography you would come to expect. But in reality you can't have G.I. Joe without all that. Anyone that complains it's too much special effects or too much camp, obviously never watched the show and enjoyed it. An extra special treat was having Ray Park (Darth Maul in "Star Wars: Ep.I" and Toad in "X-Men") play Snake-Eyes (one of my personal favorites), which was a perfect choice. For a character who never says a word, he definitely made him come alive!
     Despite the hype and obvious mass-marketing aspects of the movie. "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra" is a fun and entertaining, action movie. What more do you want from a movie made from toys. I must admit going into this I had my doubts as I was not a fan of director Stephen Sommers ("The Mummy" franchise and "Van Helsing"). But I was a huge G.I. Joe kid since 1983, and I must commend Sommers for staying true to the source material. If you were a fan of G.I. Joe or just want a fun movie experience well, now you know..."and knowing is half the battle." "Yo Joe!"