G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

When Transformers was first announced, there was plenty of doubt to whether or not they could pull it off.  It was a cheesey premise from an eighties movie wrought with what seemed like impossible special effects.  When it was released, it blew most everyone's minds and became a worldwide phenomenon paving the way for Hasbro's other key male property, G.I. Joe.

QUALITY:
Decent.  The picture stays clear most of the time but the blacks aren't all that black and there are grainy points.  The sound is completely lossless and booming.

BONUS FEATURES:
This is where the DVD gets weak.  Althought it includes a digital copy which is nice, there is little else to be excited about.  There is commentary by the director and producer, a making-of documentary and a featurette showcasing the special effects.

ACTING:
It's an action movie, what are you looking for here?  Channing Tatum is, well, Channing Tatum, nothing exceedingly reaching for him here.  Sienna Miller is decent as a scorned bad girl.  Marlon Wayans character is a bit forced as the comic relief and most of his joked fall flat.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the real standout, disguising his voice to the point where I thought it was a voiceover until I looked up that it was not.

STORY:
The movie falls into plenty of action movie cliches and borrows heavily from two of Paramount's other huge properties, Iron Man and the aforementioned Transformers.  The movie starts similarly to the latter, with an attack on a military convoy carrying an important cargo (in this case, weapons instead of Robert Downey Jr.).  The sweeping cameras and low angles are an obvious attempt to mimic Jerry Bruckheimer's overdramatic style (don't be fooled, this is NOT a Bruckheimer production like Transformers). 

Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) still struggles to find his own trademark and doesn't make any ground with G.I. Joe.  With that said, the movie isn't a complete failure by any means.  I didn't find myself bored for extended periods of time as the movie remained at a steady pace throughout.  The biggest complaint, storywise, was more than half the movie focusing on an attack on the Eifel Tower (as seen in the trailers) making seem as though this is the main plot of the movie.  All in all, the movie is a decently fun ride but this release is not all that impressive.