wherein Liz watches GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
I went in expecting a dumb action movie and that is exactly what I got. :-)
This is the kind of movie where it is vital to have the correct mindset upon watching. If you are looking for good science, good characterization, good plot, or anything other than pretty people running around and stuff blowing up, you are going to come out thinking, "That sucked." But if all you are looking for is pretty people and explosions, you come out thinking, "That was so stupid, but damn if it wasn't fun!"
I have long experience with bad action movies, so the second mindset is second nature to me at this point. It has provided me hours of entertainment and saved me from many headaches over the years. :-)
...
The villains are the best part of the movie, as they so often are. Christopher Eccleston looks damn good in his suits, Byung-Hun Lee is a seriously awesome ninja (and gets some snazzy clothes himself), Sienna Miller gets to actually be effective (and my god, I covet her glasses... not the shoes, though; ow, heels), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is having a ball playing mad scientist. (And he is, of course, the entire reason I watched the movie. *grin*) McCullen's plan is perhaps overly complicated, but damn if it doesn't work... and so does the Doctor's. Yeah, they look like they failed, but the last scene (which is such blatant sequel bait) makes it pretty clear this is only a temporary setback.
The Joes are just kind of there, by comparison, though the bit about hacking a corpse's brain is, I admit, pretty awesome.
...
You cannot think too hard about the ~science~ here, nor about the special effects. I mean, the only way Ripcord could get from Moscow to D. C. in the relevant time window is to jump through a wormhole. And the underwater fight scene does not behave as if water resistance exists; it looks like an air or space fight with some visual ripples and a greenish tint thrown in as a token gesture toward the ocean.
You cannot think too hard about a bunch of things, actually. Like, if the Pit is filled with thousands of soldiers, why do only about fifty come out to fight the MARS extraction team? Why did nobody notice that Rex was kind of off if he could go sideways at the drop of a hat? Why didn't Ripcord knock Duke upside the head and make him talk to Anna four years ago, since he clearly ships them as a couple? Why isn't that telepresence technology more widespread -- seriously, do you know how much money McCullen could have made off it if he sold to companies and civilian government organizations as well as to the military?
Stuff like that.
But those are the questions that I tuck aside and don't pay attention to while I'm watching, except when I want to mock the ridiculousness on the screen, because GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a bad action movie, and one has to expect things like this of bad action movies.
Besides, this is a film that has a completely unexplained ninja integrated into an ultra-modern international military force. Once you roll with that, it's all good. :-D
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This is the kind of movie where it is vital to have the correct mindset upon watching. If you are looking for good science, good characterization, good plot, or anything other than pretty people running around and stuff blowing up, you are going to come out thinking, "That sucked." But if all you are looking for is pretty people and explosions, you come out thinking, "That was so stupid, but damn if it wasn't fun!"
I have long experience with bad action movies, so the second mindset is second nature to me at this point. It has provided me hours of entertainment and saved me from many headaches over the years. :-)
...
The villains are the best part of the movie, as they so often are. Christopher Eccleston looks damn good in his suits, Byung-Hun Lee is a seriously awesome ninja (and gets some snazzy clothes himself), Sienna Miller gets to actually be effective (and my god, I covet her glasses... not the shoes, though; ow, heels), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is having a ball playing mad scientist. (And he is, of course, the entire reason I watched the movie. *grin*) McCullen's plan is perhaps overly complicated, but damn if it doesn't work... and so does the Doctor's. Yeah, they look like they failed, but the last scene (which is such blatant sequel bait) makes it pretty clear this is only a temporary setback.
The Joes are just kind of there, by comparison, though the bit about hacking a corpse's brain is, I admit, pretty awesome.
...
You cannot think too hard about the ~science~ here, nor about the special effects. I mean, the only way Ripcord could get from Moscow to D. C. in the relevant time window is to jump through a wormhole. And the underwater fight scene does not behave as if water resistance exists; it looks like an air or space fight with some visual ripples and a greenish tint thrown in as a token gesture toward the ocean.
You cannot think too hard about a bunch of things, actually. Like, if the Pit is filled with thousands of soldiers, why do only about fifty come out to fight the MARS extraction team? Why did nobody notice that Rex was kind of off if he could go sideways at the drop of a hat? Why didn't Ripcord knock Duke upside the head and make him talk to Anna four years ago, since he clearly ships them as a couple? Why isn't that telepresence technology more widespread -- seriously, do you know how much money McCullen could have made off it if he sold to companies and civilian government organizations as well as to the military?
Stuff like that.
But those are the questions that I tuck aside and don't pay attention to while I'm watching, except when I want to mock the ridiculousness on the screen, because GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a bad action movie, and one has to expect things like this of bad action movies.
Besides, this is a film that has a completely unexplained ninja integrated into an ultra-modern international military force. Once you roll with that, it's all good. :-D
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)