Two soldiers, along with a couple dozen comrades, are escorting a vital cargo: new nanobombs. Their convoy is ambushed, and attempts are made to seize the valuable cargo. The two soldiers fight to the bitter end until reinforcements arrive: strange ninjas with swords, pistols, and crossbows, who shred the equally strange attackers to pieces. This is the secret “GI Joe” unit, into which our recruits are accepted after weeks of training and exams. Their mission is to find the one who kidnapped and ultimately stole the warheads and save the world. It soon becomes clear that the “Cobra” organization is engaged in the production and smuggling of weapons and intends to gain control of the world.
From Toys to the Big Screen: G.I. Joe Takes on Cobra
Book adaptations rarely become blockbusters (yes, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (2009) is an exception). Comic books will eventually run out of material. However, one of the best franchises of the decade became an adaptation of a Disney amusement park attraction – “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003). Then, Hasbro adapted children’s toys – “Transformers” (2007). And now we have “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” (2009), an adaptation of toy soldiers from the same Japanese toy magnate. The producers are the same as those of “Transformers,” and we know director Stephen Sommers from the first two “Mummy” films (2001).
Just as with “Transformers,” the creators of “Rise of Cobra” had a wealth of material to draw from – the toy soldiers appeared in comics and cartoons, and their universe – actually our universe in about ten years – is well-developed. As with “Transformers,” the film starts at the very beginning – the team of good guys has been around for a while, and the bad guys are just becoming the comic book villains that will last for half a dozen more franchise installments. Newcomers understand everything, and fans remember where it all came from. This is clearly meant to last: by the final scenes, we realize that the producers have at least three more “Cobras” up their sleeves, at least if the first one does well.
Action-Packed Spectacle
And it will do well, no doubt about it. There are enough explosions, aerial battles, underwater battles, thermo-optical camouflage, sword fights, and soldier-enhancing exoskeletons here for five films. Two rather conventional love stories, an evil heroine, a mad scientist, idiotic generals – what else could you need?
Sommers honestly admitted that “Rise of Cobra” is his closest attempt at a Bond film. And it is – Bond isn’t what he used to be, but here we have a beauty taking off a latex suit – and underneath it is an evening dress. The rockets are built into a Hummer, not an Aston Martin, which is even more logical. But the battles on small submarines (parodied even in the latest Bond film for hamsters, pardon, guinea pigs, in “G-Force” (2009)) are much, much more exciting than in “Thunderball” (1965) – computer graphics hadn’t been invented in 1965. Sommers specifically read weapons magazines, and all the futuristic weapons he filmed, he says, will be invented no later than twenty years from now.
Simple Fun or Interactive Entertainment?
“Rise of Cobra” is a remarkably simple film. It doesn’t have the post-apocalyptic art-house pathos and the struggle for survival like in “Terminator Salvation” (2009). It doesn’t have giant iron eggs and cruel robot pornography for children like in “Transformers.” People fight people in it, which seems to be a rarity these days, and fans of absurd spectacles are treated to an Eiffel Tower, eaten by nanobugs, falling into the Seine. True, some people look for great myths in cinema, the confrontation between man and machine, the clarification of what man actually is, or what it’s like for man against the backdrop of a battle of titans – but unfortunately, none of this is found here.
So “Rise of Cobra” has no competitors in the cinema. But it does have them outside. In general, you should think carefully about whether to go to the cinema for two hours or buy a new “Call of Duty,” for example. There they shoot and explode, and here they do too, but behind the monitor, at least you do it yourself. But in the cinema, you can kill only two hours, and with a girl, beer, and popcorn, while playing the game takes at least six, and alone.