G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Doesn’t hold up as well over time

I’m writing this review after none other than my third viewing of ‘GI Joe.’ After I initially watched it, I ever went as far as to buy it.  Yes, I know it’s no work of art, but I enjoyed it enough for what it was –and what it was is a simple, no-frills action movie (mainly for kids, I guess). 

I never actually played with the toys when I was younger, so I can’t say how faithful the film is to the toy-line, but the characters were pretty easy to define as either ‘good’ or ‘evil.’ And I enjoyed it quite a bit, both the first and second time I sat through it.  However, after a third viewing, something didn’t quite sit so well with me.

I know it’s minor, but somehow the special effects just didn’t seem that special any more.  Okay, so I probably could tell that real people couldn’t really jump over (and through) trains on my first two viewings, but this time round everything just came across as too computer-generated – almost to the point of totally destroying what little realism there was in the film.

That said, it was still an okay watch.  It’s pretty much aimed at kids.  The characters are hardly three dimensional and are more ‘cool’ than well-rounded (probably in a bid to sell yet more toys in their likeness).

Like I said... the primary audience is probably young boys, not really fully-grown men like me, but it’s a decent enough story about a terrible tyrant trying to manufacture weapons that will take over the world and a team of special operation good guys who are out to stop him.

Dennis Quid is probably the stand-out of the film, but he’s not young enough to be the star, so his parts – although fun – are limited.  Although, even if you are a fully-grown man, you’ll probably appreciate Sienna Miller’s *ahem* ‘performance’ in the movie (and when I say ‘performance’ I mean costume). 

Whether this is a good film or not, it’ll probably keep the young boys happy on a Saturday afternoon (at least until the new Star Wars films come out).  But could someone explain to me why they needed to cast a British actor to play the President of America?  Surely there are enough American middle-aged actors who could play the small part just fine?

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that