Critique: GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra

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GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra Movie PosterSo sometimes your childhood gets the better of you as an adult. This can be said of many things, but in this case it is about my choice of cartoon viewing habits from that time.

GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra (IMDB Link) is something I actually wanted to watch, no one forced me. Ok, feel free hassle me about my lack of critical thinking skills and my inability to realize this was a popcorn movie that meant largely nothing in terms of cinematic quality. However, my point is this… I still to this day in my mid-thirties recall most of these characters’ names and back stories. So, I was a sucker and got the damned Pay-Per-View on DirecTV.

The story is weak, seems very geared towards teenagers, blah blah blah. You can figure this out without seeing it. My real complaint with this movie is just something it demonstrated beautifully, CG effects do NOT replace the brilliant work of stuntmen.

CG effects look cheap. Even the best ones. Can you imagine if jaws was a CG or the deathstar? I realize that James Cameron has decided to take the debacle he made with Titanic and turn it into a movie that is 70% CG in Avatar, but that doesn’t mean it is for the best.

Listen, the reason these movies can get away with this is because we accept it. It was fine with me for scenes that are impossible to be done otherwise, but it is when they get beyond it where I have issues.

When we have something simple like a car chase or a building exploding, why would we take a otherwise normal movie and turn it into a computer generated cartoon? It draws me out of the experience every time. I find myself looking at it and judging how well or poorly it was executed. Over use of these things is not progress in movie making when it is used this way. Using it as a highlight is one thing, using it to be lazy and abandon the true art of movie making and the use of visual illusion is a massive step back.

The conclusion? The movie is meant to be visually entertaining, it is a bit long in duration and short in storyline. Am I glad I watched it, yes? For the viewing experience more so than the inspiration for this blog post? Probably not.

About TwitMediaCritic

Broadcast veteran, A/V production snob, jaded editorialist, cynical media consumer, skeptical of the existence of true journalism. Card carrying Libertarian and proud American.

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