G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Wanderer wrote:

When the movie stopped for expositions (or flashbacks), the pace slowed and the seams showed. These aren't inherently interesting characters and I found it hard to care about their angst.

I found the rift between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow to be fascinating..... but yeah, in retrospect, I do find the interpersonal relationship between Duke, The Baroness and CC to be a tad too manufactured and convenient.  From what my brother was telling me, that was a pretty sharp deviation from the original source material.

Wanderer wrote:

The music is wall-to-wall and undermixed, practically hidden underneath the sound effects and dialogue.

See what I mean?  I do think this is one of those cases where the album makes for a better listen outside of the film.  (On that note, I put in an order for the Van Helsing soundtrack.  I'll hold off on The Mummy Returns till I see the film.)

Glad you gave the movie a chance enough to enjoy it.  Lesson for the summer: don't let trailers deceive you.  Just as great-looking trailers can end up churning out shitty films, so too can awful-looking ones turn out decent.  Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Wanderer wrote:

I forgave a lot of the Duke stuff because I found Channing Tatum to be easy on the eyes. I was less forgiving towards Ripcord and his terrible one-liners. If it's one thing the movie failed on, it's the jokes.

I find it funny to see the guy (Tatum) getting big movie roles now, being an acquaintance of one of his ex-girlfriends.  Haven't seen the movie itself but so long as the guy has some acting chops I can't complain.

Angela wrote:

"[b]I'm gonna make a scary comparison, but from my point of view, it's a positive one:  it may well turn out to be this year's "Speed Racer."

That kinda did hold true, both were mindless boring ultrashitty pieces of wasted time.

Watched this recently and oh boy, I can't even start to decipher how shitty this was. But then, seems that Hollywood can't anymore produce a proper action film even if they would have the best script, best cast, best director etc.. And now I'm wasting my time watching yet another overproduced / raped Hollywood action (or should I say boring) movie; Terminator: Salvation. Really what in the hell has happened to plain good old hollywood action movies.

These movies might be nice to eyes on screen, but then it's just like eating cardboard. And this is coming from someone who usually enjoys action movies.

Razakin wrote:

Angela wrote:

"[b]I'm gonna make a scary comparison, but from my point of view, it's a positive one:  it may well turn out to be this year's "Speed Racer."

That kinda did hold true, both were mindless boring ultrashitty pieces of wasted time.

Inb4 Shitstorm.

Adam Corn wrote:

For me the fact that the director is Stephen Sommers, the man behind the first two Mummy movies and Van Helsing, was enough to make me avoid the movie.  The man has no feel for drama, a sense of humor that's adolescent at best, and is apparently completely oblivious to awful special effects.

And yet you readily gave Bay's Transformers 2 a chance?  Baffled be I.

Adam Corn wrote:

the Mummy movies and Van Helsing were not.

But at least Van Helsing had Kate Beckinsale.

Adam Corn wrote:

What's to be baffled by?  Transformers 1 was a decent movie, the Mummy movies and Van Helsing were not.  And at the very least Transformers did have good special effects.

Subjective reasoning, I suppose.  Your statement, "the man has no feel for drama" and "a sense of humor that's adolescent at best" just seems to encapsulate Bay so much better.  Especially after Transformers 2.

Adam Corn wrote:

This thread is making me curious as to just how bad G.I. Joe is so I might give it a rental in the next week or two.

Knowing now where you stand with Sommers will make your opinion on the film all the more interesting to read.  It seems, though, you've built yourself up to believe that it's going to be anything but good.  Negativity does tend to stand out more, so I suppose Razakin's estimate on the movie had more sway than mine or Wanderer's.  (It's kind of hard to discern whether Smeg liked the film as a whole or not.)

Adam Corn wrote:

If you're going to pummel it so mercilessly it probably wouldn't hurt to try.

Well, even if it was a movie based on comic books / series of toys, the whole movie just felt so stale that I didn't get much grip nor interest to watch it, even if I waited to see that movie, thanks to reading the old comics in my youth and playing with the figures.

Also, there was just some odd wtf-moments which really did annoy me, even if it was action movie where physics and other things are usually removed nicely, for example Scarlet's bike jump on Paris, I actually did recheck it again to see what the f--- she did with the bike, jumping few meters on the air with that bike. I mean give her a G.I. Joe special bike and I can easily see tha happen. Also the part where Baroness flies Duke off to the arctic, without much wearing any warm clothes and not saying anything about the place being cold, but bit later in the movie when Ripchord & co. arrives, they with proper clothes do say how cold is the place.

Also, you're pretty spot on Joe lacking on special effects. Usually Sommers movies do have better, atleast the first two Mummies did have nice effects when they did come up, and they were even good action movies. Haven't seen Van Helsing and probably will not see it, even if it has Wolverine and Beckinsale.

Adam Corn wrote:

Also I'm curious what action movies you normally like that you're comparing it to.  It's rare that I find a flat-out action movie that I really enjoy.

Well, I like my modern (as in 2000 and onwards) action movies with good action, humor and usually depending on the plot, not taking themselves so serious, like the brilliant Crank-series. But when the movie goes beyond 'switch the brains off and  enjoy the popcorns', even I with my seriously low taste buds start saying that the movie is horrible piece of shit.

Also, I want to say even if Michael Bay did butcher Transformers, I can't hate him because of The Rock. Though, I do believe that someone else directed it, but he did take the credits.

Ashley Winchester wrote:

I have to agree with you on this one, the plot in Salvation was so overthought. Then to have people tell me I was overthinking it by saying it was overthought pretty much sums up my opinion of modern day cinema - and action movies.

Well, the plot also nicely forgot everything about peopel did know about the war against Skynet. Or atleast I did never get the feeling that the resistance would have helicopters and A-10 Warhogs at their use. I always had the feeling it should be gritty, brutal, dark urban city guerrilla fights on the ruins of cities and in the sewers. But noooo, that what happens when shitty director and guys who partially wrote Catwoman to write the  script. I really do wonder if they even had seen original two movies. And to be honest, I could watch Joe again with ease than suffer the mindboring shit that Salvation was. Heck, even Bale didn't care to act on it. Though, that movie had one good part, the part where Marcus did talk with the computer played by Helena Bonham Carter. Also, the homages to earlier movies felt like "We must show that we know the earlier movies, hey let's use same kind of scenes + views to show it!".

Last edited by Razakin (Nov 6, 10:48)

Ashley Winchester wrote:

Razakin wrote:

Heck, even Bale didn't care to act on it. Though, that movie had one good part, the part where Marcus did talk with the computer played by Helena Bonham Carter.

Dude, Marcus' character really stole the whole movie. Bale may have fit the look I was expecting for John Connor (and he looks like a legitamate, dead-on older upgrade of T3's younger Connor) but he certainly didn't bring the series main character to life.

Marcus was the point of the movie and the part that Bale was originally offered. He insisted on portraying Connor, which was intended to be a smaller part. The movie could have been much more compelling if the concept of the Marcus character had remained the sole focus, but that would only have happened if Bale had accepted the part - which would mean no Sam Worthington, who was excellent in the role.

It's a catch-22; either way, Bale ruins Salvation.

Last edited by Smeg (Nov 6, 20:31)

One of my friends told me that G.I. Joe was actually a good movie, unlike the recent Transformers. He just expected it to be crap, as one would rightly reckon. That's because it does look like crap. But now that I've heard a confirmation in person that it's 'good' and my discovery it stars 이병헌 (he plays Storm Shadow), I'm going to have to watch it. He played a gangster in one of my favorite Korean movies - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456912/