G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA (2009, Blu-ray released November 3, 2009 – MSRP $39.99)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is one of the silliest, most ridiculous films to come out of the blockbuster cinema season of 2009. It’s also one of the best, most mindlessly enjoyable action-romps you’ll have the pleasure of suffering through all year!
I admit. I was one of those G.I. Joe kids. I’m talking the little 80s incarnation here, not the taller, bearded Barbie-for-boys version of the 70s. I had a lot of those little 3 3/4″ toys. Most of the action figures and some of the vehicles. I was never allowed the larger aircraft-carrier, secret-base type of toys. But I had my fair share of Joe stuff. Needless to say, I went into viewing the new live action film with a lot of nerd-knowledge under my belt.
So, that being said, you’d expect me to come down hard on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. But you know what? I actually kind-of dig it! Oh, it’s full of ridiculous ideas (using a particle accelerator to weaponize a warhead filled with tiny metal-devouring robots for instance) and ham-fisted characterization but it manages to charm both the film and Joe nerd in me. It’s loud, large, bombastic and silly, jetting from dusty caravan roads in Kyrgyzstan to a secret base in Egypt, from busy Paris streets to the frozen Arctic wastes like a sugar-spiked kid big-wheeling around the neighbourhood. It never lets you take a breath to stop and consider the ludicrous nature of its plot, its villains or its science. It’s full steam ahead like a carnival ride on crack, throwing at us as many men in robot accelerator suits, battling ninjas, mad doctors and bull-headed army guys as it can conceive of. Full boar, manic cinematic popcorn at its most successful. But is it G.I. Joe?
Yeah, I guess so. It’s close enough I’d say. It’s set up as an origin story, so it carries the caveat of not having all the franchises pieces quite in their right places yet. Duke, the eventual leader of the Joe team, only officially joins his crew half way through the film. The titular villain, the terrorist organization Cobra only takes form at the very end of the film. And while some liberty has been taken with a handful of the character relationships as we fans knew them, it never compromises the franchise on the whole. The film feels like a G.I. Joe movie should. I anxiously await the sequel!
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra could not look or sound better on Blu-ray disc! Paramount has delivered another knock-out demo disc to wow your friends. With a rock solid, pitch-perfect, high-bitrate 1080p AVC transfer and speaker busting DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio, you’re really not going to go wrong using this disc to show off your home theatre. But as much as the studio got right with the transfer and encode on this disc, they got wrong with its special features.
I feel a feeling that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was rushed onto Blu-ray. I’m not sure why. We’ve got another month and a half before the holiday season hits its peak. The two disc set from Paramount feels a bit light on features, despite the fact that this film is a perfect candidate for a full blown, multi-disc special edition set. Perhaps that was the idea all along – quickie 2-disc affair before holiday 2009, followed by larger, longer, more robust Ultimate Edition sometime in 2011. Who can say? In any case, the commentary by director Stephen Sommers is probably the best of the limited extras on the discs. He’s quite candid, even going so far as to slam some of the effect work, and provides a good deal of detail into the making of the film. That’s all for disc one of the set.
Disc two is a DVD. Yes, you read that correctly. A DVD. Another sign that this set was rushed to retail. It houses some trailers, the digital copy of the film and a couple of featurettes chronicling the making of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Both are merely decent, while giving the feeling that there was a lot left to be said. I would’ve enjoyed hearing more from Joe comic/toy writer, Larry Hama. And how about a little look back at the toy line, the comic and the cartoon that made the franchise what it is today. There’s so much that could have been done with this 2 Disc set, it’s a shame we’ll have to wait for its inevitable upgrade to see more. At least the feature is a home run here. That’s what really matters, right?
Previously on The Blu-ray Blog: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Blu-ray Announced and Detailed
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