Introduction
Hi. If you're new here, this is a movie discussion blog. Or ranting, I suppose. I will do my bestest not to spoil the movie.
What I know about it
This was really famous back in '09. Like, the hype was real. I'm not familiar with "G.I. Joe" itself, I know the original source is a comics, but that's as far as my knowledge goes.
The Movie
I'm going to go ahead and ignore the entire plot in this summary. What I want to focus on is the two sides in this movie; the "good guys" and the "bad guys".
Duke Haussier (Channing Tatum) and Rip Cord (Marlon Wayans) were transporting a dangerous weapon device (Warheads) when they were ambushed by the bad guys (let's call them Baddies) but fails to steal the Warheads from them. Duke recognizes his ex-fiance as one of the Baddies, which kinda became his ticket into joining the Joes.
We get to meet the rest of the Joes from there, does training, gets introduced with lots of cool tech and mecha stuff. It's cool and all, but not as super impressed compared to the Baddies arriving to attempt and retrieve the Warheads again. They succeed this time, and boy, Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee) and Ana/Baroness (Sienna Miller) really killed them Joes. (Zartan is with them but I wanted to focus on these two).
Come on, even with all this cool tech, it's not as impressive. Like when Scarlet used some invisibility jacket and then it got wet, so that failed. They have mecha suits but when Ana shoots them with some shockwave gun, they were nothing lol.
And don't get me started with the car chase scene. The Baddies just got cooler and cooler. Their truck is impenetrable, and honestly, beats all the gadgets and tech that the Joes have.
Storm Shadow and Ana (Baroness)
Also, low-key loved how Ana (all-black wearing black leather) and Storm Shadow's (all-white fabric) clothing compliments each other. Storm Shadow uses swords while Ana uses a gun. I would have written a fanfiction about them if I discovered about fanfiction at the time lol.
"If he touched you again, I would kill him." - Not accurate, this was almost 20 years ago lol. But I loved this from Storm Shadow's dialogue when he was threatening to kill Ana's husband (whom she married for evil science purposes) when they kissed.
"I told you I'd kill him if he touched you again." - Again, not accurate. But this was cute lol.
"Next time, I'll drive." - Ana telling the dead driver of their truck. Gotta love her haha.
These two are probably the only reason I re-watched this movie over and over. And inspired me how to write hotshot villains. No offense Duke and Rip, or your super mecha armor, but none of you have anything against Storm Shadow and the Baroness.
Downgraded to highlight the Joes
I don't like and super don't like it when female characters are downgraded to highlight the male MC. All of the sudden, after Ana remembers Duke and whatever-explanation-there-was-that-her-feelings-for-him-were-restored, she was weak (?). What happened to the Baroness I've been watching in the last hundred minutes of this movie? Like a split personality shoved to the side, that version was just gone.
For the Storm Shadow vs Snake Eyes thing, I don't know if the backstory in the film is the same with the original material, but I'm not very happy with how it ended either. Storm Shadow was unbeatable but then he was. Or he got soft (I forgot). But I guess it was fair because childhood flashback said if Snake Eyes used the double-weapon thingy, he gets to beat Storm Shadow. Any other weapon, Storm Shadow would win, just not that lol.
What happened?
I know nothing of the real story behind this, but I think just like any adaptation film (whether from books, games or comics), there are expectations to be met, especially for hardcore or existing fans of the franchise. And if they sway from the material... things are bound to go south.
Adaptation film expectations from source material (from existing fans of the franchise) vs Film expectations (of those hearing the franchise the first time). I'm going to use my own expectations experience for this one.
I'm going to bring up Uncharted (2022) movie for this one, so I can relate to what G.I. Joe fans feel about G.I. Joe ROC. So Uncharted, one of my favorite video games, was adapted into a movie starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. I love both actors and I had so much hope that the movie would be good with them in the cast. But then... Nate is in his teens? Victor Sullivan is not an old man with his iconic cigar? I'm sorry, but what in the world happened Chloe Frazer in this movie? She was a voluptuous, skillful thief in the game, but why did she seem like a young woman who wore her mother's costume to be her? I get it, they took themes from the game that was added to the film, made sure viewers weren't overwhelmed with the cast as well (sorry Elena).
With my reaction being this ^ with the adaptation of my favorite game. I can only imagine how G.I. Joe fans feel about Rise of the Cobra (ROC). While I really love the movie and really love Sienna Miller as Ana Baroness (and wouldn't want anyone else as her), not everyone feels the same.
Adaptations and live-actions (or reboots even) are really tricky. It's really rare to find good ones to watch that either was true to the source material or somehow pulled off an equal/better execution than the source material. Sadly, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra isn't one of them.
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