Action Movies

Appearing for the first time in live action and brought to you by Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment, the characters and storylines from the hit Marvel comics series GI Joe: A Real American Hero explode into action in the soon to be released summer blockbuster GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, an origins film tracing the beginnings of the Cobra organization. Set for release into theaters in August, the movie promises to be a CG cinematic experience. The first GI Joe trailer was released as a 32 second teaser during the 2009 Super Bowl, with a second, 2 minutes and 16 seconds long, being released shortly thereafter.

So what does this tell us about the GI Joe movie? Destro, founder and weapons designer for the Military Armament Research Syndicate (M.A.R.S.) and the Baroness will obviously be working together in an apparently romantically charged undertaking at Destro’s underwater base. M.A.R.S. will launch multiple warheads from a base in the Antarctic, targeting Paris landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower. The tower, by the way, is going to bite the big one here, toppled by a strange green nanotech material that erodes away the base of the monument, in keeping with the original comic’s sci-fi environment. In the 33-second trailer Destro is shown inquiring after the name of General Hawk’s unit, indicating that, at least in the beginning, Destro will not be recognized as a bad guy. We also see the creation of Cobra Commander, a mysterious figure whose origins will finally be revealed.

In response to the threat of M.A.R.S. and the Cobra, the GI Joe team will be covertly created and called into action – featuring Duke, Heavy Duty, Ripcord, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes, all commanded by General Hawk. Closer in nature to special forces rather than the military elite nature from the comics, they will be equipped with plenty of high tech gear, including “accelerator suits”, designed to increase a soldiers natural speed, agility, and strength. This will, naturally, result in multiple action-packed GI Joe shootouts and at least one duel between the ninjas Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, brothers from their ninja school, now ironically enough enemies. In the second trailer we also get to see the green nanotech deployed again as an antiaircraft weapon, showing that it is a fairly versatile armament. The film will include other sci-fi elements include hand-held and large scale pulse weapons, shown blowing Duke off his motorcycle, and the usual action fare of vehicle-deployed missile launchers, frequent explosions, and various unexpectedly airborne automobiles.

Plot details concerning the movie are few and far between, being carefully guarded and painstakingly doled out by Paramount Pictures, but we know it will chronicle the, well, the rise of the Cobra as an organization, and the origin of the elusive Cobra Commander. There are hints he will be revealed to be a former Joe, decommissioned for unknown reasons. The film will also explain why the GI Joes have been deployed to stop them rather than more conventional forces.

The GI Joe movie is set for release in August 7 of this summer. While this movie will probably not win any Oscars and may leave some diehard fans unsatisfied, the general consensus is that GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra will be an exciting and action-packed experience for everyone, young and old.