4/5 Solid Movie with a hyperactive ending
  by Chris Kennison (Jefferson City, Mo United States)
I had heard a lot of bad stuff about G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and it was, for the most part, a bad rap. Sure, it wasn't set back in the 60's when G.I. Joe was founded, but World War 2 and Vietnam movies have been done to death. So, it was refreshing to see them take G.I. Joe in a completely different direction. The future. With new weapons, new technology and new faces.

Sure the script has been criticized as being non-existent and smothered by action sequences and special effects. Yet, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is by far, a more creative and involving story than many actions movies of recent, as in, anything by Roland Emmerich, Twilight movies or whatever. It actually is a fast and furious pace with an actually very complicated story. That to me, was the problem. Because the fast and furiuos pace would brush over the story elements with a very thin brush and so when the ending finally got there, there were way too many loose ends and they all seemed to come pouring down in the final 3 minutes.

They could have slowed down and made the story elements more important, but all in all, what you get with G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is an energetic, cyber-weapon summer flick that gave people what most summer movie viewers want, slam bam action with cool effects.

If anything, G.I. Joe tried to do TOO MUCH story, and didn't cover all of it or give it justice because they were more interested in pleasing the teenage crowd that buys the tickets. People like me, a 40-year old male who likes that stuff too, but would rather save his money to get by on bills, enjoyed the heck out of it in his living room with some surround sound and some Orville Redenbacker.

1/5 Movie Bad!
  by JWUC (Tx)
This movie is close to one of the worst I have ever seen. The plot, special effects, and acting are all downright horrible. This should have been a release-to-DVD movie or ABC miniseries.

2/5 Had potential... Wayans kills it
  by R. Moore (Charlotte, NC USA)
This is on par with the latest Transformers movie (Rise of the Fallen) in its excessive use of computer graphics for the action scenes. The story wasn't bad, but the casting of Marlon Wayans as Ripcord really REALLY killed it for me. I kept waiting for the next Scary Movie gag to appear. He really tries to act, but is more suited for comedies than anything else. He ended up being a major distraction. Hopefully the next Joe film will replace him with a real actor. The pacing of the film seemed a little off to me as well. All in all, it was watchable... but I had hoped for something with more character development and a cohesive story line. Maybe this was the setup for Joe 2.

1/5 Painful, even for an 80's kid.
  by eronious (Kwajalein, RMI)
I just can't recommend enough that you not watch this movie. The plot was barely there and the lines were so sophmoric, I was saying them along with the movie without ever having seen it before. It was bad pun after sexual innuendo that could only possibly be amusing to a 12 year old boy with an equal IQ. I suppose if you just want flashy lights and BFG's, this might entertain you for a moment or two, but honestly, there are a lot better in that genre.

5/5 ...and knowing is half the battle.
  by Lincoln 6 Echo (Harrisburg, IL USA)
So this movie got a bad rap for its suspect CG effects. Well, considering that probably 75% of the film was full CG or at least CG set extensions, etc. it's understandable that some of it didn't look photo realistic. Hey, we didn't complain that great films like Return of the Jedi used matte paintings for its backgrounds. So give the production team some slack.

But anyway, how's the film itself as a live-action G.I. Joe film. I think it's great. Have the traditional costumes changed, sure, but that's the same arguement used against the Michael Bay Transformers films. But this film was a blast to watch. It was a full fleged popcorn movie at its core. And that's all they producers wanted it to be. A film that appeals to both fans and those who didn't know anything about G.I. Joe. Big set pieces, big over the top action pieces. And lots of cool futuristic military hardware. The film is basically one action sequence after another. And then there's even a plot in there too with a few twists.

Actually, I'm looking forward to a sequel.