Action / 11 short (5-10 minute) episodes / English Dub
I do not own this series.
I watched this series in movie format as it aired on Adult Swim and was available on the Adult Swim web site.
Parental Warning: Violence, mild adult language. Mildly PG13.
Plot Synopsis: Cobra Commander surfaces and initiates a world domination plot involving weapons of mass destruction. The GI Joe team must mobilize and stop him within 24 hours or billions will die. Snake Eyes must also face rival ninja, Storm Shadow, in a battle of vendetta and vengeance that only one of them will survive.
Story and Pacing: 8
Though the show was originally aired as individual episodes the version I saw put them together in a seamless movie that was about 60 minutes long. Things flowed pretty well though I did have this feeling that I part of the show was going over my head because I have not seen anything else GI Joe related nor am I familiar with the characters and universe in general.
I was initially planning on giving the story a 6 rating however when I did some research for this review I found that a lot of the problems I had with the story were reference to canon lore of the universe and I am extremely forgiving when a show or movie is respectful to its true fans even if it puts people like me in the dark.
All that said, the story is predictable but fun to watch anyways. It's not campy though there is a little bit of cheese for fans but on the other hand it is violent, people die, and there are some particularly brutal parts of the movie (most involving Snake Eyes) that really do a lot to make the conflict seem like it's being fought between two factions intent on destroying each other utterly rather than just some sort of bizarre wargame where the loser gets captured until they can conveniently escape from prison for the next episode.
Characters: 9
All the characters seem reasonably fleshed out even if you only seem them briefly. Some of the exchanges went over my head as I watched because I do not know where the love triangles might be so some of the dialog just comes off as awkward (one scene in particular with Duke, Scarlet, and Snake Eyes comes to mind) but fortunately there's not a huge focus here. There are really two reasons why this aspect of the movie gets a near perfect score...
First, we have Snake Eyes which is a ninja character completely covered from head to toe in some sort of ninja/body armor type deal and even his eyes are concealed by some sort of high tech visor or sunglasses. He doesn't speak the entire movie... I'm not sure if he's mute or just doesn't speak but the animators do an incredible job of making Snake Eyes expressive despite having only body motions and stance to work with. All the scenes involving him are the best in the movie, delving into his past and explaining why he and Storm Shadow are rivals.
Secondly we have Cobra Commander. This guy was nuts... his voice was creepy without being annoying, his monologues didn't seem too out of place given the state of mind you see him in. Cobra Commander is not in the show for comic relief, but if you take the kinds of villains Tim Curry plays, throw in a little bit of Dr. Evil, and top it off with a smidge of detached Agent Smith you have Cobra Commander. He has grand plans, kills minions for failing him, is psychotically paranoid, and goes on the occasional rant about whatever he is thinking about. I never felt he was too dramatic, and the mistakes he made (killing too many minions, not killing the heroes when he had the chance, monologuing) were a result of his deranged mind rather than convenient plot holes so the heroes would have some excuse for a deus ex win.
Acting: 7
Most of the big names in English dub voice acting make an appearance in this show and while most of them are excellent actors the voice didn't always fit with the character. Steven Blum in particular didn't feel right as Duke. Of course on the other hand Cobra Commander was excellent and the rest of the cast was acceptable.
Animation: 6
The scenes involving Snake Eyes are extremely well done. The flashbacks are interesting, his assassinating a cobra kill team and his eventual fight with Storm Shadow steals the show from the often sub par gun fights and and awkwardly animated escape sequences. It seemed as if the animators kind of got the shaft though because they had to animate the scenes as they were in the script and it's hard to make a 30 second air craft carrier evacuation not look terrible and unbelievable. The show doesn't make your eyes bleed but most of it is far from pretty.
Production Values: 8
It's clear that a lot of work went into this to make it appeal to both new fans and old. Everything fits together well enough and the flaws are minor enough that they don't subtract much from the movie.
Final Grade: 7.6
Personal Bias: 1
I wasn't expecting to like this movie. I wasn't a fan of the original series or the comics as they were before my time and I was expecting something like a shameless promotion for the movie coming out later this summer. I am pleased to say my expectations were wrong but this movie still has its flaws. If you are a fan of the GI Joe universe you may think this deserves an 8-9 over all score.
What I Loved Most: Snake Eyes, he was just that character put in the anime specifically to appeal to people who like the strong silent warrior.
Cobra Commander. He's the best written character in the show and every scene he's in is just a lot of fun to watch, especially his Agent Smith like rants.
Walmart is the devil. Watching armored vehicles and cobra infantry pour out of a Walmart parody store (Mallspot) gets filed in the “win” folder but finding out that every house in Springfield apparently had a heavily armed Cobra attack drone concealed in the attic did seem a little odd and almost ended up in my hated list... but I did some research and apparently in GI Joe canon lore Springfield was actually the site of a massive secret Cobra base. It was weird that nobody seemed aware of what was hidden in their attic, but I'll tolerate weird if it's loyal to the story and fans.
What I Hated Most: Dialtone... apparently she's some sort of intelligence officer for the GI Joe team but her voice and appearance screams perky unpaid intern. Hate is a little strong a word to use here but she came close to lowering my over all character grade for this series, fortunately her appearance is only brief.
We're going to need a montage. There's a scene in the movie after a major city is annihilated that the GI Joe specialists go below deck to help their intelligence and support personnel figure out how it happened. You get a few minutes of clips of the Joe team which seems to prefer unusual personal clothing sitting with a bunch of uniformed support people who look eerily like unpaid interns asking questions like “How could they blow up a city without a nuke?” or “What could block our access to satellites?” and these unpaid interns happen to have most of these answers on the tip of their tongues and just needed some guy with a handlebar mustache wearing an old school United States Cavalry hat (Wild Bill for you fans) to unlock the answer by asking the question. I felt like I was watching the Venture Brothers PSA on testicle torsion or Team America for the montage song as scene after scene of some crazy looking battle hardened guy in weird clothes asked simple questions to a bunch of people who'd probably figure it out faster on their own.
Duke wants to die. Well that's what it seemed like at least. He tells Scarlet to leave him to die after taking what appears to be a flesh wound. He described it as taking “a bullet off a rib” and comments on how hard it is to move though he doesn't actually seem physically unable to move in any way but his brain was apparently nonfunctional as one of the other Joe team members points out an extremely easy alternative escape route that would allow them both to be saved rather than trying to outrun a massive explosion.
Closing Comments: Some of the above complaints are unfair and I hate over analyzing an anime but I felt these inconsistencies were worth mentioning. That said though, despite the amount of space I've given to describing them, they don't actually take much away from the movie and I would watch it again. Certainly worth seeing once and if you enjoy it but feel like you missed some of the finer points like I did, spending a few hours on wikipedia and re-watching the anime might be very rewarding.
If you liked this you might also like... well honestly nothing similar enough is coming to mind. If you know of a show that is similar please let me know what the show is and what similarities you think it has. Thank you.
Feel free to comment if you disagree with anything I have said, posted something you feel is incorrect, or if you have anything to add.
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