by Trevor Juntunen

Created on: August 16, 2009

Having been a huge fan of the GI Joe cartoon of the 1980s and having amassed a nice collection of the toys as a child, I looked forward to the summer movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra with some trepidation. Hollywood has not always been true to other childhood memories.

Many of the principle characters from the TV series and comic make an appearance. A number of characters were briefly introduced, particularly villains, settling up expanded roles for them in sequels. For Destro, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, there is a nice collection of flashback scenes to give depth to their characters. I was happy to see that Destro was indeed a Scot in the film. It seemed odd at the beginning of the movie seeing Destro being the mastermind of the plot and Cobra Commander being nowhere in sight. As the title states, this is the beginnings of the Cobra organization. The Commander is able to seize control by the end of the film. This is one of the movie's crowning points.

The core structure of G.I. Joe did go through one major change. Conceived of during the cold war, G.I. Joe was an organization of brave, patriotic Americans. With the cold war a thing of the past, this movie's multinational Joe force was nicely conceived. Joe members are elite soldiers from around the world and the Pit is located in Egypt. Duke and Ripcord took on the role of the newest American troops in the G.I. Joe force.

The science in the film is definitely an upgrade over current military equipment. There are nano machines, enhanced soldiers, exoskeletons, pulse weapons and vehicles galore. Everything I have come to expect from the cutting edge military supplier MARS and the elite G.I. Joe force.

Here is my major beef with the movie. What happened to all the female characters? Cover Girl does little more than stand around before being stabbed in the back. Scarlett warms up slowly to Ripcord's advances, where previously, she and Snake Eyes were romantically linked. And when did the Baroness become Duke's former fiance? What happened to her love for Destro?

I liked many things about the new movie and thought it did a good job of starting up a new movie franchise. The Baroness' character is where the film really misses the mark. In the comic and cartoon series the Baroness was Cobra Commander's second in command. She was actually born into her title, not married to it. She was evil, not under the influence of mind control.

Now why is it that in American films, we cannot have an evil female supervillain? Why do they have to be the love interest of the main male character? To borrow from another franchise for the sake of illustration, look at Batman. Catwoman is a female villain. But is she truly evil? True, she is a thief, but looking up her history, she goes in and out of retirement several times and typically operates under a set of morals. The Baroness enjoyed causing mayhem and was driven to bring the world under her control.

Getting past the issues with the female characters, I did not feel like I wasted my money at the movie theater and I am interested in seeing where the next movie will take this story.

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