Collegiate Times

Hasbro and Paramount Pictures have teamed up to bring another action-figure line to the big screen.

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" is a mediocre film that still manages to entertain despite its obvious flaws.

The film stars many recognizable names including Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans and Dennis Quaid.

Neither of them offers anything special in the way of performances but neither of them seriously hinders the film either.

Tatum plays Duke, a Special Forces operative who is one of the best soldiers in the United States military.

He and his friend Ripcord (Wayans) are on assignment to transfer a new prototype weapon from a weapons manufacturer to a military base.

The convoy is attacked by an unknown force with superior firepower but is rescued by the special ops team designated "G.I. Joe."

From here the film goes through the motions as the pair joins the squad and attempts to defeat the mysterious enemy that destroyed the convoy.

The first departure from the source material is the focus away from "The Real American Hero," idea that the toy line and television show created.

In the film, G.I. Joe is a secret military force supported by the majority of world governments.

This task force is comprised of the best soldiers from each country's military forces.

This move feels less like an idea to modernize G.I. Joe for the sake of globalization and plot opportunities and more of a corporate move to sell tickets in expanding foreign markets.

The American characters still play the important roles while the non-Americans seem to be added in as an after thought.

The film should have either had the smaller characters play a larger role or stayed more true to the source and have G.I. Joe remain a secret American military force.

This movie is also as cheesy as they come. The dialogue reads like one clich after another but still manages to entertain and make audiences chuckle.

Here it seems that the filmmakers didn't make too many compromises from the cartoon, which was full of corny lines.

The film also forces G.I. Joe catch phrases into places they don't belong.

In "Transformers" the catchphrase usage was kept to a minimum and came off as acceptable dialogue.

In "G.I. Joe," the first time Dennis Quaid says "Knowing is half the battle," there is a sense of satisfaction for Joe fans in the audience but it is repeated several times throughout the film and just feels awkward, adding to the film's corniness.

Purists of G.I. Joe storyline, who grew up watching the television show, will complain about the drastic changes in several characters' background information.

The back-stories behind Cobra Commander, The Baroness, and Duke have been completely revamped for the film.

Their characters share previous interactions to the events of the film that those uninitiated will just accept as the story but cause fanboys to cry foul.

In all fairness to the film, it manages to make the outlandish world of G.I. Joe more palatable to general audiences.

Some characters did manage to escape the film's changes though.

Thankfully, the past between Snake Eyes and Stormshadow is kept relatively intact and the story makes up some of the better scenes in the film.

The director even stayed true to the original character by keeping the character silent throughout the movie.

Much of the movie is also special effects driven.

The secret bases, fictitious vehicles and weapon animations are all done using computer animation.

Parts of the computer generated scenes look great while others could use some work.

The large budget on the film prevented scenes from looking like something found on the SyFy channel but they weren't that far off.

"G.I. Joe" fared well in theaters over the weekend, raking in a respectable $54.7 million.

The solid performance has almost guaranteed a sequel but if the film doesn't up the ante and make serious advances in dialogue and plot development it will most likely end what could be a lucrative franchise.