G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

This article is about the film. For the video game based on this movie, see G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (video game).

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
In the center of the image are the titles and credits. Above them, in front of a brown background with orange flames and "Evil never looked so good" in red letters, a man in a hooded white suit holding a sword, a woman wearing sunglasses and a leather suit holding two guns, a masked man in battle fatigues holding a rifle, and a scarred man wearing a mask that covers his face below the eye. Below, against a blue background and blue flames, with "When all else fails, they don't" in blue letters, a man in a black bodysuit with a visor in his face holding a sword, and two men and women in leather suits holding guns. Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stephen Sommers
Screenplay by	Stuart Beattie David Elliot Paul Lovett
Story by	Michael B. Gordon Stuart Beattie Stephen Sommers
Produced by	Lorenzo di Bonaventura Bob Ducsay Brian Goldner
Starring	Channing Tatum Sienna Miller Christopher Eccleston Karolina Kurkova Joseph Gordon-Levitt Rachel Nichols Marlon Wayans Ray Park Lee Byung-hun Dennis Quaid
Cinematography	Mitchell Amundsen
Edited by	Bob Ducsay Jim May
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production companies	Spyglass Entertainment Hasbro
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 7, 2009 (2009-08-07)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$175 million
Box office	$302,469,017

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a 2009 science fiction-action film based on the G.I. Joe toy franchise, with particular inspiration from the comic book and cartoon series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. The film is directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and co-written by Stuart Beattie, based on a 1998 screenplay by John Paul Kay. G.I. Joe features an ensemble cast based on the various characters of the franchise. The story follows two American soldiers, Duke and Ripcord, who join the G.I. Joe Team after being attacked by MARS troops.

After leaked drafts of the script were criticized by fans, Larry Hama, writer of the comic, was hired as creative consultant and rewrites were made. Filming took place in Downey, California and Prague's Barrandov Studios, and six companies handled the visual effects. The film was released on August 7, 2009, worldwide, following an extensive marketing campaign focused on the Mid-American public. Rise of Cobra opened at the top of the box office and grossed over $302 million worldwide by the end of its run. Critical reception was mostly negative, with criticism to the writing and acting. A sequel is being planned for a possible 2012 release.

Plot

In the near future, weapons expert James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) has created a nanotechnology-based weapon capable of destroying an entire city. His company M.A.R.S. sells four warheads to NATO, and NATO troops are tasked with delivering the warheads. Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are delivering the warheads when they are ambushed by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), whom Duke recognizes to be his ex-fiancee Ana Lewis. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Breaker (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). They take the warheads to The Pit, G.I. Joe's command center in Egypt, and upon arriving rendezvous with the head of the G.I. Joe Team, General Hawk (Dennis Quaid). Hawk takes command of the warheads and excuses Duke and Ripcord, only to be convinced to let them join his group after Duke reveals that he knows the Baroness.

McCullen is revealed to be using the same nanotechnology to build an army of soldiers with the aid of the Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), planning on using the warheads to cause panic and bring about a new world order. Using a tracking device, McCullen locates the G.I. Joe Base and sends Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee) and the Baroness to retrieve the warheads with assistance from Zartan (Arnold Vosloo). After a fight, Storm Shadow and the Baroness retrieve the warheads and take them to Baron DeCobray, the Baroness's husband, for him to weaponize. Making their way to Paris, the Joes pursue the Baroness and Storm Shadow but are unsuccessful in stopping them from launching the missile. The nanomites destroy the Eiffel Tower and some of the surrounding area before Duke manages to hit the kill switch, but in doing so is captured and taken to McCullen's base under the Arctic.

The Joes locate the secret base and fly there as McCullen loads three missiles with nano-mite warheads. After Snake Eyes takes out one, Ripcord pursues the remaining missiles in a stolen M.A.R.S. prototype Night Raven jet while Scarlett, Breaker, and Snake Eyes infiltrate the base. Snake Eyes duels and prevails over Storm Shadow. Duke learns that the Doctor is Rex Lewis, Ana's brother believed to have been killed by a mistimed airstrike during a mission led by Duke - also the origin of the alienation between Duke & Ana. Rex had encountered Doctor Mindbender (Kevin O'Connor) in the bunker and was seduced by the nanomite technology, taking too long to retrieve the data and getting caught in the bombing which disfigured him. After freeing Duke, the Baroness gets subdued as the Doctor reveals he has implanted her with nanomites which has put her under his control for the past four years. Attempting to kill Duke, McCullen ends up being burned, so he and the Doctor flee to an escape vessel. Duke and the Baroness pursue him while the Joes fall back when the Doctor activates the base's self destruct sequence.

The Doctor assumes the identity of the Commander, having healed McCullen's burned face with nanomites, encasing it in silver and naming him "Destro", which places McCullen under the Commander's control. They are captured by G.I. Joe soon after. On the supercarrier USS Flagg, the Baroness is placed in protective custody until they can remove the nanomites from her body. Meanwhile, Zartan, having had his physical appearance altered by nanomites, infiltrates the White House during the missile crisis and assumes the identity of the President of the United States of America (Jonathan Pryce).

Cast

G.I. Joe

• Channing Tatum as "Duke" (Conrad Hauser): The lead soldier. Lorenzo di Bonaventura was originally interested in casting Mark Wahlberg, and when the script was rewritten into a G.I. Joe origin story, the studio offered the role to Sam Worthington. Tatum had played a soldier in Stop-Loss, an anti-war film, and originally wanted no part in G.I. Joe, which he felt glorified war. Once he read the script though, he realized the franchise was a fantasy akin to X-Men, Mission: Impossible and Star Wars rather than a war film.
• Dennis Quaid as "General Hawk" (General Clayton Abernathy): The team leader. Quaid described Hawk as "a cross between Chuck Yeager and Sgt. Rock and maybe a naïve Hugh Hefner". Quaid's son convinced him to take on the part, and the filmmakers enjoyed working with him so much that Stuart Beattie wrote "ten to fifteen more scenes" for the character. He filmed all his scenes within the first two months of production. Quaid is signed on for two sequels.
• Marlon Wayans as "Ripcord" (Wallace Weems): A pilot with a romantic interest in 'Scarlett'. A fan of the franchise, Wayans was cast on the strength of his performance in Requiem for a Dream. Bonaventura said that the film showed Wayans could be serious as well as funny.
• Rachel Nichols as "Scarlett" (Shana M. O'Hara): She graduated college at age twelve and became the team's intelligence expert. Having left school so early, she does not understand men's attraction to her. Nichols was the first choice for the role. Nichols had dyed her blonde hair red – Scarlett's hair color – for her role in Star Trek, which she filmed before G.I. Joe. She burned herself filming an action sequence with Sienna Miller.
• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as "Heavy Duty" (Hershel Dalton): An ordnance expert and field commander of the team. Common was offered the role of Heavy Duty's cousin Roadblock, although Bonaventura previously indicated Heavy Duty was being used in that character's stead. Stuart Beattie ultimately chose to have Heavy Duty instead of Roadblock.
• Ray Park as "Snake-Eyes": A mysterious ninja commando who took a vow of silence, a departure from the character's traditional difficulty in speaking due to grievous vocal wounds, a close member of The Arashikage Ninja Clan, and Storm Shadow's rival. Like his character, Park is a martial arts expert and specifically practiced wushu for the role, as well as studying the character's comic book poses. Park had known of Snake-Eyes because he played with the toys as a child, but he knew very little of the surrounding saga of G.I. Joe versus Cobra, so he read the comics to further understand the character. He was nervous about wearing the mask, which covered his entire head quite tightly, so he requested to practice wearing it at home. He found the full costume, including the visor, very heavy to wear and akin to a rubber band; he had to put effort into moving in it. Leo Howard plays the 10-year-old Snake Eyes.
• Saïd Taghmaoui as "Breaker" (Abel Shaz): He is the team's communications specialist and hacker.
• Karolína Kurková as "Cover Girl" (Courtney Kreiger): Hawk's aide-de-camp. Kurková described going from her modeling career to making such a film as "an amazing experience", but said she was upset on not taking part in any action sequences.
• Brendan Fraser as "Sgt. Stone" (Geoffrey Stone IV): At first, it was reported he was going to play Gung-Ho, but it was later revealed he plays Sergeant Stone.

Cobra

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander (Rex Lewis/The Doctor): The Baroness's brother, a former mild-mannered U.S. Soldier who was thought to be killed during a mission – instead, he became the insane disfigured MARS head scientist. USA Today reported that Gordon-Levitt will play multiple roles. Gordon-Levitt wore a mask – which was redesigned from the comics because the crew found it too reminiscent of The Ku Klux Klan – and prosthetic makeup underneath it. Upon seeing concept art of the role he was being offered, Levitt signed on because; "I was like, 'I get to be that? You're going to make that [makeup] in real life and stick it on me? Cool. Let me do it.' That's a once-in-lifetime opportunity." Levitt is a friend of Tatum and they co-starred in Stop-Loss and Havoc. His casting provided extra incentive for Tatum to join the film. Levitt described his vocal performance as being half reminiscent of Chris Latta's voice for the 1980s cartoon, but also half his own ideas, because he felt rendering it fully would sound ridiculous.
• Christopher Eccleston as Destro (James McCullen XXIV): A weapons designer and founder of the Military Armament Research Syndicate (MARS) and the main villain in the early part of the film. Irish actor David Murray was cast as Destro, but was forced to drop out when he had problems with his visa. Murray was later cast as an ancestor of James McCullen in a flashback scene.
• Sienna Miller as The Baroness (Ana Lewis/Anastascia DeCobray): A spy and sister of Cobra Commander. Years before the film, The Baroness was going to marry Duke, but he left her at the altar, due to his guilt over the apparent death of her brother Rex Lewis. Miller auditioned for the part because it did not involve "having a breakdown or addicted to heroin or dying at the end, something that was just maybe really great fun and that people went to see and actually just had a great time seeing". Miller prepared with four months of weight training, boxing sessions and learned to fire live ammunition, gaining five pounds of muscle. She sprained her wrist after slipping on a rubber bullet while filming a fight scene with Rachel Nichols.
• Lee Byung-hun as Storm Shadow (Thomas Arashikage): Snake-Eyes' rival, both were close members of The Arashikage Ninja Clan. Lee said he did not know G.I. Joe because it is an unknown series in South Korea. Sommers and Bonaventura told him that it was not necessary to watch the cartoons to prepare for the role. Lee was attracted to Storm Shadow's "dual personality", which he stated has "huge pride and honor". Brandon Soo Hoo plays 10-year-old Thomas Arashikage.
• Arnold Vosloo as Zartan: An expert in make-up and disguises serving Destro. He is also Destro's aide-de-camp.
• Kevin J. O'Connor as Doctor Mindbender: A scientist in McCullen's employ who developed the nanomite technology.

Other characters

• Jonathan Pryce as The President of the United States of America.
• Gerald Okamura as The Hard Master: Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow's ninja master.
• Larry Hama as NATO Secretary General: His scenes were ultimately cut from the final film.

Production

Development

In 2003, Lorenzo di Bonaventura was interested in making a film about advanced military technology; Hasbro's Brian Goldner called him and suggested to base the film on the G.I. Joe toy line. Goldner and Bonaventura worked together before, creating toy lines for films Bonaventura produced as CEO of Warner Bros. Goldner and Bonaventura spent three months working out a story, and chose Michael B. Gordon as screenwriter, because they liked his script for 300. Bonaventura wanted to depict the origin story of certain characters, and introduced the new character of Rex, to allow an exploration of Duke. Rex's name came from Hasbro. Beforehand, Don Murphy was interested in filming the property, but when the Iraq War broke out, he considered the subject matter inappropriate, and chose to develop Transformers (another Hasbro toy line) instead. Bonaventura felt, "What [the Joes] stand for, and what Duke stands for specifically in the movie, is something that I'd like to think a worldwide audience might connect with."

By February 2005, Paul Lovett and David Elliot, who wrote Bonaventura's Four Brothers, were rewriting Gordon's draft. In their script, the Rex character is corrupted and mutated into the Cobra Commander, whom Destro needs to lead an army of supersoldiers. Skip Woods was rewriting the script by March 2007, and he added the Alex Mann character from the British Action Man toy line. Bonaventura explained, "Unfortunately, our president has put us in a position internationally where it would be very difficult to release a movie called G.I. Joe. To add one character to the mix is sort of a fun thing to do." The script was leaked online by El Mayimbe of Latino Review, who revealed Woods had dropped the Cobra Organization in favor of the Naja / Ryan, a crooked CIA agent. In this draft, Scarlett is married to Action Man but still has feelings for Duke, and is killed by the Baroness. Snake-Eyes speaks, but his vocal cords are slashed during the story, rendering him mute. Mayimbe suggested Stuart Beattie rewrite the script. Fan response to the film following the script review was negative. Bonaventura promised with subsequent rewrites, "I'm hoping we're going to get it right this time." He admitted he had problems with Cobra, concurring with an interviewer "they were probably the stupidest evil organization out there [as depicted in the cartoon]". Hasbro promised they would write Cobra back into the script.

In August 2007, Paramount Pictures hired Stephen Sommers to direct the film after his presentation to CEO Brad Grey and production prexy Brad Weston was well-received. Sommers had been inspired to explore the G.I. Joe universe after visiting Hasbro's headquarters in Rhode Island. The project had found the momentum based on the success of Transformers, which Bonaventura produced with Murphy. Sommers partly signed on to direct because the concept reminded him of James Bond, and he described an underwater battle in the story as a tribute to Thunderball. Stuart Beattie was hired to write a new script for Sommers's film, and G.I. Joe comic and filecard writer Larry Hama was hired as creative consultant. Hama helped them change story elements that fans would have disliked and made it closer to the comics, ultimately deciding fans would enjoy the script. He persuaded them to drop a comic scene at the film's end, where Snake-Eyes speaks. To speed up production before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, John Lee Hancock, Brian Koppelman and David Levien also assisted in writing various scenes. Goldner said their inspiration was generally Hama's comics and not the cartoon. Sommers said had it not been for the rich backstory in the franchise, the film would have fallen behind schedule because of the strike.

After Variety had reported that G.I. Joe became a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, there were reports of outrages over Paramount's alleged attempt to change the origin of G.I. Joe Team. Hasbro responded in its G.I. Joe site claiming it was not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about, and the name "G.I. Joe" will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism. Instead, it would be a modern telling of the "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" storyline, based out of the "Pit" as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series.

Filming and design

Filming began on February 11, 2008, in Los Angeles, California. The Downey soundstage was chosen as Paramount needed a large stage to get production underway as soon as possible. The first two levels of the Pit were built there, to complement the rest of the building which would be done with special effects. Downey also housed Destro's MARS base in the Arctic, his legitimate weapons factory in an ex-Soviet state, as well as various submarines interiors, including a SHARC (Submersible High-speed Attack and Reconnaissance Craft) manned by two G.I. Joes.

Prague was used for the Paris sequences.

Filming in the Czech Republic's Barrandov Studios began in May. The crew took over sections of the Old Town in Prague. While filming in the city on April 26, people were injured when a bus and several cars collided with a four-wheel-drive vehicle that appeared to have braking problems. The emergency services confirmed those taken to hospital had minor injuries. Filming wrapped after a month in Prague. Additional second unit filming took place in Paris itself, Egypt, Tokyo, the Arctic and underwater.

Sommers felt "almost 100 percent" of the technology in the film would be available within 10 to 20 years, citing the various books and magazines about developing weapons that he loved reading. For example, Sommers said he believed invisibility was impossible, but the virtual invisibility provided by camouflage camera that projects what is behind a soldier on their front allowed him to include it. The production designers modelled the interior of Destro's private submarine on a Handley Page Jetstream. Sommers said the bulky immobile "accelerator suits" (which Beattie said had enabled them to write "a car chase where one guy's not even in a car") had been tough on the actors and were likely to have their roles reduced in potential sequels. Critics have compared the suits to that of NFL Superpro, a comic book character jointly licensed by the NFL and Marvel Comics, and resembling an armored football player.

Bonaventura predicted the United States armed forces' aid of the film would be limited since much of the hardware is fictional. The filmmakers were denied use of MRAP vehicles at the start of filming because it was ordered many MRAPs had to be sent to the Middle East as soon as possible, though later they permitted filming at Fort Irwin Military Reservation. Some commentators reviewing previews and promotional art from the film have noted superficial resemblances between it and the action film parody Team America: World Police.

Effects

Six visual effects companies worked in The Rise of Cobra, the most prominent being Digital Domain, which handled the Paris action sequences and the opening convoy sequence. For the Eiffel Tower destruction, a special code for depicting how the crumbling metal works was written. To create the digital Eiffel Tower, the technicians had access to the original building plans, and built a digital model so complex that could not fit in a single file. The nanomites used two proprietary software for their depiction, one by Digital Domain, and another by Prime Focus VFX, which also created tools to generate 3D cloud and sky environments for the aerial scenes. Many scenarios were almost fully developed by computer-generated imagery, such as the landing platform of the Pit, the Cobra ice caverns, and the final underwater battle. As for the sound effects themselves, only one is considered popular and isn't instantly recognisable. When the pulse cannon fires upon the main submarine during the polar assault, the sound of a program de-resolution from the 1982 cult movie classic TRON can be heard.

Soundtrack

Untitled

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – Score from the Motion Picture was composed by Alan Silvestri, who reunited with director Stephen Sommers to record his score with a 90-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the scoring stages at Sony and Fox. A soundtrack album of the score was released by Varèse Sarabande Records on August 4, 2009.

The score came under scrutiny from various soundtrack forums soon after being released. Spectral analysis of the content of the CD revealed certain frequency cutoff patterns around 16 kHz, which are typical for lossy codecs. By analyzing the block size of these cutoffs, individuals at Hydrogenaudio were able to identify the lossy codec that was used before mastering the CD as MP3 with a sample rate of 48 kHz. According to the aforementioned forums, Varèse's German subsidiary Colosseum Schallplatten acknowledged this as a mastering error, while Varèse Sarabande itself denied this. It is so far unclear if a remastered version with full frequency content will be released.

Track listing

#	Title	Length	Key Scenes/Notes
1	"Clan McCullen"	3:07	Played during the first scene about Destro's ancestry.
2	"MARS Industries"	1:42	James McCullen XXIV (Destro), Demonstrates the nanomoites to NATO.
3	"Delivering The Warheads"	7:24	Duke and Ripcord lead a convoy, while they Deliver the Warheads to NATO and get ambushed by the Baroness and the Neo Vipers.
4	"General Hawk"	1:36	Duke and Ripcord talk to General Hawk's holographic display and their arrival to the Pit. The second part is also played in the end when they leave the Pit.
5	"It Had To Be NATO’s Fault!"	1:40	James argues with The Baroness in his submarine. Storm Shadow and Zartan first appear.
6	"King Cobra"	2:58	The Doctor's first appearance. He shows James what nanomites can do to the Neo Vipers.
7	"What Happened To Her?"	1:16	Duke reveals to General Hawk about his past relationship with the Baroness, and her real name is Ana.
8	"I Promise"	2:07	Duke and Ana's flashback about their past relationship and Duke's engagement. Duke promises Ana that he'll watch over her brother, Rex in which he fails on doing so.
9	"The Pit Battle"	7:24	Baroness, Storm Shadow, Zartan, and the Neo Vipers attack the Pit in order to retrieve the Warheads.
10	"They Intend To Use Them"	1:06	They find out why Destro wanted the Warheads back.
11	"Snake Eyes"	2:23	Snake-Eyes remembers his past with Storm Shadow and how entered the Arashikage Clan.
12	"I Have A Target In Mind"	2:23	James tells The Baroness and Storm shadow about his ancestry and his hate for the French. He orders the two to bring the Warheads to Paris and "test" its abilities. The Doctor morphs Zartan into his disguise using Nanomites.
13	"The JOEs Mobilize"	8:24	The Joes chase The Baroness and Storm Shadow across Paris. Duke and Ripscord use the Accelerator suits, while Snake-Eyes jumps around cars and Scarlett uses a motorcycle.
14	"Northern Route"	6:10	The G.I. Joe team discovers James' underwater MARS base and goes to it.
15	"Who Are You?"	3:36	The Doctor attempts to inject the nanomites on Duke. The Doctor reveals to Duke that he is actually Rex.
16	"Deploy The Sharcs"	7:32	The G.I. Joe team arrives in MARS' arctic base in order to rescue Duke, stop the Warheads, and encounter an Underwater Battle. Snake-Eyes and Storm shadow engage in a fight. Duke rescues The Baroness and escapes from the Underwater base. James McCullen gets disfigured.
17	"Final Battle"	0:54	Storm Shadow loses to Snake-Eyes and falls into the ice-caps.
18	"Just About Close Enough"	3:57	Ripcord chases the Warheads from reaching their destinations.
19	"The Rise Of Cobra"	1:52	The Doctor 'heals' James giving him the nanomite treatment. It turns out, he gave him a steel mask and calls him Destro. The Doctor then turns himself into Cobra commander.
20	"I'm Not Giving Up On You"	1:49	The Baroness being treated while in prison. Duke tells the Baroness he'll never give up on her. The USS Flagg is shown. The Joes move to their new base, The USS Flagg.
21	"End Credits"	2:21	Originally composed for the end titles (pre-rolling end credits), but replaced by the "Boom Boom Pow" remix.

Total Duration: 01:11:41

Songs featured in the movie but not on the soundtrack

Title	Artist	Length	Key Scenes/Notes
"Boom Boom Pow (DJ Ammo Poet Named Life Remix)"	The Black Eyed Peas	5:47	Pre-rolling credits
"Bang a Gong (Get It On)"	London Bus Stop	3:36	The training montage of Duke and Ripcord.
"Whisker Frisking"	Randy Jones		Plays on Hawk's office.
"Boom, Boom, Boom (Shake Your Reggaeton)"	Zombie Bank		Duke, Ripcord and Scarlett working out.
"Boogie Bumper"	The Charlotte Swing Band		Flashback scene of Duke dancing.

Release

The film was first screened in the US on July 31, 2009 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The premiere was at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater on August 6, 2009, and in the following day, G.I. Joe started playing at 4,007 theaters in the US, along with 35 overseas markets.

Marketing

The film's actors were scanned for Hasbro's toy line, which began in July 2009 with the release of 3 3/4-inch tall action figures. The Rise of Cobra toy line also includes 12-inch figures, and vehicles, including the first play set based on the Pit in the franchise's history. Electronic Arts developed a video game sequel to the film, also titled G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

IDW Publishing released a four-issue prequel written by Chuck Dixon. Each issue focuses on Duke, Destro, the Baroness and Snake-Eyes respectively. It began publication in March 2009. The weekly film adaptation is written by Denton J. Tipton and drawn by Casey Maloney. The film's universe will be continued by a limited series about Snake-Eyes later in 2009; Ray Park enjoyed playing the character and approached writer Kevin VanHook and artist S. L. Gallant with the idea of a comic further exploring his incarnation of the character.

As part of the movie launch campaign, over 300 12-inch, parachute-equipped, G.I. Joe action figures were dropped from a 42-story Kansas City hotel roof and soar over 500 feet to the ground at 16th Annual International G.I. Joe Convention. For viral marketing, black helicopters with "G.I. Joe" written on them flew on American beaches. Tie-ins were made with Symantec, 7-Eleven, and Burger King.

Paramount's vice chairman Rob Moore claimed the movie was prioritized for mid-Americans, and thus marketing was more focused on cities such as Kansas City and Columbus. In Europe, the marketing was focused on action sequences set in Paris, Egypt and Tokyo, and emphasizes that G.I. Joe is an international team of crack operatives and not some Yankee soldier. Director Stephen Sommers said "this is not a George Bush movie—it's an Obama world. Right from the writing stage we said to ourselves, this can't be about beefy guys on steroids who all met each other in the Vietnam War, but an elite organization that's made up of the best of the best from around the world."

Home media

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was released on November 3, 2009 on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, in regular and two-disk editions. Both editions include an audio commentary by Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay, and two making-of featurettes, with the second disk of the special edition holding a digital copy of the film. The film opened at #1 at the DVD sales chart, making $40.9m off 2,538,000 DVD units in the first week of release. The film sold over 3.8 million discs, 500,000 of them on Blu-ray, during its first week.

Reception

Box office

During the opening weekend (August 7–9), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra opened at the top of the North American box office with an estimated $54.7 million. It earned an additional $44 million internationally during the same weekend. In the following week, the film opened in 14 more territories and continued atop the international box office with $26 million. As of November 5, 2009, the film grossed US$302,543,074 worldwide, of which US$150,201,498 was from the United States.

Critical reception

Paramount decided to not screen the film for print critics before its release and wanted to focus on internet critics. The film had received mixed to negative reviews. Based on 155 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra has a 'rotten' 34% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 4.6/10. By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 32 out of 100, based on 25 reviews.

One of the many complaints made by fans was that the film failed to relate to the G.I. Joe franchise. G4tv.com stated that, "[the studio] actually went out of their way to butcher the G.I. Joe mythos in favor of derivative storyline devices." They cited the Baroness, who was changed from an East European noble in the comics to Duke's brainwashed ex-girlfriend in the film.

Dan Jolin of Empire magazine commented that it was "Bond without the style and Team America without the bellylaughs". The Daily Telegraph reviewer said, "The taint of cruddiness extends everywhere in this joyless stinker." James Berardinelli said the characters were "as plastic as the toys that inspired them" and considered Tatum "wooden" and that his character was "more animated in sequences when he is rendered by special effects than when being portrayed by Tatum". Roger Ebert described that "there is never any clear sense in the action of where anything is in relation to anything else". Chuck Wilson of The Village Voice criticized the dialogue and described the underwater battle as "absurdly overproduced, momentarily diverting, and then instantly forgettable". Manohla Dargis of The New York Times considered the plot "at once elemental and incomprehensible", and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone thought that, despite the high budget, the special effects "look shockingly crappy; the Eiffel Tower appears to be destroyed by some green slime left over from the Ghostbusters films". Reviewers also criticized the film for the scientific impossibility of sinking ocean ice.

Matthew Leyland from Total Film called it "a throwaway blast of solid, stupid fun" and gave it three out of five stars, particularly praising Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance as the treacherous Cobra Commander. Sister publication SFX called the film "dumb and dopey, with plenty of bumpy bits" and that "GI Joe has a genuine cliffhanger charm, especially when the last act becomes a whole string of pulp plot twists. The ending screams “To Be Continued”; we could do worse.", finally awarding the score of three stars out of five. Christopher Monfette of IGN also gave the film a positive review, saying "This is an adult's interpretation of a childhood phenomenon, and if you're willing to give it a shot, one suspects that you'll find yourself entertained enough to give your best, "Yo, Joe!" He gave the film three and a half out of five stars. Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times criticized the excessive flashbacks, but praised the action scenes and design, and considered that Marlon Wayans "steals the show". Dan Kois of The Washington Post thought it was "as polished and entertaining as war-mongering toy commercials get". Tatum won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure for his performance as Duke and the film also received three other Teen Choice Award nominations: Choice Movie: Action Adventure, Choice Movie Actress: Action Adventure for Sienna Miller, and Choice Movie: Villain for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. However, the film was nominated for six Razzie Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor for Marlon Wayans and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, with Sienna Miller "winning" the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards.

Sequel

Rob Moore, the studio vice chairman, has stated that a sequel will be developed. The film's lead actors are contractually obligated to return. In January 2010, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of Zombieland, were hired to write the script for the sequel. Stephen Sommers was originally going to return as director of the sequel, but as of January 2011, Sommers will not be returning to direct. Production on the film will begin in June and the film will likely be released in 2012, also seeing the return of Storm Shadow actor, Lee Byung-hun. On January 17, 2011, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed once again that Lee Byung-hun will reprise his role as Storm Shadow in the sequel. Channing Tatum and Ray Park are also returning to the film as Duke and Snake-Eyes, respectively. Paramount Pictures announced that Jon Chu will direct the sequel. The film will be released August 10, 2012.

The G.I. Joe movie sequel has a new title: G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes. The film is planned to be filmed in 3D. UK X Factor winner Shayne Ward, actor Danny Arroyo and Shad Gaspard has auditioned for new roles for the sequel.

External links

• Official website
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra at IMDb
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra at AllMovie
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra at Rotten Tomatoes
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra at Metacritic
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra at Box Office Mojo