Last Sunday Movie: Gi Joe The Movie

Gi Joe The Movie shares a lot with its twin 80s counterpart: Transformers the Movie, and not just because they're both based on a toy line, and both recently had new movies made of them. Both of the 80s movies feature plots that introduce many new elements (or one could say, a plot that has nothing to do with the series prior to the movie), many new characters to replace older toys, er, characters, and stunt casting.

Unfortunately, the casting on GI Joe is not as spectacular as Transformers (though they both share many of the regular cast of voice actors). Don Johnson, Sgt. Slaughter (the wrestler), and Burgess Meredith all are gifted people to be sure, but pale in comparison to the cast of Transformers which included Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Eric Idle, and even Judd Nelson. Of course, all of the people I've listed in this paragraph were people willing to sell their self-respect for a hopefully large stack of cash. The unsung heroes are the voice actor's voice actors who lent their talents to both the series and the movie, including Michael Bell, Frank Welker, and Chris Latta.

Killing off the main character was also a big thing that both movies share. Unfortunately, the Transformers Movie was released first, so when news of hundreds of traumatized kids cried their eyes out at the sight of Optimus Prime dying, the good folks making the movie dubbing in some lines that Duke "was in a coma" and was "going to pull through." Seeing how fake these lines are, considering Duke got a snake through his heart (don't ask), makes the movie almost worse than if they had just killed him.

(Also, both movies feature a reckless hot shot who gets the hero killed off, though at least Lt. Falcon is not rewarded for his deeds like Hot Rod is.)

So, what is the plot of the movie? Well, Cobra, the evil terrorist organization plotting world domination, is led by Cobra Commander, who in actuality a scientist who comes from a secret society called, wait for it, "Cobra-La." "Cobra-La" is an Atlantis-type ancient society that was almost destroyed by the Ice Age/Dawn of Man, and developed superior technology compared to us humans. Tired of hiding, they plan on shooting spores into space. Once heated by the Joes' newest MacGuffin, the spores will rain down on humanity turning them into mindless monsters. It's a little sad if the plot is based off of Moonraker, one of Roger Moore's Bond films. More or less on par with the actual series the movie was based on.

All in all, it is a fun movie, not one for actual military enthusiasts per se. The animation is very well done, despite the occasional error. It's actually a very nice example of the 80s line-drawn anime style that been replaced by "edgier" animated styles or just by computers in general. The story flows pretty good, and it features most, if not, all of the Gi Joe's extended cast of characters, even if most characters have truncated roles.