G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Blu-ray) By David Vaughn   •   November, 2009 While protecting a top-secret warhead, two NATO soldiers code-named Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are saved from certain doom by agents of G.I. Joe, an secret military organization armed with the latest in military technology. After the attack, the two are recruited into G.I. Joe's ranks, and their mission is to stop a terrorist who uses nanotechnology for nefarious purposes.

When I was four years old, all I wanted for Christmas was a G.I. Joe action figure with his "Kung Fu grip," and my parents/Santa obliged. Within 10 years, poor G.I. Joe was shrunk from a Ken-sized doll down to an action figure—thank you George Lucas—and a new franchise was born with a wide array of toys, comics, and even a cartoon. With Hollywood being a copycat industry, it was bound to become a feature film after the success of Transformers, but much like that film from 2007, there's a lot of style and not a lot of substance.

Given its tent-pole summer-blockbuster roots, I had high expectations for the 1080p encode. One of my friends joked that G.I. Joe should have been called CGI Joe, and he wasn't kidding. Unfortunately, most of the computer-generated effects are blatantly obvious and unrealistic, but given many of the gadgets and stunts, is this a bad thing? Detail is sharp with only the occasional soft shot creeping into the picture, and the colors are bold and strong, with inky blacks and revealing shadows.

Bass buffs prepare to be impressed by the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, which features a plethora of room-shaking explosions, creative sound design with discrete effects flying from every direction, and mostly intelligible dialog. This is a stellar track filled with guns, missile launchers, and high-tech energy weapons.

The 2-disc set features a commentary by director Stephen Sommers and producer Bob Ducsay on disc one and a digital copy and two featurettes on the second disc. Neither production is in HD, but at least they're informative. The first one talks about bringing G.I. Joe to the big screen, while the second showcases the visual effects seen in the film.

In all honesty, I had no desire to see this film. Maybe I'm getting too old, or perhaps I didn't want my childhood memories of my WWII hero ruined. On further thought, I just got tired of unoriginal action films coming from Hollywood. Regardless, my low expectations were exceeded, which doesn't say much considering they were very low. The A/V is spectacular, although I wish the violence was tamed down a few notches.

Release Date: November 3, 2009
Studio: Paramount

Movie: 5/10
Picture: 9/10
Sound: 9/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics