GI Joe, one of the most popular franchises of the 80s, joins a long line of comic books turned movies. The cartoons and comics were about over the top action sequences and the individual and distinct attributes of each character. From the start of the movie it is clear that it was only meant to be an all out action movie and not have any “change the way you think” elements. The movie succeeds in meeting its simple goals.

The movie makes a smart decision to have the GI Joes already established. Therefore it skips the sometimes boring and tedious introductions present in most comic book movies.As a non-American and a fan of the series, I was pleased to see that the GI Joe in the movie represents a worldwide task force that included a British (Heavy Duty) and a Moroccan (Breaker).

The movie succeeds at staying true to the GI Joe universe with ample use of high tech weaponry. It is a highly entertaining movie with constant over the top action sequences and a lot of collateral damage. Flash backs are used to provide history for some of the characters. Not only are the flash backs kept brief, they are often action packed as well. I easily preferred this movie to Transformers 2 as the latter forgot it was supposed to be a blockbuster action movie.

With the exception of General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) the acting and dialogue is very weak. Fortunately these are kept to a minimum and easily overshadowed by the action. Expecting a GI Joe movie to have logic, rich dialogue and acting is like expecting a monkey to teach Einstein’s theory of relativity. The subject, in both cases, is primitive.

One major beef I do have with the movie is the motivation for the “bad guys”. According to the movie, most of them had joined the evil side because they felt neglected and victimized by society. In other words because they were not hugged often enough, they have turned into cold blooded killers. RIGHT!

Final Word: If you can block out that part of your brain that demands logic and be prepared for sub-par dialogue and acting, you will find this to be a highly entertaining movie.