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1* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
2** Was [[spoiler:Rex's mutiny against [=McCullen=]]] simply the seizing of an opportunity, or had it been part of the plan all along? [[spoiler:Rex already had a special nanomite solution prepared for [=McCullen=], as well as his own sub already branded with the Cobra insignia.]] It's worth noting that, in [[Film/GIJoeRetaliation the sequel]], [[spoiler:both Zartan and Storm Shadow, who were previously loyal to [=McCullen=], serve Cobra Commander without explanation, and nobody seems to have a problem when Cobra Commander abandons Destro, implying that Rex had quietly secured the allegiance of [=McCullen=]'s lieutenants, and had been planning to hijack his TakeOverTheWorld plan all along.]]
3** When Zartan destroys the mind control chip during his surgery, [=McCullen=] looks concerned for a moment, while the Doctor doesn't even blink. Was this just Zartan being savvy and the Doctor not caring, or a sign that [[spoiler:Zartan is already loyal to the future Cobra Commander]]? Either way, [[spoiler:guess who's Cobra Commander's [[TheDragon Dragon]] in the sequel.]]
4** With the Korean Byung-hun Lee playing the normally Japanese Storm Shadow, coupled with him speaking Korean in his youth, leads to the theory that Storm Shadow underwent a RaceLift in this continuity. Interestingly enough it would be another connection to his rival Snake Eyes as both are outsiders to the martial art they practice.
5* AssPull: The Doctor is revealed to be [[spoiler: Rex]], which wouldn't be a bad twist were it not for the fact that his motivations for turning evil are extremely vague.
6* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Baroness is a highly divisive character for her portrayal in this, because she's PromotedToLoveInterest for Duke, albeit as an ex, and [[spoiler: is revealed to be brainwashed before fighting it off through ThePowerOfLove]]. To many fans, this was too drastic a departure from the character's origins. She does have her fans however for Sienna Miller's performance, costume and snarky lines.
7* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Sienna Miller's SpyCatsuit, complete with her memorable introduction of the camera tilting up to reveal prominent cleavage as she exits the chopper, is a significantly remembered part of the movie. She actually has several different outfits, and is fairly covered up in the second half of the film, but the first one is most remembered. Stephen Sommers and the actress herself had to fend off persistent rumours that she had to wear rubber breasts for it.
8* ClicheStorm: The film is chock-full of every action movie cliche most people have ever seen. If you want an explanation, look no further than Christopher Orr's review of the movie, in which he decides to just let it speak for itself by providing 40 of the lines that sum up the plot and all of the typical one-liners and plot points it has. It's really a shame though, considering it had some great actors who did the best they could with the material they were given. Then again, for fans of the movie, this could be exactly what they liked about it.
9* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/GIJoe here]].
10* CriticalBacklash: Given how badly received the movie was at the time, especially from fans who assumed there were changes from the source material, when the movie was actually pulling from various comics, toy lines and animated series, there has been a growing subsection of fans who insist the movie isn't as bad as that. Indeed, although Channing Tatum himself supposedly disowned it, he later clarified that he meant the studio politics forcing him into it was his issue, and that it wasn't "that bad of a film".
11* DracoInLeatherPants: Storm Shadow is ''very'' popular. Doesn't hurt that he's hot and can kick your ass from here to next Tuesday.
12* EnsembleDarkhorse:
13** Storm Shadow, despite being a secondary villain, is easily one of the most popular characters in the movie, for his [[EvenEvilHasStandards sense of honour]], Byung-hun Lee's attractiveness, and badass fight scenes.
14** This movie's incarnation of Scarlett is also very well liked, and fans bemoan that she didn't return for the sequel.
15* FansPreferTheNewHer: TheBaroness is a natural blonde in this continuity and only donned her dark hair and SpyCatsuit after being heartbroken over her brother's death, and [[spoiler: getting ForcedIntoEvil]]. Sienna Miller however looks fantastic with black hair, and the catsuits [[RuleOfSexy need no elaboration]].
16* FashionVictimVillain: [[spoiler:Cobra Commander. After switching to the metal full-head helmet, suddenly his skinniness becomes more apparent and he looks like a bobblehead or lollipop.]] One of the few cases where ShouldersOfDoom might help. This could be why he was recasted and given a new suit in the sequel.
17* HamAndCheese:
18** Creator/ChristopherEccleston as Destro. Although given he said how much he hated working on the film, this may have been accidental on his part.
19** And Creator/JosephGordonLevitt as [[spoiler:Cobra Commander]]. Both of them know exactly what kind of movie they're in, and that makes their scenes together the most interesting.
20* HarsherInHindsight:
21** The attacks and destruction in Paris after the real-life terrorist attacks on Paris in 2015 makes watching the ''entire'' movie ''far'' less enjoyable.
22** Channing Tatum plays a character who has to basically force his way to be part of the operation, as he's told "you don't ask, you ''get'' asked". It was the opposite in real life, where he was forced to do the film by contract, threatened with a lawsuit if he didn't back out.
23** Storm Shadow's beef with Snake Eyes is implied to stem from the former's jealousy at him being a better student at the dojo, and killing their master afterwards. Come the sequel, [[spoiler: where it's revealed that Storm Shadow didn't kill him]], it makes the scene where he silently stares off into space thinking about the event [[CryForTheDevil even sadder]].
24* HesJustHiding: Cover Girl does get stabbed in the back by Zartan but, since General Hawk makes a recovery, there's no reason to believe she couldn't have gotten speedy medical attention as well. Scarlett also only refers to "the ''men'' we lost", giving a glimmer of hope that she could have survived.
25* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoment: Ripcord consoles Scarlett, who's afraid to show her vulnerability due to suffering her first loss, since her father taught her to win fights since she was a kid. Not to mention that the Joes' lost a lot of good men and General Hawk is incapacitated from Cobra's assault.
26-->"Look, I don't see how you could teach anybody to win everything every time. I mean, look at you. You're still here, right? You get knocked out, you get back up. Maybe that's what [your father] wanted you to learn. But then again, ''[[MeaningfulEcho that would be an emotional response, one that can't be explained or quantified]]''."
27* HilariousInHindsight:
28** Creator/ChristopherEccleston's character designed the bunker under the White House. Did you know that as [[Series/DoctorWho The Doctor]] he operated the bunker-like office in 10 Downing Street (the Prime Minister's place)?
29** Snake Eyes is a ninja trained in martial arts. Young Snake Eyes was played by Creator/LeoHoward. Leo Howard and martial arts? [[Series/KickinIt That sounds familiar...]]
30** Sienna Miller playing the wife of a soldier brings to mind her much more serious role in ''Film/AmericanSniper'', leading to jokes that this is a prequel to that.
31* JustHereForGodzilla: There are more than a few viewers who were only interested in the movie because of Snake Eyes, thanks to him being a complete badass who is cooler and is generally considered more interesting than the rest of the cast combined.
32* LoveToHate: Sienna Miller as TheBaroness is considered perfect casting, leaning into both her FemmeFatale and {{Troll}} personality. [[spoiler: Sadly, she has a HeelFaceTurn once brainwashing wears off]].
33* MagnificentBastard:
34** [[BigBad Cobra Commander]], once known as [[FromNobodyToNightmare Rex Lewis]], was a soldier in the US military who was left to die, and takes the opportunity to go into hiding and perfect the nanite technology. Going undercover as "the Doctor", the Commander fools James [=McCullen=] into being his [[UnwittingPawn pawn]], using the man's resources to secretly build his own organization called Cobra that the Commander uses to overthrow [=McCullen=]. Able to instantly silence any of his captured soldiers and even quickly using his sister Ana as a hostage to enable his escape from the G.I. Joes, the Commander [[PresidentEvil installs Zartan as the President of the United States]] and uses him to eliminate the G.I. Joes and wipe out every country's nuclear weapons, at which point the Commander unveils his powerful "[[KillSat Project Zeus]]", with which he hopes to gain ultimate power over the world, and very nearly succeeds. Cobra Commander escapes at the end of the films with many of his resources intact, and showcases a tremendous amount of manipulation and scheming in his quest to bring the entire planet under a Cobra banner.
35** Storm Shadow is a cold, deadly ninja working for MARS Industries and later Cobra as their most successful agent. Framed for the death of his clan's leader, the Hard Master, Storm Shadow went on the run and became a mercenary in an effort to clear his name, and spends his time under James [=McCullen=] and Cobra Commander seeking the true culprit. Respecting enemy and ally alike and having pure vitriol for Zartan due to his sadism and glee in killing women, Storm Shadow leads a successful invasion of the G.I. Joe home base to steal warheads in their possession, quickly coming up with a new escape route even when the Joes destroy his original plan. Allowing himself to be captured in the sequel only to orchestrate a prison break of Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow later allies with the G.I. Joes themselves to stop Cobra's [[KillSat Project Zeus]], using their extra forces to assist himself in getting revenge on the Hard Master's murderer--Zartan--before disappearing into obscurity, his quest completed and his brotherhood with his friend-turned-enemy Snake Eyes renewed.
36* MoralEventHorizon: The Doctor crosses it when it's revealed that [[spoiler:he brainwashed his own sister (who, it should be mentioned, is in mourning because he allowed her to think that he was dead), and is ready to kill her to save himself and spite Duke]]. While he was already a sadistic MadScientist helping in a plot for world domination, this revelation puts him over the line from bad to pure evil.
37* {{Narm}}:
38** [[spoiler:Cobra Commander]] does a grand entrance... and is caught and put to jail few seconds later. The whole sequence goes so quickly, you can forgiven for thinking a large chunk of movie was just cut out.
39** [[spoiler:Cobra Commander's]] [[BetaOutfit outfit]] is also...not great. The mask looks comical and he even has a doofy voice modulator that makes him sound like Darth Vader.
40* NarmCharm:
41** Most, if not all of the dialogue from the Doctor ([[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant no, not]] [[Creator/ChristopherEccleston that one]]) is incredibly hammy, but Creator/JosephGordonLevitt makes every single bit of it work. The crowning moment has to be when he [[spoiler:declares himself Cobra Commander]]. Could have been ''very'' ridiculous (especially with [[FashionVictimVillain that look]]), but it manages to be a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.
42---> '''The Doctor''': The time has come for [[spoiler:the Cobra to rise up and reveal himself]]. You will call me... [[spoiler:'''Commander''']]!
43** The entire movie is blocked with cliché's, and is burdened with a fairly thin plot and an overabundance of special effects, but despite or even because of that, it's extremely entertaining.
44* OlderThanTheyThink:
45** The movie pulls ideas from several different toy lines, comic books, and animated series. Many of the details that fans complain about the movie "changing" are taken right from the source material ... just not an iteration of the source material the complainer is familiar with (e.g., you don't have to like the powered suits, but if you know the ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeSigma6'' line, you know the movie didn't make them up).
46** Likewise, "International Heroes" was part of the ''Action Force'' theme, and even briefly adopted in the [=DiC=] series. GI Joe also worked for the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations in ''Sigma Six''.
47** Cover Girl actually did have long blonde hair in her initial appearances in Season 1, before switching to her more remembered short red hairstyle.
48* OneSceneWonder:
49** [[Film/TheMummy1999 Kevin J. O'Connor]] as Dr. Mindbender in [[spoiler:Rex]][=/=]The Doctor's FlashBack.
50** Creator/BrendanFraser as Sergeant Stone.
51* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: The tie-in game wasn't well-received.
52* QuestionableCasting: Jonathan Pryce is a confusing choice to play the president of the United States, since his American accent [[OohMeAccentsSlipping comes and goes alarmingly]].
53* RetroactiveRecognition:
54** What the HELL happened to [[{{Film/Inception}} Arthur]]?! Granted, he was a TeenIdol who had been in ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' and ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'', but he'd have a bigger resurgence in the 2010s.
55** Wait, Snake Eyes used to be [[Series/KickinIt Jack Brewer]]?
56* RomanticPlotTumor: The Baroness and Duke is pretty central to the storyline, even if it feels unnecessary to the mythos. G.I. Joe, after all, has no small shortage of improbable relationships across every canon. Ripcord and Scarlet, however, seems to have drawn almost universal scorn.
57* RootingForTheEmpire: Part [[DracoInLeatherPants Baroness in Tight Asshugging Leather Pants]], part dislike of the comparatively flat characters of the Joes, and part [[HamAndCheese wonderful performances]] from Creator/ChristopherEccleston and Creator/JosephGordonLevitt.
58* SignatureScene:
59** The fight between Scarlett and The Baroness seems to be the most remembered part of the film. Despite what you'd expect, it's not played for {{Fanservice}}, beyond the novelty of seeing two of the franchise's iconic {{Action Girl}}s fighting, and it's actually fairly brutal - The Baroness choking Scarlett with a chain, whacking her in the face with a pan, and punching her in the neck.
60** Another absurdly well-remembered moment is the brief bit during the Paris sequence where The Baroness orders a woman out of an elevator and gunpoint and then says "nice shoes".
61%%* SoBadItsGood
62* SpecialEffectsFailure: While a majority of the special visual effects were well done, a CGI cobra at the beginning of the film sticks out like a sore thumb:
63** In the wide shots of the Nanites eating the Eifel Tower, the nanite swarm looks like a toxic gas cloud.
64** The scene of Cobra's arctic base collapsing into the water is pretty weightless when it comes to physics and its rendering is on par with the tie-in game.
65** The Paris car chase is loaded with wonky CGI in terms of both physics and execution of the animation and rendering. The kicker? The SlowMotion shot of the suits dodging the missiles took the equivalent of 4 years in computer time to render.
66** [=McCullen=]'s [[spoiler: horribly burnt head and face that forces him to become Destro? NightmareFuel... But the CGI rendering his new metallic head? Abhorrent SFX failure that [[NightmareRetardant sucks away the preceding horror]], and looks especially laughable whenever his metallic lips move and when he gets up to try attack Rex in rage and the light reflections look completely off. It's mind-boggling why they couldn't rely on some makeup effects for Destro's final look and thought ''THIS'' video call filter-looking thing was okay to show in theaters]].
67* SpiritualAdaptation:
68** For its wooden and unconvincing acting, being heavily episodic and pretty much a ClicheStorm collection of explosive action scenes, this film can be considered the closest to an action BMovie made by Creator/TheCannonGroup in vein of their past works like ''Film/InvasionUSA1985'', ''Film/TheDeltaForce'' (which featured an electronic music score by Music/AlanSilvestri, who scores this movie), and ''Film/AmericanNinja'' in the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]].
69** Boiling the film down to its basic ClicheStorm plot-beats, and the fact that there's a major action set-piece in Paris that ends with the Eifel Tower being destroyed, this could probably be the closest we'll get to a live-action ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', just with everything played straight rather than for laughs.
70* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: [[InNameOnly Cover Girl]] in this movie is basically just General Hawk's assistant before Zartan kills her. Cover Girl in the source material is a former professional model who took up driving tanks for a living. Not even the G.I. Joe fans realized that the character was supposed to be Cover Girl. You know you've wasted a character when not even the people with knowledge of the source material knew who the character was supposed to be.
71* UnexpectedCharacter: Ripcord is an unusual choice for TheLancer in the film, since he was mostly a background character in the franchise, and it's even more unusual that they use a character who was white and gave him a RaceLift to accommodate Marlon Wayans - since the franchise had plenty of actual black characters he could play, such as Stalker or Roadblock, who are AdaptedOut (Roadblock appears in the sequel, played by Creator/DwayneJohnson).
72* VindicatedByHistory: While financially profitable when it came out, it was panned by critics and fans alike, with three of the stars taking the time to slam it once they were no longer committed to the franchise. As the years have gone by, it's seen in a more favourable light for being fun and close to the tone of the animated series, with fans having to acknowledge that many presumed changes to the canon were actually coming from other sources besides the series. The tepid reception to ''Film/SnakeEyesGIJoeOrigins'' has also had people looking back on ''Rise of Cobra'' in a more positive light.
73* WTHCostumingDepartment:
74** Snake Eyes' mask having embossed lips. The idea of [[TheVoiceless a character who doesn't speak]] having embossed lips on his mask is just ridiculous. It also proved distracting to the audience.
75** Rex's "Cobra Commander" helmet. Whoever was in charge of costuming either had no idea what the Commander looked like besides "shiny helmet", or tried to somehow combine Rex's look before he revealed his true colors with the look commonly associated with CC. [[http://thesecondtake.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Cobra-Commander-Rise-of-Cobra.jpg The result]] was...interesting.

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