Too Much Headspace

My brief review of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra:

I liked it.

Now I'm as surprised by this as anyone, but it was a truly great movie! Let me be more specific; in all the criteria by which the quality of a movie is traditionally judged, it is lacking. But, if, as Virginia Woolf said, "The success of the masterpieces seems to lie...in the immense persuasiveness of a mind which has completely mastered its perspective", then it was a great movie.

In other words, it was completely aware it was a movie based on an 80's cartoon. More to the point, as Escape To The Movies critic Bob points out, it's a movie based on 80's toys.

And it was all there. The catch phrases, the random "Just Go With It" MacGuffins ("You have a secret lair under the desert?" "Well, duh!"). The treatment of physics as merely suggestions rather than laws - without trying to create some explaination (magic! mutants! magical mutants!). And unlike certain summer movies, which so concerned with being super-cool that they never actually showed us the cool stuff, you could follow the action. And it was awesome!

I enjoyed this movie because it went straight to my inner 7-year-old, and didn't justify, explain, or apologize for it.