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Thanks to Josh Dahl of the Terror Drome for the heads up that a member of Brian Bendis’ message board on 606Studios.com caught an advanced screening of G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA and posted his review here.

Some minor spoilers, so I’ll mirror the text after the “break”.

It was pretty good. I had pretty low expectations going in and it certainly exceeded them. Can’t say I really knew much of the plot going in or really who all was in it. It was pretty low on my radar as far as summer movies go. Anyways, this was one of those test screenings so we were given ratings cards and the film was introduced by one of the exec producers of the movie. He mentioned we were one of the first audiences to see the movie but that the SFX for the final 20 minutes were still being finished, so he apologized if they seemed a little off. Honestly, it wasn’t all the noticeable.

Things I liked:

The action sequences are pulled off very very well. I didn’t think any of them were boring. Technically well done.

Marlon Wayans, who I didn’t even know was in this until he showed up. Like Kevin Mellon said, it is possible to wring a good performance out of him, just see Requiem.

The pacing, the movie moves along at a pretty brisk pace and doesn’t really have any slow spots, other than a couple of flashbacks which feel kind of wedged in at the wrong time in spots.

Scarlett and Baroness are hot.

Use of classic Joe lines.

Storm Shadow

Things I could have done with out:

The Delta-6 suits, just dumb. But only on screen about 10 minutes, just grin and bare it.

Seeing Snake Eyes lips, kinda silly looking, but a minor quibble.

Thing’s I was indifferent about:

Quaid is hit and miss. Looks like he’s having fun though.

Cobra Commanders origin and look. Some people might be put off or annoyed by it, I thought it was ok, but could have been better.

Use of classic Joe lines.

Anyways, that’s pretty much my initial impression. I tried not to give away anything too specific, but if you want to know, I’ll tell you.

3/5 stars, fun movie and not the disaster I was fearing.