User reviews

I saw this film last night for the first time in ten years and I must say I still knew most of the dialogue! I saw it about a 1000 times when I was 10 years old. This film didn't loose the 'magic' when I reviewed it last night (other shows and films from my youth like Airwolf, A-Team and the Thunderbirds did loose their 'magic').

G.I. Joe The Movie is still a great, entertaining and fun cartoon. It's all about the origin of Cobra (G.I. Joe's nemisis). An ancient tribe of mutants (the ancestors of Cobra) want to take over the world and it's up the the Joe's to avoid this.

Despite its many flaws (some plotholes, continuity-goofs, etc.), it's still a great time watching it. This is certainly a film that defined my youth.

A 9 out of 10.

I must admit that I gobbled everything up in terms of cartoons back in the 1980s, especially things such as "G. I. Joe" and "Masters of the Universe". And I always enjoyed the "G. I. Joe" series, so when I had the chance to re-visit the 1987 movie here in 2021, of course I did that.

And while "G. I. Joe The Movie" definitely has the spirit of the series, this 1987 movie just isn't fully up to par with the series. It feels as if the creators were thinking they needed to exceed the series and go beyond. Which resulted in something that just simply went too far.

I just personally didn't grasp the idea of why Duke had to die, though they changed it to slipping into a coma later on. Nor why they had to change Cobra Commander into a full-blown snake. But anything for excitement, huh?

And then there was the thing about the mutant creatures, that just simply was beyond me. They just simply went too far with that concept and the movie sort of slipped away from the archetypical "G. I. Joe" formula that made the series.

Then when they started yelling "Cobralalalalalala", I was just good and ready to get up and turn off the movie. I didn't though, and I sat through the movie to the end. But that sound was just a bitter pill to swallow.

"G. I. Joe The Movie" does add some more flavor to some of the Cobra antagonists, such as Baroness, Cobra Commander and Destro. Just a shame that they didn't really were all that big a part of the plot.

This 1987 movie is essentially almost non-stop action from start to end, for better or worse. I did enjoy that, though, because the pacing of the story was kept moving constantly.

Sure, "G. I. Joe The Movie" is watchable, but it just went a bit too far and slipped over the edge.

My rating of "G. I. Joe The Movie" lands on a six out of ten stars.

G. I. Joe the movie is a film that is good, if not perfect, as it is severely underrated. The plot is after their latest failure, Cobra finds some new allies in the civilization of Cobra-La, led by Golobulus, who is revealed to be the one who gave Doctor Mindbender the idea to create Serpentor, Cobra's current leader. However, the Joes also receive new recruits, one of them being Lt. Falcon, Duke's half-brother, who is also reckless, as it proves as he leaves his post to flirt with Jinx, resulting in Cobra initiating a prison break. Now the race is on to stop Cobra's latest plot to spread spores that will turn humanity into snakes.

This movie went through a troubled history. Announced first, it had plans to kill off Duke (whose action figure was being discontinued at the time). However, this would inspire Transformers: The Movie to kill off Optimus Prime, a move that caused so much controversy and outrage from fans and parents of kids who were traumatized by that scene, that Hasbro reversed the decision, and Sunbow were forced to rewrite the scene so Duke fell into a coma. Also, the poor box office performances of Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie (the original, not the one with Twilight Sparkle) resulted in G. I. Joe: The Movie skipping theaters and heading directly to video. Despite the edits to keep Duke alive, it is still a good movie, as it has a good story, voice cast (especially with the likes of professional wrestler Sgt. Slaughter, alongside the cast of the cartoon), and the action is excellent. My only gripe is the movie focuses too much on Falcon (whose is basically Hot Rod, only worst), and some of the plot points sound a bit corny (especially the reveal that Cobra-La was the ones who gave Mindbender the idea to create Serpentor).

G.I. Joe: The Movie is okay, but it's not as good as it should of been. There is an introduction to some new characters, which takes away from the other characters; leaving them just as undeveloped as usual. There barely showed the great Snake Eyes!! The best thing about G.I. Joe is the origin of Cobra Commander and why he's trying to take over the world. That is pretty cool, but not enough to make this movie great. If they would of took it easy on the new guys and focus more on the old, who we still don't know, this movie would of been better. But 'ol well, it's G.I. Joe, so it's a must see.

If you loved the 1980s TV show you will love this movie. G.I. Joe the movie is not mearly as good as the TV show, but rather is much much better. This movie comprises of the same guys we love (or love to hate), such as Duke, Sgt. Slaughter, Cobra Commander, Serpentor etc etc. However, it is the new characters that really bring life and intrigue into this movie (ie. jinx, lt. falcon, nemesis enforcer, golobulus etc etc).

My favorite scene of this movie was the opening scene where pythona infiltrates the inpenetrable terradrome. I also loved the slaughterhouse training, and the many changes that occur within Cobra Commander. Then again, as a child I watched this movie all the time so I may be just a tad bit biased.

Like Transformers G1 I never grew up with the classic GI JOE series, luckily my uncle who grew up with the series introduced me to the classic GI JOE episodes. After watching all the GI JOE episodes online(season 1 was better) I decided to check out the movie they had. While not as great as the Transformers movie this was pretty good. I can't say much but this mainly could've been one of the five-pat mini series that the show would usually do. I mean other than the opening theme, they use music from the show and the animation is pretty much the same as the show. Nothing wrong with that, but look at the Transformers movie it had better animation, a great soundtrack and to be honest better characters.

I feel sorry for Cobra Commander in this film. I just do. He's been the great leader of COBRA, now reduced to a slithering snake. I really didn't like the idea of Cobra-La and Cobra Commander and Serpentor's origin. The leader of Cobra-La implanted the idea to Dr. Mindbender? In the show they made pretty clear that they wanted a new leader to lead COBRA all because Cobra Commander was doing a bad job. It just doesn't make any sense. While a lot of people may think that Lt. Falcon was like Hot Rod from the Transformers movie, but I see no resemblance other than the fact they're young. Hot Rod was young, but also kind, energetic, and grew into the role of leader.

Lt. Falcon was suppose to be like that after Duke, supposedly died, but the idea was scrapped because of the death of Optimus Prime in the Transformers movie. So instead have Falcon as a bit of a jerk. I just realized I have more complaints than positive things to say. I do like the action, but it's pretty much the same action we see in the show, It's good to see characters from the show, like Roadblock, Beachhead and Sgt. Slaughter. And I do love Serpentor's famous "COBRA LALALALALALALA"!! Overall this movie could've been a regular episode of GI JOE

Yo Joe!

I'm proud to say that I love this movie. I own it on DVD, and have watched it several times. It just keeps getting better.

What makes this one of the great cartoons from the 80's was it's realistic nature. The idea was obviously post- cold war type conflict put to paper, spawned a few characters, and was animated. And, unlike a lot of crap made today and back then, it worked out very well. And the reason was great writing. The writers of the show/movie had to juggle a story around several dozen characters, tie it all together, make it work, and not overwhelm the audience with it.

Success!

Other cartoons couldn't do that as well as GI Joe, or even transformers, without coming off as sugary or presented in a way that talked down to its viewers. And Gi Joe was always fresh with its story, and even kept elements of past episodes together in an ongoing story.

Now as far as this movie installment is concerned, watching it, you kind of get the idea that this was supposed to be a "next generation" type of story, especially dealing with new Joes on the force, and a new threat more powerful than Cobra. Doing away with Cobra Commander wasn't a plot point I liked, because he was always a great character, but it had a valid reasoning linked into the movie, so I let it go. I almost feel that the drama could have been heightened if Duke had died ( which was originally written into the script), but he is a great character, and we can't have a death on a kids' TV show like that.

The Cobra-La element is the one thing that I think was overplayed. I like the idea of a dormant society from thousands of years back trying to reclaim the Earth, and the characters were cool, but the organic creatures that made up the base were a little too much, like a giant cockroach for a bridge, a big....whatever for an air transport. These things stole some of the reality of the cartoon for me, but are still entertaining nonetheless.

If you're a fan, DEFINITELY watch this film!

First, G.I.Joe, I never really pay attention to the show, Because I'm a huge Transformers Fan.

However I figure I would give G.I. Joe The Movie a chance. To me, when it comes to movies and TV show, I always believe in the saying "Don't Judge People Until You Give Them A Chance" Well, I have some good and bad things to say about G.I.Joe: The Movie First, The Good: The Voice is awesome!, I'm Surprise that they got Actors like Don Johnson And WWF superstar,Hall Of Famer Sgt. Slaughter to star in this movie. The animation is Phenomenal, there's rarely a mistake in G.I.Joe The Movie. The Story is well-written, The writers wrote a very new story for G.I. Joe fans Now, for the bad: My main complain about the movie is that the music was just awful!, Only good song in G.I. Joe The Movie was the opening theme song, The Music came from The Transformers Series. I just love the music in Transformers The Movie, because it was new and all of the music in the movie match every scene.

Also, There were a few scenes that make no sense what so ever.

However, I didn't dislike G.I.Joe The Movie, But giving the chance between Transformers: The Movie and G.I.Joe: The Movie, I would watch Transformers: The Movie.

All in all, I thought that G.I. Joe: The Movie was a Okay movie, It's a movie for G.I.Joe fans.

I give G.I. Joe: The Movie 7 Out Of 10 YO JOE!!!!!

For me, it just didn't seem like GI Joe at all. When I watched it as a kid, I just didn't care for it. In fact the part I liked best about this one was the opening credits. They change so many facts around and turn the story around as well. Cobra Commander is supposedly part of this stupid race of reptile people in Antarctica or somewhere that is frozen. Though I always thought he was a normal guy considering every time you saw his eyes in the series they were surrounded by normal colored flesh and not the blue his face was here. There is just too much crap in this one to try and make this a spectacular movie, but for me it just ruins what I watched the series for in the first place.

You know, it's actually kind of sad when a cartoon based on a toy that I'm not a fan of ends up being better than the My Little Pony movie which I'm actually a fan of. The weird thing about G. I. Joe was that I don't think I could name a single good guy in this franchise. I could name nearly every bad guy though! Cobra Commander is especially what makes this franchise memorable. I love this guy's silly voice and hamminess. I admit to never having watched the cartoon at all. You don't have to in order to enjoy this movie.

The animation is very impressive. A lot of it is in fact just random fight scene after random fight scene. Still, that can be pretty entertaining. While the film looks nice, the characters are also quite fun. Again, it's mostly the villains but I managed to remember the names of some of the good guys this time around like Duke and Lt. Falcon. I will admit to being annoyed by how Snake Eyes was only in the movie for a few seconds. He's a pretty cool and recognizable character. This film has giant snakes, so it must be good. ***

Now I am a nostalgic fellow, and I enjoy looking back on the entertainments of my youth. I fondly recall delights like He-Man, and Transformers, and of course, GI Joe. But I am not above saying when things do not age well. Watching Transformers: The Movie on DVD, it does not age well. GI Joe: The Movie, though, does.

As a child, I used to rent this movie a lot, and for some reason I never got bored of watching it. Seeing the newly released DVD as a 20 year old "adult" (in quotes, ok?) I can still see why I liked it. It's not a masterpiece, but this is a fun cartoon. The animation and direction are really well done, and very exciting in the action scenes, and it's loads better than the dreary Transformers: The Movie (Which kills characters and is horribly animated, totally ruining the potential fun). Here the spirit of the original series is maintained, and instead of a couple of bad episodes back to back to back, it really feels like the biggest, best episode of GI Joe ever.

It's still not perfect of course. The voice acting is pretty bad except for the key roles (The guy who does Cobra Commander's voice is a genius though). There is very little weight to anything, and of course, the characters are thin to say the least. But I'm a firm believer of enjoying something based on its own merits and goals. This flick isn't trying to be a masterpiece, it's just trying to be an exciting hour and a half. And it really is.

I can't say enough times that I love the eighties for their great cartoons and great movies. The creativity during that time was awesome. As far as I am concerned 2 cartoons really stuck out in the eighties, namely GI Joe and The Transformers with Transformers being my personal favorite. For years I have been waiting for a return of those 2 cartoons to television. Their return would bring some class to the crap that now exists on television, like X-Men, Spiderman, Power Rangers, VR Troopers... The list goes on and on. What makes GI Joe and Transformers so great is the great storylines along with the absence of a Disney mode. Anyway, I read that a dvd of GI Joe The Movie existed so I forked over my cash to buy it right away and boy was it great to relive some memories. It was pretty good, although I didn't like Globulus and his crew. GI Joe was always about the battle against Cobra, not some mutated freaks.The whole GI Joe cartoon series screams DVD release (as long as they aren't sold for rip-off prices, like for example happens with the Battle Of The Planets cartoon or animes). As far as I am concerned GI Joe and the Transformers are the standard for cartoons. If you have never heard of GI Joe The Movie then check it out, but if you are a fan "What are you waiting for ?". Go rent it or buy it and enjoy the antics of Duke, Flint, Hawk, Beach Head, Sgt Slaughter and the rest of the gang. Quote of the movie: 'We're all going home or nobody goes home"

G.I. Joe the movie had it all when released in 1987. Action, humor and new characters. The plot which introduces new characters such as Falcon, Jinx, Tunnel Rat & Law is stil awe inspiring. While the villians such as Sepenator and Cobra Commandor play the villian roles perfectly. I love this movie and watching nowadays as a 20 year old man takes me back to my childhood of playing with toys. If you loved G.I. Joes as a chlid and haven't seen this movie you're in for a treat. I just wish that the live action movie would have come out.

Like it's cousin 'The Transformers', America's fave' 3&3/4inch action hero got it's own film, full of animated violence, doom and a cool theme song.

Released in the wake of 'TF:TM', 'Joe' hit the storm of backlash from parents groups and was altered for it's release.

'Joe' was a straight to TV release, no motion picture box office to slow it down. 'Joe' didn't get a rock soundtrack, but various mixes from the show (aside from the opening credit's theme-song redeux).

And Duke, slated for an Optimus Prime send-off (though Prime was resurrected on TV by this point), was re-dubbed in studio and drifted off into a coma. (also see: Voltron Lion Force's Sven. Killed by episode six, Sven was re-dubbed to the 'hospital planet').

Now parent friendly except for the standard dosage of animated violence... only the story became a downfall. Moderately paced, the Cobra back-story just didn't hit on all cylinders, dragging the rest of the script down.

Cool cartoon appearances from some better than average actors of the time, add to the enjoyment overall.

Still a great retro 80's cartoon flick, it just misses epic, but bring popcorn anyway.

This movie is about a highly trained special mission force to defend the world from Corbra(a ruthless terrisist organization that wants to take over the world and human freedom). This time Corbra is invaded by a weird stranger. The stranger reveals herself to be a ally of Corbra. Meanwhile , the Joes are testing a new weapon to solve the world's engery crisis. Corbra attacks the Joes in a suprise attack. Seperator is taken captive by the Joes. The Joes chases Corbra into a mountain but are ambushed by the people who live there. They are then captured by the people who live. COrbra Commander tries to escape from his own people who live in this mountain,but is recaptured. Corbra and the people of Corbra-LA form a new alliance against the Joes. The Joes send Seperator to a cell in Joe HQ. But Corbra rescies him. Eventually Corbra gets the new weapon to take over the world.The Joes inavade the Corbra Terror Dome to find out where their missing comrades are located. The Joes and Corbra finally fight it out in Corbra-LA as if they do not stop the weapon and some special pods in space , Corbra will finally take over the world. But the Joes somehow defeat Corbra. If you watched the series as a kid in the 1980's , you will maybe like the video!!!

There were parts of the show that were rather child like, this nearly made up for it by giving a background to Cobra. While it clashed with the comic origins, it still was done quite well. The guest voices such as Sgt. Slaughter (who had been part of the last season), Burgess Meredith, and Don Johnson (who denies that he did this film) added to the story as did the enhanced art. The art through the television show was lacking in a number of areas, scenes repeating, choppy scenes, but this was nearly movie quality animation.

As done in the second and third season of the show, there are of course characters who stand out. I was a little confused since many of the "new recruits" seemed to be civilians, still not bad characters, even if they were a little too stereotypical. All in all, a great movie for any gi joe or any other 80's animation fan.

This is a great feature animated film! I thought that the characters were really neat and all had great personalities. The animation in My opinion was crisp, clean, and really clear. Not to mention beautiful! Most of the characters in this show all have great personalities. in My opinion these characters are some of the best ever seen. In fact, The things that goes on in this series' cartoons are in My opinion action packed which that is what makes the show good. There are so many characters to like If you like the other 1980s' animated classic cartoons like G.I Joe, M.A.S.K., Transformers, and others then I strongly recommend that you watch this great movie today!

First off this movie receives 4-5 stars for the intro song sing alone. I watched G. I. Joe: The Movie a couple of days ago and am able to provide my review in a retrospective reflection.

The movie has non stop action from beginning to end. When viewing this as a child, the action drew me in and kept my attention. I wanted to see what would happen next from Cobra Commander's fate to the breaking of Falcon. As an adult I'm drawn in but also able to realize the movie is violent! Like literally a violent take on the syndicated cartoon series with some heavy adult themes. The movie was even borderline sexual in nature.

Themes to the side, the plot was your basic G. I. formality albeit with new players and higher stakes. It really did make you feel like a war was going on with the various battles taking place. I honestly think WW2 is an inspiration for a lot of the 1980's action cartoons. One thing to note is that Cobra and Cobra-La are highly layered organizations and I guess they realized this and decided to go separate ways with Cobra Commander. His origin story could have been fleshed out better tho.

One thing to note is that the G. I. joe universe is very diverse. That's cool. The actual visuals are decent not great and I use 1980's Thundercats for any baseline comparison on animation.

"Man, whoever heard of being shot down by a salad?" That line succinctly sums up the absurd nature of this movie, which went direct to video upon it's release back in 1987. A fun romp which although obviously aimed at kids, there's still enough there for grown-ups who remember the series for it to appeal to the child in them. The plot involves GI Joe, a highly trained military force who defend the world against the evil terrorist organisation of Cobra, who once led by the devious and villainous Cobra Commander, are now commanded by the genetically created Serpentor. Circumstances find them allying themselves with a race of Serpent like beings who were the initial predominant inhabitants of the world. This was before the Ice age destroyed most of their civilisation of Cobra-la and mankind took it's place. Their genocidal ruler Golobulous (voiced by the late Burgess Meredith) intends to launch a seemingly infinite number of mutative spore pods In to space, which when they ripen and burst outside the Earth's atmosphere, will reign down and transform every human being on the planet in to mindless mutant creatures. For them to hatch Golobulous needs the B.E.T. (Broadcast Energy Transmitter) so that the spores will hatch in space. It's left to GI Joe who are currently in possession of the B.E.T., and are in the midst of testing it to prevent Cobra and Cobra-la from stealing it and carrying out their heinous plan.

It's safe to say that GI Joe the Movie with it's silly, contrived plot doesn't deserve too much scrutiny when it comes to logic. No doubt likely due to the writers taking in to account what they would assume to be the undemanding nature of their target audience. Cobra-la's plan should instantly fall apart as surely the vegetative spores would burn up in the Earth's atmosphere let alone make it in to outer space. Also it's all rather convenient that GI Joe happens to be testing the B.E.T. in the Himilayas, not a million miles from where the remaining remnants of Cobra-la have been preserved. Despite this there's still much to be enjoyed with the amusing, infectious machismo (and believe me there's plenty of it) of the films heroic protagonists, vying against other 80's movies like Top Gun and Aliens for the most testosterone fulled characters imaginable. At it's heart though it's more good natured and humoured with colourful, likable heroes to cheer and villains to boo and hiss at. The animation by 1980's standards is actually fairly decent although it could never rival the sublime mastery of Japanese Anime, while the voice cast does a proficient job of bringing the wealth of characters to life. Plus the script is peppered with some one-liners which are fairly witty and is pretty self knowing for what is essentially an animated film for kids. If you find yourself looking after your or someone else's children then rather than find yourself forced to sit through something like Peppa Pig or Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, then you might want to throw this on in their place. It's vastly more tolerable and something that little and bigger kids might appreciate.