I saw the trailer for this puppy from watching GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, so I rented it via Netflix. At first, it tricked me into thinking that this was an Anime version of GI Joe because of the art direction, it wasnt. But, that doesn’t matter because this short movie was entertaining. Although, it was only an hour long, after hitting the 40 minute mark, I started to feel that it was too long.

The animation is top-notch, as I said before, it feels like an Anime. The character designs were pretty cool, some characters resembled the old Joes more than others. Duke, looks too stylish to be a reputable leader. However, most of the Cobras were very well designed. I don’t remember Destro being 7 foot tall, but he still looks cool nonetheless. The vehicles are also re-designs from the older show, it brought back memories watching the Cobras’ bubble-looking (no, i don’t know the official name) hover crafts flying around. The action scenes were entertaining, especially with Snake Eyes. There’s even a John Woo touch to the gunplay sequences.

I’m not going to spoil it, but my biggest complaint was the final scene. Also, the writers were afraid to let us think for ourselves, they made sure to explain EVERYTHING! Storm Shadow talked too much, which made him less mysterious, and more annoying. But, overall, this was better than I thought. So, I would recommend that you at least rent it, even if you’re not a big GI Joe fan.

Grade: B-

• Tweet