Just watched it. I went in with an open mind, willing to see this as I watched mummy, a lot of fun, good time popcorn action. I have to say even for this I was kind of disappointed. Don't get me wrong there are some exciting moments, lots of really unexpected violence like neo-vipers getting their heads blown off, people getting shot, storm shadow and snake eyes slitting throats, arrows in eyes, etc. but this is for the general public, not for Joe fans.
If you're one of those fans that have been bashing this since the initial trailers without even bothering to keep an open mind about it, I still think that's a silly, snotty attitude that a lot of you have had, especially poking fun at people that wanted to see this with an open mind, but still for your sake and the sake of humanity don't bother paying to see this, you'll be cursing and gnashing teeth, possibly ripping out theatre chairs and causing a scene. Having an open mind got me through this, just BARELY.
With that said here's a summation of positives and negatives:
* Baronness is quite sexy and badass. She has maybe 10-15 lines in the movie, no joke, but they're delivered somewhat decently. When she's bad she's bad, firing her ridiculous pulse guns blowing tanks up and smashing joes to smithereens. Also there's a great cat fight between her and Scarlett. When she's not so bad and ambiguous it's really hammed up and harped on. Really quite terrible. Baronness is an ex-radical turned evil badass terrorist. She's not
a nanomite slave to the 'doctor'
she's just plain evil. Really disappointing and badly done.
* The jokes and overall comic relief is actually not that bad. 90 % of it is a hit and some of it is actually kind of clever. Marlon Wayans was not that bad. Not good by any means but not terrible.
*Duke was actually the best, maybe not brimming with intensity but a believable soldier with well delivered lines. I liked Duke the best actually, maybe not so much as a character but acting-wise it's actually done well. I enjoyed him on screen much more than Wayans.
*Destro. When he's just McCullen he oozes an evil bond villain vibe that I really enjoyed. On top of that Eccleston is a top notch actor and he does a great job as a pre-Destro villain. I actually liked his scottish accent there was something charismatic and sinister about it at the same time. But when he dons his mask...well
the CGI here could have learned a thing or two from TDK whose Two-Face work was simply amazing. There's this weird uneven texture to the mask that just doesn't look right imo. The early leaked photos which are actually from the movie looked better than this final version. Not really all that impressive but not terrible either.
*The Doctor. Interesting to say the most. It would have been really cool if he was just mindbender and Cobra was revealed as a completely separate character at the end, pulling the strings behind everything. Otherwise it was kind of disappointing.
The look I've always been totally fine with, and he did in a way capture the feel of Cobra Commander as a hammy, somewhat cowardly villain, but the voice....there was something really unsatisfying about it. It was wayyyy too deep. I'm not even sure if its actually Gordon Levitt or if it's another actor like Darth Vader or they just manipulated it beyond recognition. I don't understand any of the Chris Latta references.
There is only a trace of that in terms of the megalomania and ridiculous villainy that comes through in the voice. Towards the end the voice actually grew on me, especially considering that the voice acting (not the tone or sound but emotive aspect) was actually pretty decent....but when he puts on that clear mask...well he doesn't look terrible it's kind of an interesting take on CC's classic battle suit, but his voice changes into something resembling the deep guy that narrates movie trailers. Terrible. I wish they just let Levitt use his own voice as is, it would have probably been more appropriate.
I feel like that's enough for now. If you're curious check it out, it's a C-grade action movie with some decent fights and some decent action, nothing too spectacular though. I'd just wait to watch it on Blu-Ray in the comfort of your home if I were you. It had less idiotic humor, a better plot (hah) than ROTF but in no way was it more entertaining or epic. Terminator Salvation in my opinion beats them both in terms of story, action and acting. A sad summer.
Spoiler: 
