Being a fan of 1980s action/adventure cartoons can be tough, after all they were just glorified toy commercials containing little to no substance. Their fear of watchdog parent groups made them ridiculously tame and silly, something any child over the age of ten came to quickly realize and ridicule. Production value was minimal, music was repetitive, voice acting generic, in short ... they were bad cartoons. Still some part of me loves these cheesy shows and wishes that the magic I felt as a child could somehow be recaptured. Of course my - and many others - hope has not gone unnoticed. Again and again studios have tried to update the cartoons from my youth in an attempt to cash in on both their commercial potential and nostalgia value. Transformers has seen numerous incarnations including a handful of cartoons and two blockbuster (but bad) movies. Similarly GI Joe has several cartoon reboots and a lackluster live action film to its credit. Even He-Man got re-imagined on Cartoon Network back in 2002 and has a feature film script in the works. Financially these projects have seen a varying degree of success, but not even the best among them could meet, let alone exceed my expectations.Where did they fall short? Well the new He-Man cartoon had the right idea, it featured intense action while staying true to its roots. Unfortunately the show's stories proved to be childish and ultimately frustrating to watch. Transformers Beast Wars was really well written, but the characters just weren't the same as the ones I grew up with. GI Joe Sigma Six was dumb, same goes for Transformers Animated. As for the live action movies ... well don't even get me started on those. So why is it that none of these remakes hit the mark for me? Probably because what I want is so specific. I want an updated version of my favorite childhood cartoons, one that respects the characters I loved while maturing the content to something more appropriate for a person my age. Of course what I want doesn't really make for a fat profit margin so the odds of seeing such a thing are remote at best. Then the impossible happened, GI Joe Resolute was created. Originally shown on Adult Swim as an eleven part series (5 minutes each), GI Joe Resolute was literally everything I ever wanted from a modernized GI Joe cartoon; Intense action, beautiful animation, over the top villains and great characters, all wrapped together in a sixty minute story that managed to be both intelligent and cheesy at the same time.
Written by comic book veteran Warren Ellis, the story for GI Joe Resolute wastes no time setting its tone by showing the crime scene of recently murdered Cobra agent Major Bluud, this is shortly followed by the bombing of GI Joe's aircraft carrier the Flagg. Just five minutes in and you know this isn't going to be some campy 1980s retread of the original cartoon. Though its departure in tone is somewhat severe, Resolute still manages to pay tribute to its predecessor by bringing back a classic plot device, the Cobra doomsday weapon. Like the first couple mini-series before it, Resolute sees Cobra trying to - once again - hold the world for ransom with a super weapon. But this isn't some weather dominator, or a teleportation device, Cobra's new doomsday weapon does just one thing ... destroy. This is proven by Cobra Commander when he does something his 1980's counterpart never could (or would), he blows up Moscow ... all of Moscow. Faced with Cobra domination or absolute destruction the world turns to its only hope, GI Joe. This is a great setup, taking elements from the original series and raising the stakes so that the threat posed by Cobra has actual weight is a fantastic update to the old GI Joe formula.
The use of doomsday weapons isn't the only homage to make its way into Resolute however. Warren Ellis actually takes elements from both the original cartoon and the comic book and fuses them together to create the ultimate piece of fanservice. You want some Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow training with the Master? No problem. You want to see Zartan assassinate said Master? You got it. How about a visit to the town of Springfield? Sure. Don't forget about the showdowns either; Snake Eyes vs. Storm Shadow, Duke and Scarlett vs. Zartan, Destro and Baroness vs. Roadblock and Gung-Ho, it's all here. Ellis even goes as far as to take Scarlett's comic book romance with Snake Eyes and cartoon romance with Duke - combines them - and makes a love triangle out of it. At the same time more ridiculous things that other writers would've been tempted to include - like the battle cry "Yo Joe" - have been mercifully omitted. I have no idea if Ellis is a fan of GI Joe or not, but his knowledge of what's most important in the GI Joe universe really is admirable.
Another excellent - though less surprising - aspect to Ellis's writing is his use of science. By that I mean all the technology used in GI Joe Resolute has really good scientific theory behind it. Instead of just having a giant laser cannon that blows up cities (something your average lazy writer would use), Cobra's ultimate weapon uses a particle cannon to superheat the ionosphere. Energy from the particle reflection is then dispersed across the ionosphere so that Cobra can reassemble it and form a collimated beam above any target of their choosing. Realistic? Probably not, but boy does it make for a good sounding super weapon.
Equally impressive are the visuals of GI Joe Resolute. Though the style would probably be considered "anime" there is nothing generic about the films look. Personally I found the character designs very attractive with just the right amount new and familiar elements. I did have a couple complaints, like "Army" being printed in large letters across Duke's uniform, but overall I think the designers did a superb job. The same goes for the films animators. With the exception of some bad CG on the Flagg, the films animation is extremely fluid. Fight scenes are well staged and highly energetic, backgrounds look beautiful and lighting effects are attractive. Really, the movie just looks fantastic.
Unfortunately Resolute does exhibit one significant weakness, uneven voice acting. This shortcoming is most likely the byproduct of only having about four actors do all the films voices. With each actor being responsible for anywhere between 4-8 characters, you're bound to run a little thin in the variety department. Supporting this theory is the fact that heavily accented villains like Destro, Cobra Commander, Zartan and Baroness all sound pretty good, whereas the more standard sounding heroes like Roadblock Gung-Ho and Duke do not. Duke also suffers from having the over familiar voice of Steven Blum. Though Blum is an excellent actor he has used his "Spike" voice far too many times. This makes it really difficult to get into a character because the voice is so ubiquitous that you continually find yourself thinking "oh, that's the guy who did Spike's voice", a problem that continues to grow in the action/adventure genre (I'm referring to Spike from Cowboy Beebop).
Clearly I'm recommending this film to any fan of the 1980's GI Joe franchise. If you liked either the cartoon, comic books or both, you should check out Resolute. For those action/adventure lovers who aren't GI Joe fans per se, I would at least suggest that you rent or watch the film online (keeping in mind this is TV-14, so it's definitely not intended for younger viewers). The DVD itself is pretty cheap (about $15) but it doesn't come with any real extras. Also the video does occasionally show some signs of over compression in the form of banding, just something to be aware of in case you want to buy.
