I’ve always been a big fan of G.I. Joe. I was a little disappointed when the big summer movie The Rise of Cobra never had a reference to the popular PSA spoofs, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. So now its fall and I’ve packed up my bathing suit, towel, and guns, and picked up the G.I. Joe Special Edition 2-Disc DVD Set. I was drawn in by more than the allure of the tin case and the swanky digital copy. Supposedly, the special edition’s special features were longer than the movie itself, and this was more than a little intriguing to me. Well, it turns out the rumors were true, there definitely is a larger ratio of “special feature” to movie in this set, and watching the special features was sort of like watching the whole movie all over again … just with a deeper look into the making of the movies, and a bit less Marlon Wayans.

The first big special feature was The Big Bang Theory: The Making of G.I. Joe. It was your pretty standard “making off” documentary with commentary from the director, actors, producers, writers, and even the visual effects guys and stunt coordinators. It’s very thorough covering everything from the conception and the involvement of Hasbro, to the final days of shooting. Though amusing to hear anecdotes about Stephen Sommers crazy tongue-biting happy-insane director face, and the genitalia crushing accelerator suits that the actors had to wear, a lot of this feature felt very … generic. Perhaps the most interesting parts of this half hour long look into the making of the movie were the short snippets where they talked about the special effects and stunt coordination, but just so you know the other special feature is called Next-Gen Action: The Amazing Visual FX and Design of G.I. Joe, so I thought to myself “that’s a little redundant isn’t it.” Still it was astounding to see how whole sets were built and demolished in a matter of days, and I have to admit I get some sort of sick pleasure from watching Marlon Wayans make fun of Stephen Sommers’ tongue face.

Now the second special feature, Next Gen Action, was certainly a treat. It was shorter, only about 20 minutes long, but it really got deep into the visual effects process. The documentary had commentary from the many visual effects teams, and showed exactly how each one rendered each specific scene in the movie. The most interesting parts showed how CGI blended in seamlessly with live action. In one scene they showed how they had to match up exact movements of an animated crashing helicopter with one that was dropped from a crane. Another shows how in another sequence, the only live action element sued was Marlon Wayans’ face. Seriously! No fooling! Watching this feature gave me a new appreciation for how complicated the VFX creation process is. The fact that the underwater scenes needed over 4 different rendered work prints just for getting the concept down is astounding.

The final swanky bit of extra specialness that the DVD included was the commentary by Stephen Sommers and Rob Ducsay. Now, I’ve never actually been one to watch a movie with commentary. I always felt that it detracted from the experience too much to be worthwhile. However, I have to say that the commentary in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra actually kept me interested. I’m sure it was partly because I imagined Stephen Sommers making his insane happy director tongue face while he was doing it, but it was also because it didn’t really detract from the action. A lot of special DVD commentary features decide to super-impose themselves over the DVD to the extent that you can’t even enjoy the DVD at the same time. This wasn’t the case for G.I. Joe and I think I would even watch the director’s commentary with friends at a party, you know if they were interested. It was that well done.

Overall, I think the G.I. Joe Special Edition 2 Disc DVD Set is worth the money… but then again I got it on sale for 25 bucks. I’ve seen the DVD advertised at 35, and even 50 dollars, and if I had to pay that much, I may have thought twice about my purchase, considering we don’t get staple extras like trailers, games, and blooper reels. However, at 25 dollars, I, as someone who enjoyed the G.I. Joe movie previously, was satisfied, and I am sure you will be too.

Read Exclusive Interview with VFX Guru Behind G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra

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