The devastation of my childhood fun continues.

Actually, if this movie hadn't been named G.I. Joe then it would probably be a halfway decent action movie. But those crazy people in Hollywood just can't stand not tinkering with someone's else stories to create their own version.

Even if that version makes drastic changes that would leave devoted fans of the original comic book series scratching their heads.

I just don't understand why a movie studio cannot take a comic book with years of stories already written and translate it to the screen with little changes. The original stories already have all the drama, action, twists and revelations that a movie needs. Granted some things don't translate well so they have to be changed but they went well beyond that with this movie.

After all, I understand relocating the Pit from America to Egypt as you would want your guys close to the action. But some of the changes are just outright strange; love interests are changed, character's specialties are changed and motivations are changed. All for no good reasons that I can see.

For those that don't know what this is about, G.I. Joe is a collection of the best soldiers in the world in their specific specialties. The idea is that for any situation there is an expert at hand that can run the mission and train the other guys to be competent in that mission.

The bad guys are mainly Cobra, a mysterious terrorist orgnization attempting to overthrow all of the world's governments to establish one-world government control under the leadership of a man only known as Cobra Commander. His background is unknown and the source of the wealth and technology this organization has access to is unknown.

The movie keeps most of this intact but makes some serious changes to some of the characters. Most of them are just plain stupid and there was no reason to not keep the characters as they were originally conceived in the comic book.

The movie focuses around Duke and Ripcord, soldiers in the U.S. Army. For Duke it was a decent try since he is a soldier that eventually becomes the lead man on the ground for the Joes. As for Ripcord, they totally devastated the character for their own strange purposes. Ripcord is actually a HALO specialist, meaning he is airborne and jumps out of planes for a living. This version is an Army soldier that wants to transfer to the Air Force so he can fly planes, because he is jet qualified. Remember that he is jet qualified because that becomes important later. He later meets Scarlett and is immediately in love.

This is really odd since Scarlett was always involved with Snake-Eyes in the comic and Duke in the cartoon. Although I remember a slight love triangle in the comic between the three of them. In the movie the Snake-Eyes connection is barely mentioned and it can't be Duke because he was once in love with the Baroness before she became the Baroness. Now why it was necessary to do that love connection I have absolutely no idea. There was actually very little point to it other trying to provide some kind of strange twist. After all, movies must have some surprise twist or somebody might not consider it enjoyable.

So, Duke and Ripcord manage to blackmail their way into G.I. Joe so that they can chase after the people trying to steal the super-duper warheads that actualy don't do anything until some guy shoots lasers into them to arm them. The only reason for this is because I'm sure the script said something like "really awesome science-like stuff happens here" even though it makes absolutely no sense.

The two new guys get their extra G.I. Joe training to make them acceptable to be a part of the team. Every bit of training they receive comes into to play at some point in the movie. Why is it these days that movies have to foreshadow every freaking thing that is to come? Do the writers think that audiences everywhere are just that stupid?

The Baroness and Storm Shadow essentially walk into the super-secret, highly guarded headquarters of the Joes and easily escape with the warheads. The weird thing is, they could have easily killed the leader of the Joes during all this but did not. Why? It isn't explained and is a huge hole in the plot. I guess the bad guys only kill the people on the low end of the roster.

Duke and Ripcord are given super-suits, that totally defy logic, which are used pretty much only once during a special effects bonanza through the streets of Paris. After that I guess they figure it gives them too much of an advantage against the bad guys as they disappear from the movie.

Remember, Ripcord is jet qualified as they let us know about this at least three times throughout the movie.

During all of this we are treated to the backstory between Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow who obviously have a connection. Why is it obvious? Because both of them have a ninja clan symbol on almost everything they own. The connection between them was unveiled in a much better and dramatic story in the original comic book. In fact, that comic book (Issue #21) was better written, in my opinion, than this movie even though it contained no dialogue whatsoever.

Honestly, some of the origin stories of the characters are fairly close to the comic. Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow do have their history but things are not what they seem and the movie gives a strong hint of that for those that know the story. The Baroness did in fact become an international terrorist because of the death of her brother, who she thought was killed by Snake-Eyes before he was a Joe. Destro's family history is a series of double-dealing weapons traders. I think the only character I have serious problem with is Ripcord as they completely change the character, he's jet qualified, when they could have picked another more suitable character.

The Joes return the favor of the intrusion into the Pit by also strolling into the heavily guarded secret base of Cobra. Well, there were two guards as all the others were inside to keep out of the cold I guess.

They enter the base and notice a Night Raven jet prototype in the hanger that no knew even existed. Guess which jet qualified character will be flying that in a few moments?

The good guys eventually win even though they are fighting a terrorist organization powerful enough to change the laws of physics to cause ice to sink in water.

Like I said, if they had written this as an original property it would be a somewhat decent action film. As a live action movie of the comic book that many people my age grew up reading, it sucks hard.

But I say give it a chance as it clearly sets up a sequel, even the title tells you that, and you'll want to know what's going on when the sequel comes out.