War Stories

The G. I. Joe stuff appears at the end of the Atlantic piece, but here's the go-to paragraph if you were, by some mystery, still wondering if the movie should be part of your weekend plans:

I had believed that it was impossible to make a stupider, uglier, and more incoherent movie about the American military than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. G.I. Joe’s sole virtue is that it proved me wrong. The movie steals ideas from a wide range of other sources, including giant drills used to nefarious ends from The Incredibles; a plot to establish peace through fascism from the movie and graphic novel Watchmen; and a scheme to switch a body double for the President from the Bond parody movie In Like Flint.
Go see The Hurt Locker instead, if you haven't already. Or get The Losers. It's about Hell's Angels in Vietnam, and manages to be saner, and more perceptive, than G.I. Joe. Not actually kidding.