Guys (and girls), I am glad that most of us like the movie...we really can't get too snooty about a film that represents a children's toy concept that we as grown adults collect.
When I got into collecting in 1996, I never, EVER would have thought I'd see a big budget live-action G.I. Joe film
I thought the film was extremely fun and I was actually on the edge of my seat for a lot of it. I am a HUGE "Real American Hero" fan; watched the entire run of the Sunbow cartoon (even a fair amount of DIC episodes), read all 155 issues of the Marvel run several times and despite knowing how the story "should" go, I have no problems with the changes in Rise of Cobra. Every iteration of G.I. Joe is different to varying degrees. Even Sunbow and Marvel contradicted each other within the same toyline.
Rise of Cobra is a blast, plain and simple - it's gonna be a long 2 years waiting for the next installment!
PS I just got the Assault/Defense of Cobra Island boxsets and they are really awesome!