Stephen Sommers’ simplistic summer blockbuster G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra opened well at the U.S. box office, but the smaller film Julie and Julia will probably be remembered much more fondly.

Whereas G.I.: The Rise of Cobra Joe exemplifies the summer blockbuster formula–gigantism and sensationalism with little attempt to create lifelike characters and a plausible story line–the weekend’s other big release, Julia and Julia, took the opposite approach.

Successfully fighting off awful pre-release publicity and below-average reviews, G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra conquered the U.S. movie box office during its first days of release over the weekend, bringing in a very healthy $56.2 million. That’s the fourth-biggest opening weekend ever for an August release.

Even the positive reviews of the film seemed largely dismissive, however, praising it for not taking itself too seriously, the equivalent of praising a football team for not trying to beat teams considered better.

The film cost a reported $170 million to make, and its worldwide gross of $100.5 million in three days suggests the producers’ decision to play down the American origins of the series of action figure toys and emphasize the international elements of it helped it do well abroad.

As with other Steven Sommers films (the Mummy series, Van Helsing) G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra has a very simplistic story line with largely obvious heroes and villians, which typically has good audience appeal while driving many critics mad. The subtlties of the decision to downplay the American origins of the G. I. Joe mythos will probably be lost on most audence members, who can be expected to be relatively uninterested in deeper political implications.

Nonetheless, whether U.S. audiences will continue streaming to the film after the initial burst of curiosity remains an open question, however, given the dulling of the patriotic appeal on which the series of action figures was originally based. My surmise is that the film will do well but not challenge Iron Man and other such big action films with realer and more-likable central characters.

The homey self-fulfillment comedy-drama Julie and Julia finished second with a very impressive $20.1 (given that the film cost $40 million to produce). This sort of movie usually has a strong, continued appeal after the first weekend, so it should do quite well and might even snag some Academy Award nominations for the immensely talented principal actresses (Amy Adams and Meryl Streep) and perhaps for Best Picture and other creative-talent awards.

Given its presentation of real characters in recognizably human situations, Julie and Julia will probably be remembered much more fondly than G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

–S. T. Karnick