If you want to be liberal and mild-mannered about the comme ci comme ca/hoi polloi/easy lay response to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Paramount, 8.7), you could say that the word has gone out that it’s cool to drain your brain pan and regress into your 13 year-old self and just popcorn-munch your way through this heavily CG’ed, down-on-your-knees Stephen Sommers film. And if enough people decide to snort and scratch and show primitive love then fine, whatever, it’ll make some dough.

But it’s still looking like an opening weekend gross in the mid 20s to me. Okay, maybe a notch higher. Today’s average first choice rating is 18% with 25% of the under 25 males and 29% of the over-25 males leading the pack. Not bad but not wonderful either. Not enough, certainly, for a film that cost a reported $175 million to make aside from marketing.