Those who went out to see Inglourious Basterds this weekend didn’t only get close to 3 hours of nat-zee killing action, but also the very first peak at writer/director Christopher Nolan’s newest film starring Leo DiCaprio.

Not much is known about the film, other than it is “a contemporary science fiction tale set in the architecture of the mind”, and that Leo will be playing Jacob Hastley, a CEO that becomes involved in a blackmailing scandal. This is the first writing and directorial efforts of Nolan’s since last year’s critically acclaimed Dark Knight.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins), Joseph Gordon Levitt (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), Ellen Page (Juno), and Michael Caine. Inception is set to hit theaters July 16 of next year. You can check out the trailer after the jump.

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Two years ago, there wasn’t much to be said about a film that was only based off of a toy line. Then a dude named Michael Bay came along and changed all that, making over a zillion dollars with two films about robots that change into other things. The movies weren’t exactly rich with story or character development, but they did the source material justice, which is all most fans wanted. One would think that a movie about a secret squad of soldiers would be more believable, but sadly, this wasn’t the case.

There is more than enough source material to play with, given the G.I. Joe toys, comics, and many incarnations of the TV show and Director Stephen Sommers’ other projects including Van Helsing and The Mummy have a decent story and are both relatively entertaining. For this film, however, it felt like Sommers left the passion and creativity he had for his previous films at home when reporting to the set of Joe — which is pretty evident in the first five minutes of the film.

It’s easy to pick on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for its poor dialogue or predictable story because when you force lines like “he’s a real American hero” into a scene, it warrants ridicule. When it comes to the story, it’s predictable because it is a blatant ripoff of another film, when the main villain brainwashes his victims to do his bidding, identified by a small lesion on the neck. It’s also funny how you can call this movie The Rise of . . . when the entire film is lacking in any rising action.

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In anticipation of the soon-to-be-released G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Paramount has dropped a bunch of new images from the film on us. Although we still haven’t seen much of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander, these new images do give us a better sense of the size, scale and scope of the film. To be honest, several of these images look like stills taken directly from some of the recent trailers for the film.

Still, and I’m sure I’m pretty much the only one out there who feels this way, these new pictures do make me even more excited for this movie, even if I’ve seen  some of them before. I know, you’ve seen the trailers or whatever and you think the film looks lame, corny, campy or “insert negative adjective here.” But I, on the other hand, think it looks pretty much exactly how a movie based on a line of toys should look. Don’t agree? Take a look at Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Are you going to tell me that Transformers looks serious or is a series movie? Nope. It looks exactly like its supposed to look — and so does this one. Its a movie based on a line of toys people, its not Shakespeare. Get over it and just go see the movie for what it is: a fun Summer ride where you check most of your brain at the door and go for the fun.

Don’t expect much in the way of meaning or deep substance and you won’t be disappointed. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hits theaters August 7. Check out the larger pics after the jump.

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