You may remember that we’ve been tracking the strange phenomenon of the “G.I. Joe” reviews, which at one time earlier this week–thanks to Paramount’s policy of allowing only fanboy enthusiastics like Harry Knowles to see the movie–were registering in the high 80s at Rotten Tomatoes, rivaling the kind of numbers that great films like “The Hurt Locker” and “The Hangover” have been getting.

But sadly, now that the film has opened and rank and file reviewers are getting a look at the goods, “G.I. Joe’s” numbers are plunging faster than the stock market on Black Friday. At last glance, Rotten Tomatoes has the movie at a 41 fresh rating–though it may have dropped even lower by the time you read this. Let’s face it, the only thing worse than making a fussy film critic sit through a bad movie is making a critic suffer through a bad movie with a noisy opening-day audience of crazed metalheads and wannabe soldiers of fortunes.

A fair barometer of the critical reaction comes from Time’s Richard Corliss, who after enduring a public screening, wrote: “As you sit through the movie, you can feel your IQ drop minute by minute.”

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