G.I. Joe: Retaliation is the squeal to the 2009s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Duke is back leading a new team of Joes: Roadblock, Lady Jaye, Flint, Snake Eyes, Jinx, and General Joseph Colton. The Joes band together to take on Cobra Commander, Zartan, Storm Shadow, and Firefly before they destroy the world. Whereas the first one felt like a messy toy commercial, this new movie feels more like the G.I. Joe movie fans would want.
After Zartan–who is still impersonating the President of the United States–frames the G.I. Joes as traitors, they are on the run and presumed dead. Soon Cobra Commander has all the world leaders under his control with the threat of a new type of nuclear weapon. Outnumbered and out-gunned, the Joes form a plan to overthrow Cobra, rescue the President, and save the world from nuclear war. It’s a very simple plot for a movie based around a toy line, and simple is better when it comes to a movie like this. One of the many mistakes in the first movie is that there was way too much going on. This new movie streamlines it down to what’s important and what the fans want: Joes kicking Cobra’s ass.
Returning as our fearless leader is Channing Tatum as Duke, who leads his new team of Joes: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Roadblock, Adrianne Palicki as Lady Jaye, D.J. Cotrona as Flint, Elodie Yung as Jinx, Ray Park as Snake Eyes with a much better mask, and Bruce Willis as General Joseph Colton. Together they take on retuning villains Arnold Vosloo as Zartan, Lee Byung-hun as Storm Shadow, and new Cobra assassin Ray Stevenson as Firefly. Also returning is Jonathan Pryce as the President.
They all turn in good performances, no one is over the top. They manage to play it pretty straightforward. The friendship of Duke and Roadblock is the best part of the movie. Johnson and Tatum work great together and it makes you want to see them again in other projects. Surprisingly, Pryce gives a top-notch performance acting as two different people with the same face. And that really comes down to the actors knowing and understanding that this was an over the top action movie where nothing should be taken too seriously.
The special effects are great. All the CGI effects flow and work well with the practical effects. It’s fun and great to watch as Snake Eyes and Jinx fight a group of ninjas on the side of a mountain. The stunts and wirework were some of the best. What didn’t work so great was the close combat fight scenes. The shots are cut so fast you can’t see what’s going on or know who’s hitting whom. The low lighting didn’t help either.
This movie was supposed to come out in June of last year. It spent over a year in postproduction due to the studio wanting the movie to be converted to 3D. However, the 3D in the movie looks pretty bad. It looks like you’re watching the whole movie through a 3D viewfinder toy. The added 3D gimmicks seem forced and out of place even for this movie. And at times the filmmaker wanted a foreground element in the scene, like a person’s shoulder, a pipe, or many ropes. It’s quite obvious it was added in post, and if not, ouch. It’s more distracting than artistic. But compared to Stephen Sommers’s inept directing with part one, this one looks like an Oscar winner.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a fun, over the top action flick that many will enjoy. You know what you’re getting from the moment the movie opens, and there is comfort in that. Go to the theater, sit back, relax and shut your brain off for a while and enjoy fun characters being awesome and blowing everything up.