G.I. Joe: Retaliation

¨Call me JOE¨

As a kid I was a huge fan of the GI Joe cartoons and had a vast collection of the action figures, but I never thought it was a very good idea to bring the franchise to the big screen. I didn't like the first film despite all the great special effects because the entire concept was just way too silly, and I didn't like this film all that much either despite the fact it had a better story and some more interesting characters. What really saved this film for me was a ten minute action scene in the mountains which was pretty amazing and made the entire movie worthwhile. It was one of the best action scenes I've seen all year. This second film was directed by Jon M. Chu (Justin Bieber Never Say Never and Step Up 2) and the screenplay co-written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland), but very few actors are back from the original movie (only five) so this felt like a totally different movie. Retaliation is much better than Rise of Cobra but it still felt a little light due to the nonstop action. It's one of those movies you can enjoy for two hours but forget about once it's over. What it does have going for it is that is includes better action stars like The Rock and Bruce Willis. The Rock is probably one of the best contemporary action stars and he already brought the Fast and Furious franchise back alive again. He doesn't quite do the same with GI Joe, but he still makes this movie a little more enjoyable than the original one. Despite all the cheesiness of the plot I still had some fun, and the producers knew that the premise couldn't be taken seriously so they just played around with it.

The Joes continue to serve and protect the world under the leadership of Captain Duke (Channing Tatum) and his team which consists of Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock), Flint (D.J. Cotrona), and Jaye (Adrianne Palicki). They have a couple of successful missions until the team is betrayed by the US president (Jonathan Pryce) who is actually Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) infiltrated as him. Thus the Joes are forced to fight enemy forces inside their own government and are forced to receive help from the only person they can trust: retired General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis). Meanwhile Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) has conceived a plan with Firefly (Ray Stevenson) to free their imprisoned Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey). Snake Eyes (Ray Park) is determined to stop him with the help of Jinx (Elodie Yung), but the Joes are running out of time with the President threatening the world with a nuclear war. Will the Joes be able to stop the Cobra team before they destroy the entire world?

Channing Tatum and The Rock shared some funny scenes together and had great chemistry, but I would have enjoyed more screen time with them. Adrianne Palicki looked great in that red dress and was a good addition to the film. Cotrona and Willis didn't do much, but the highlight of the film was the mountain action sequence between Park and Lee. The film had its extremely cheesy moments, and I couldn't believe they even didn't care about the explosion of London. They continued as if nothing ever happened and celebrated the success of the mission without considering the devastating loss. I think that was probably the worst part of the film and the entire scene was probably used to attract people through the trailers. Retaliation is big and loud, anticipation for what is to come in the blockbuster summer movies. By the time summer gets here we will probably have forgotten all about this movie, but it was still a fun and entertaining two hours. Even those people that will end up hating this film will have to agree that the ten minute action scene between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow was pretty entertaining. As long as you don't think too much about what's going on you might enjoy this senseless film.