What They Say:
G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence.
The Review:
Even with the disaster that the first film was, it was no surprise that a second film was going to get made. There’s money to be had with this project across the board and it’s just a matter of finding the right way to do it. While the first film fell flat for so many reasons, and some quite awful ones, the second film manages to fix a good number of them but still has a hell of a long way to go. What this film did to at least get a semblance of interest from fans at the get go was getting Dwayne Johnson in as he is pretty much the embodiment of the character of Roadbloack. The idea of paring down the cast for the most part and working with a smaller group, and mostly sticking with established characters rather than doing that whole through the eyes of a rookie thing, it got on the right path more. But it does stumble in bringing in Jon M. Chu as the director, even if I did like what he did on some of his previous dance movies and even the Justin Bieber movie. What Chu really needed before going to such a big project as this was more time making smaller and realistic movies.
The feature does follow up on the events of the first one as there is some carryover, such as having the President taken over by Zartan (Jonathan Pryce) who is slowly but surely using the office to his advantage. It also keeps Channing Tatum in the role of Duke, who has really bonded well with Roadblack (Dwayne Johnson) in the time since and there are some really good scenes between the two early on when they’re at rest and at action. The opening sequence of the film essentially has them going into Pakistan after the president there is assassinated and they have to recover some stolen warheads before they end up going off the grid entirely. It makes for an elaborate and decent action sequence overall and shows a team that generally works well together. But it keeps its focused on the principals with Duke, Roadbloack, Lady Jaye (Adrian Palicki) and Flint (D.J. Cotrona). There are other nameless Joes around, but there’s no real connection to any of them though the diehard fans may be able to pick some out.
All of it goes to hell in a hand basket pretty quick as after they succeed in the mission, the President orders their deaths by declaring them traitors and using his new special forces called Cobra to take them out. Only three of the main characters survive, giving Roadblock in particular a bit of an advanced reason for wanting some justice and revenge. This puts the team of three on the run and off the grid as they try to find other Joes out in the world that may be alive and to bring it all together to try and figure out why it happened and to set things right. At the same time this is going on, we get a subplot involving some back and forth between Snake-Eyes (Ray Park) and Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun) as they still have their years old problem of who killed the Hard Master to deal with and Snake-Eyes is intent on bringing him back to Japan to deal with things. Which gets an added layer as Storm Shadow may know what the Cobra plan is, since he just freed Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) from his high security prison (leaving Destro there as he’s now “out of the band) to put the bigger plan into motion. Plot points – converge!
G.I. Joe Retaliation does have a fairly straightforward story behind it, but it’s executed in a bit of a helter-skelter way at times and with a lot of leaps that doesn’t make it too clear how you got from one point to the other. The speed at which Snake-Eye travels to and from Japan is pretty amusing. But there’s also just a general jerkiness in it from the editing style with all the quick cuts that does at least make it feel like it’s always moving and doing something, but without enough moments to just settle down and be something. The characters are mostly one dimensional, but there are some shining moments in there that could have been more if not so overtly and bluntly done, such as the bit with Jaye’s father. The human heart of the film comes from Roadbloack and that’s really carried throughout it. But it’s being carried through numerous set pieces that exist to shine on their own and less in terms of being really functional to the story. The entire mountainside fight, while cool and completely a part of what the comics and toys fans would want, was just too much for my own taste. Perhaps twelve year old me would have adored it though.
With the first film mostly working in secret and keeping Cobra below the radar, things do go quite big here and there’s something to be said for how it’s executed. So much of that on the political/intrigue level relies on Jonathan Pryce to carry it off and luckily he’s able to do that. While there’s a corny nature to some of what he does early on, there’s a real shine and appeal during the world lead summit at Fort Sumter that you just have to laugh with how he sets things up to end the world. The tools used are, of course, completely unrealistic, but the execution of it and the way everyone goes for their launch code boxes is hilarious and how he does things such as playing Angry Birds while waiting to see what everyone else does as the plan gets underway. Sadly, his role really undercuts the Cobra Commander character who should be getting more time, but the difficulty in making a faceless character work in film is still pretty much there. I’m a huge fan of the character from my 80’s toys and comics days, but both he and Snake-Eyes simply do not work under the execution used here, hence so much of the villainy really falling on the Zartan/President character. And when it comes to Snake-Eyes, it just reinforces why Storm Shadow gets more attention in the end.
And unlike in A Good Day To Die Hard, it does seem like Bruce Willis is having fun here as the original Joe. I’m always a big fan of him but that Die Hard film was hard to like, but there’s a certain lightness and sense of fun that he has here even in the thick of things and you halfway expect that his house, which has all sorts of wonderful toys hidden in it, probably resides in the town of Springfield. They do manage to tie him in to a couple of points here and he doesn’t dominate – in fact I don’t think he really shows up until the second half of the film – and that helps to make him a part of the team and not some glory seeking hero from the past looking for one last shot at things. It’s pretty restrained overall but has that “will do” mentality about him that keeps it all in check.
In Summary:
With a weak plot and characters that are pretty one dimensional, it’s a film that does play to the stereotypes that people have about toy concepts made into movies. It can be done and it can be done well, but there’s also a disconnect you have to make to be able to get into the right mindset. I’m a huge GI Joe fan from the 80’s time period with the Marvel Comics and all the toys that I have and I loved those old cartoons. I can see glimpses of what was in those cartoons here and I do really believe that’s a good thing as it has to be larger than life. It can’t be a realistic full on true military style adventure. But the direction here and the script for it just doesn’t live up to what it needs to do. They’ve got some good characters and actors here that I’d be up for another outing with to see if they can refine it and make more of it, but this is a case of close but no cigar.
Grade: C
Chirs, I think you were to nice in you review… This movie is horrible!! A few good moments but for the most part a waste of money.. Rental only!
There were some good salvageable things about it, mostly those involving Roadblock and what Johnson brought to it. The smaller team side worked for me and I really enjoyed the scenery chewing that Pryce did as Zartan/The President.