Movie Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
As one of the seemingly few people who unabashedly enjoyed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and thought it should have been more successful than it was, I doubted that a sequel would ever happen. So it was a pleasant surprise when I heard that a sequel was actually on the way.
When the first trailer for G.I. Joe: Retaliation came out, it was way more impressive-looking than I had expected, and I was eagerly awaiting the film’s planned release in late June 2012. But then the rug was pulled out from under me, when in late May of last year, less than five weeks before the film was supposed to come out, the release date was pushed back nine months , in part to post-convert the film to 3D to boost the foreign box office receipts. I was bewildered and angry about this, and it shook my confidence in how the movie would turn out. But it turns out I needn’t have worried, because I absolutely loved it, and I think it surpasses the first film in nearly every regard. G.I. Joe: Retaliation is ridiculous, cheesy, and over-the-top – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
After the members of the G.I. Joe team are framed as traitors by Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), who is still impersonating the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce), all the world leaders are now under the control of Cobra, with their advanced warheads aimed at innocent populaces around the world. Outnumbered and outgunned, the remaining Joes – Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Flint (D.J. Cotrona), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), and Jinx (Elodie Yung) – formulate a plan with the original G.I. Joe, General Joseph Colton (Bruce Willis), to overthrow Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) and his allies Zartan, Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun), and Firefly (Ray Stevenson).
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While it probably would have been easy for them to just coast through their scenes and collect their paychecks, I admire the fact that nobody in the cast phoned it in, even if they didn’t necessarily get to really stretch their acting muscles. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a great choice for Roadblock, and his sheer charisma makes the character so much fun to watch; and needless to say, he handles himself very well in the action scenes. Similarly, Bruce Willis was the perfect casting for Joseph Colton, the original founder of the G.I. Joe team; Willis is totally at home in action roles at this point in his career, and it’s always fun to see him kicking ass. Channing Tatum is back as Duke, and he seems to be having a lot more fun with the role than he did last time. Adrianne Palicki gets some good material as Lady Jaye, and she handles herself very well with the action. Although D.J. Cotrona as Flint doesn’t get as much to do as the other main Joes, he still gets some pretty impressive fight scenes. Jonathan Pryce gets a lot more screen time this time around, because he’s playing both the President and Zartan disguised as the President, and he is clearly having a lot of fun in scenes where the two have to play off against each other. On the Cobra side, Luke Bracey and Robert Baker work well together as, respectively, the physical presence and voice of Cobra Commander, and although I liked what Joseph Gordon-Levitt did with the role in The Rise of Cobra, Bracey and Baker’s rendition is both more menacing and truer to the source material. Ray Stevenson does a great job as Cobra saboteur Firefly, and is clearly enjoying himself in the role of this gleefully violent psychopath. But just like in the first film, Ray Park and Lee Byung-hun almost end up stealing the show as the rival ninjas Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, respectively, and their scenes together are some of the best in the movie. Although we only get to see him briefly, it was nice to have Arnold Vosloo back as Zartan. And character actor extraordinaire Walton Goggins gleefully hams it up in his brief role as Warden Nigel James, the head of the prison where Cobra Commander is held.
Dwayne Johnson in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” © 2012 – Paramount Pictures.
I also want to be sure to mention the behind-the-camera talent at work here. Director Jon M. Chu, whose previous feature credits are the dance films Step Up 2: The Streets (2008) and Step Up 3D (2010) and the concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011), at first seemed like an unusual choice to replace Stephen Sommers at the helm of the G.I. Joe film series. But Chu handles himself very well here, and I hope that he gets to do some more action films in the future. And if you think about it, it makes sense that someone who’s spent much of his career filming choreographed dances would also be good at shooting fights and action scenes. Of course, Chu had some solid material to work from, thanks to the screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the scribes behind Zombieland (2009). They keep the story moving forward at a good clip, and as ridiculous as the proceedings can get, it never descends into being stupid. And I also want to praise cinematographer Stephen Windon and editors Roger Barton and Jim May, for doing a great job of keeping the geography clear in all the action and never letting things become disorienting.
The action in G.I. Joe: Retaliation totally blows away that in the first film, and this is probably the most action-packed film we’ll see this year before the beginning of summer. It hits the ground running with the opening scene, where the main Joes have to extract a defector from a North Korean base, and the pace rarely lets up from there. The following sequences – the Joes extracting nukes from a Pakistani weapons factory, the attack on the Joes’ encampment, and a brutal fight between Roadblock and Firefly – are all exciting, and each has their own pace and energy. But the action highlight of the film is definitely the extended sequence of Snake Eyes and Jinx attacking a Cobra stronghold in a mountaintop temple, which goes from brawling inside the building to Snake Eyes, Jinx, and multiple Cobra ninjas swinging on rock-climbing lines from cliff to cliff and fighting in midair. Even though I liked what I’d seen of this sequence in the trailers, seeing it in full was even more impressive than I’d expected, and some of the shots in it flat-out amazed me. After that, I was briefly worried that the remainder of the film wouldn’t measure up, and while the climax, where the Joes must assault a conference of world leaders being held hostage by Cobra, didn’t reach those same heights, it still finished the movie in a satisfying way.
Much like I did with the first film, I loved the look and design of the film, which like so much of the film walks the fine line between believable and ridiculous. The more high-tech locations, such as the Cobra factory and the world leaders’ conference center, hearken back to things like the Roger Moore-era James Bond films, which I definitely enjoyed. The look of the costumes, weapons, and vehicles manage to evoke the spirit of toys, comics, and other incarnations of G.I. Joe while still working in live-action. In particular, the costume and mask for Cobra Commander this time is orders of magnitude better than the lame translucent skull-mask he had last time around. And I’m sure longtime fans of the franchise will get a kick out of finally getting to see things like the Cobra H.I.S.S. tank and F.A.N.G. gunboat depicted in live-action. I’m sure that if I was ten years old and saw this movie, I would definitely want to get some of the toys for myself.
Adrianne Palicki in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” © 2012 – Paramount Pictures.
Even though I really liked the film, and I imagine that most people would also find it entertaining, it does have a couple of flaws that slightly detract from the whole. Although she certainly has the right look for the part, I thought that Elodie Yung was a little weak as Jinx, and she didn’t really have the kind of presence I felt the character needed. While I enjoyed a lot of the humor in the film, there were more than a few jokes that just seemed kind of forced and obvious. Please take note, any Hollywood screenwriters who might be reading this – just because you can have a funny line, that doesn’t mean you should. And what about the 3D, supposedly the main reason why the film was delayed for almost a year? I really only noticed it in a couple of moments, and for the most part, it was basically a non-factor. If you don’t feel like dishing out the extra money to see the film in 3D, don’t worry that you’ll be missing a big part of the experience.
It may sound ridiculous to lavish this much praise on what is ultimately a silly popcorn movie based on a line of toys, but frankly I don’t care. Yes, it’s completely ridiculous, but it’s also a whole ton of fun. If you want some kickass action, a fun assortment of characters, and a lot of stuff blowing up, then I would definitely recommend seeing G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
Timothy Monforton
