So after the first live action Transformers movie came out and did gangbusters the next question
from fans of Hasbro was when was there going to be a G.I. Joe movie. That was
answered in 2009 with G.I. Joe: Rise of
Cobra. While it was successful financially
it wasn’t much of a success in pleasing the audience, especially the diehard
fans of the property. So they went back to the drawing board and got a new
director, Jon Chu, to try and create something that didn’t look like a mash up
of Halo and Call of Duty, but looked more like the Real American hero that was a
huge hit in the 80s. What we get (after a yearlong delay) is G.I. Joe Retaliation; a really solid
marriage of good action film making and fan service that was missing from the
earlier movie. This time we really get
daring, highly trained special mission force fighting against a ruthless,
terrorist organization determined to rule the world.
So G.I. Joe Retaliation
starts us off sometime after the events of Rise of Cobra with Cobra Commander
and Destro in custody. The Joes, led by Duke (Channing Tatum) with his second
in command Roadblock (the Rock) just having completed another successful
mission in North Korea. With unrest happening in Pakistan the Joes are sent by
the President to stop one of Pakistan’s nuclear warheads from being stolen.
After the successful mission the Joes are attacked and all are killed, except
for the three who manage to escape the assault. The attack on the Joes was
initiated by the President who is actually Zartan a member of Cobra. He frames the Joe team as traitors blaming them for the assassination of the President of Pakistan. The remaining Joes; Roadblock, Lady Jaye
(Adrianne Palicki) and Flint (DJ Cotrona) now have to find who attacked them, why
and stop them.
So let’s be honest here, this movie is a made for fans of the
property. It does, however, do so while still being a great explosive action
movie. G.I. Joe Retaliation was like
watching someone tell you a GI Joe story from memory that mixes up parts of the
cartoons and comic books while using the toys to act the whole thing out. G.I. Joe Retaliation doesn't really try
to explain everything that is happening or what the relationships between
people are. That really works for a person who is a fan but not
so much for much for the casual movie goer who is just planning on seeing the a
new Rock/Channing Tatum action movie.
Another thing with this movie is that it seriously feels like you are watching two movies in one. While Snake Eyes is heavily promoted he very much has a separate plot line that loosely connects it to the main plot because of his rival Storm Shadow. It doesn't feel ham fisted, but it can be very confusing to any viewer. No matter how confusing it is, it’s still really cool to see a bunch of ninjas fighting each other on a snow covered mountain. Surprisingly another good thing in this is the 3D conversion, which was the reason the film was delayed for almost a year. Time did them well since there was actual depth in scenes and fun ways of having thing fly at your face. Unlike a lot of movies that do this post conversion they really spent the time to do a pretty decent job of adding 3D to film.
Another thing with this movie is that it seriously feels like you are watching two movies in one. While Snake Eyes is heavily promoted he very much has a separate plot line that loosely connects it to the main plot because of his rival Storm Shadow. It doesn't feel ham fisted, but it can be very confusing to any viewer. No matter how confusing it is, it’s still really cool to see a bunch of ninjas fighting each other on a snow covered mountain. Surprisingly another good thing in this is the 3D conversion, which was the reason the film was delayed for almost a year. Time did them well since there was actual depth in scenes and fun ways of having thing fly at your face. Unlike a lot of movies that do this post conversion they really spent the time to do a pretty decent job of adding 3D to film.
Now you know what? This movie might not work for everyone.
There really is not much of a real plot or character development going on here.
Do the villains make sense? Well it depends, if you think a super villain
terrorist organization with more resources than most of the nations of the
world that can put things in space really needs to make sense. Another thing is
this movie eschews the previous movie for the most part. So don’t go in looking
to see a mention of any character you liked in that movie, because you are
not getting it here. Overall this is a movie that makes you feel good and want
to go and buy a bunch of toys and play GI Joe like it was 1984 again.
3.5 out of 5 Guttenbergs
