G.I. Joe: Retaliation Reviews

G I Joe retaliation is a story of team of macho men, oops one lady is in there too. I wonder if a country has such powerful strike team of individual than why an army is needed, anyhow they are upto a bigger task and half of their crew members died in action after rescuing the nuclear bomb from the clutches of terrorists, who after killing the resident of the country took control of the nuclear hide out (the army if that country was maybe sleeping). The half of the team got dead because some other have to fill in such as snake eye and storm shadow.

The story and stunt at places are too much, soldier firing inside the well where the remaining three of the members were hiding to save there life, guess what not even one of them got even a single bullet. Later nuclear explosion of some five bombs in mid air with no fall out, however as per my understanding these nuclear bombs are meant to explode in midair not on surface to get maximu devastation. Anyhow if one like action so it is there ......

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I saw GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra a few weeks ago, and it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. So, with the sequel, I figured the only way it could go was up.
Zartan, under the guise of the US President, wipes out the GI Joe team, but three Joes who survived are out for revenge. Meanwhile, Cobra Commander is sprung from jail and plots to take over the world via nuclear weapons.
Well, at least this sequel is better paced than its predecessor! :) It doesn't rush along like a runaway train; it plays out very naturally. But it also plays out like a very typical action movie; pretty much every beat is predictable. The plot is much easier to follow than the first movie, and it almost works. But the action scenes are over-edited (though not torturously so), the CG effects look like shit, and it's a continuation of a story I never cared about, so I was sitting there indifferent for most of the movie.
The inclusion of Storm Shadow did confuse me, though: I seemed to recall he died in the first one. And yes, I checked: there's no way he could have survived!
In conclusion, this movie's way better than the first one, but it's still a below-average action movie. I wasn't mad at it; there's just nothing remarkable about it.

My rating: 40%

The Rock has done it again! After gaving some new life in such franchises like 'Journey to...' and 'The Fast and The Furious', this time he gave some needed boost to the moribund G.I. Joe brand. Personally, I wasn't exactly dying to watch this flick but me and Nick (my step-son) saw the (underwhelming) 1st installment 4 years ago in the theater so he really wanted to see this sequel. We were planning to see it last year but, as you probably know, it was pushed back for 9 months allegedly to add some Channing Tatum moments since he recently became a box-office darling. Honestly, after watching this flick, you wonder what happened during those reshoots. Indeed, I could spot one or two probably added scenes but his screentime was 15 minutes and I'm being really generous. So, that was rather weird that the only familiar face in the G.I. Joe team was gone almost right away. And concerning Bruce Willis, the end-result was not really impressive either... Indeed, he shows up towards the end for half an hour maybe and gave one of his least convincing performances. On the bright side, Dwayne Johnson has never been better than playing such bad-ass characters and there were some (very few) impressive action scenes. A part from that, the plot was pretty weak and I can't say I really cared about the whole thing. Honestly, I would have a hard time choosing which one was the worst between the first installment and this sequel. It was that underwhelming... To conclude, it is rather surprising that they even bothered making this sequel since nobody cared for the previous entry, I thought the whole thing was pretty weak and I don't think it is really worth a look, even if you really like the genre.

"Let's move! The world ain't saving itself!"

2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra had franchise potential written all over it, yet the flick severely underperformed at the box office, leaving sequel talks dead in the water for a few years. And now Paramount is trying again with 2013's G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which looks to start afresh with a new slate of characters. It was a golden opportunity for a different creative team to course-correct the series, and the effort thankfully pays off. Though imperfect, Retaliation is an enormously enjoyable actioner, benefiting from astute direction and a sharp screenplay courtesy of Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. This is easily the best movie produced under the Hasbro banner, clearing perhaps the lowest cinematic bar known to humanity.

With a nuclear threat brewing in the Middle East, the G.I. Joe military group, led by Commander Duke (Channing Tatum), are sent to Pakistan to diffuse the situation. The Joes save the day again, only to be betrayed in a deadly strike that decimates the team. The only survivors of the attack are Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) and Flint (D.J. Cotrona), who suspect that the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce) has been replaced by master of disguise Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), a member of the Cobra unit. Once the Cobra Commander (voiced by Robert Baker) is broken out of prison by Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) and Firefly (Ray Stevenson), a scheme is put into effect to eliminate nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage using destructive satellites orbiting the Earth. Once back on American soil, Roadblock enlists the help of General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis), an original Joe.

Retaliation was meant to enter multiplexes in June of 2012, but Paramount pulled the plug merely a few weeks before the scheduled release date despite having blown a lot of cash on marketing the film. The delay facilitated a 3D conversion and, reportedly, allowed the filmmakers to beef up Tatum's cameo (though not by much). Predictably, the 3D conversation is entirely for naught. It adds nothing to the experience; the picture looks flat for the most part, and the extra-dimensional stuff feels rote. Worse, the shaky cinematography renders the action scenes a complete blurry mess from time to time. Retaliation's 3D conversion brings back memories of Clash of the Titans; it's that bad. Why haven't studios learned their lesson about forced 3D by now? However, Retaliation is a lot stronger in other aspects. Reese and Wernick's script is very effective, mixing a healthy sense of humour with genuine stakes and charismatic characters. The characters aren't deep, but it's easy to like them, and you won't spend the entire movie being bored of their presence. The dialogue is a lot stronger this time, as well.

Director Jon Chu was a baffling choice to steer this extravaganza, as he's known for helming two Step Up instalments and the positively apocalyptic Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Against all odds, Chu guides the flick with a sure hand, displaying a firm grasp of pacing and orchestrating several astonishingly fluid action sequences. Paramount reportedly blew around $175 million on The Rise of Cobra, but Retaliation was produced for a smaller sum of $135 million. Frankly, the reduced budget is for the best. Whereas The Rise of Cobra was coated in a disgusting amount of digital effects, Retaliation is a bit more down to earth, relying more on sets and locations than pure green screen. The more grounded action scenes here are, therefore, more exciting, even though there's some unfortunate shaky-cam here and there. One of the most impressive sequences is a perilous, high-flying ninja fight over the cliffs of the Himalayas. Cohesively shot and impressively executed, it's an astonishing set piece bursting with excitement.

Retaliation was assembled before Tatum suddenly developed into a good actor and a box office star, hence he's in and out fairly quickly to make room for the new faces. Thankfully, Tatum has loosened up as an actor, and his presence is amiable here. Even better is Johnson, who has the right physicality and attitude for the role of Roadblock. Johnson was born to be an action star, and it's always terrific to see the actor spending his time on films like this rather than kiddie rubbish. As General Colton, Bruce Willis pops in for a few scenes. He's not entirely disinterested here - he does deliver some sharp dialogue, but he's clearly coasting and looks to be only present for the paycheque. The rest of the cast fare well, with Palicki and Cotrona fulfilling their duties well enough as Roadblock's team members. More impressive is Pryce, hamming it up to extremes as the President (and his impersonator). It looks like Pryce enjoyed himself here; it's a fun performance.

Nobody was interested in sequel talks when The Rise of Cobra snuck into cinemas to minimal fanfare, but G.I. Joe: Retaliation leaves room for another sequel that would frankly be welcome. Of course, the film will not work for everyone, as it does come across as another jingoistic document about America's perception of itself as the world's police. Hell, towards the end, England suffers complete destruction, but no one seems to care, and no tears are shed. Nevertheless, it's a silly, over-the-top romp that succeeds in providing a good time. This reviewer had a ball with it.

6.5/10

This movie has been rescheduled for release in March 2013 so it can be converted to 3D. This announcement was made by Paramount and
Hasbro on Wednesday May 23rd. This comes nearly a month before the movies planned release date. The official reason is so the movie can be converted to 3D but there have been reports of poor responses from test screening audiences.