G.I. Joe: Retaliation (**½)
Directed
by: John M. Chu
Starring:
Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki,
Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Stevenson, Channing Tatum, Arnold Vosloo
Seen:
April 12th 2013
**½
Out of ****
G.I
Joe: Retaliation (GIJR) is nothing more than an adolescent daydream come to
life, an imagination around the toys some of us grew up with brought to the
screen, and that’s just perfect. It doesn’t try to be anything more and it
revels in what it does for its almost 2 hour runtime. Saying that it’s nothing
more than a daydream come to life might seem negative, but GIJR is also nothing
less than a great bit of fun escapism to those who will allow it to be just
that. Transport yourself to an earlier time where you ran through otherworldly military
imaginings and GIJR delivers exactly what it aims to, nothing more and nothing
less.
After
the events of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the Joes are in a tight spot. Villain
Zartan (Vosloo) is still in place as the President of the United States
(Pryce), as the Joes are framed for the theft of nuclear warheads from Pakistan.
The unit is attacked with extreme prejudice and only a few survive, their
leader Duke (Tatum) not one of the lucky ones. Roadblock (Johnson), Flint
(Cotrona), and Lady Jaye (Palicki) do survive, and they have to start the fight-back
as the previously captured Cobra Commander is daringly rescued by Storm Shadow
(Lee) and Firefly (Stevenson). Roadblock, Flint, and Lady Jaye approach General
Joseph Colton (Willis) for help, and a ray of hope appears in their mission
plans as the smallest of things start going right.
Allegiances
shift and re-shift and plots are exposed and thwarted and reinforced as the
movie continues, and the movie runs along at a merry pace even as the story
might feel a little convoluted at times. The action is teenager-cool and the
destruction is apocalypse movie-cool in some scenes. The story doesn’t really
matter but it still drives the movie along at a decent pace. The movie will
definitely not come in contention for any acting awards, but everyone certainly
had some fun throughout.
Einstein
said: “'Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb
a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” A similar
line of thought applies here - You know what you walk into the cinema for, and
if you want to judge the movie by different standards you are only misleading
yourself. While not breaking new ground, GIJR is fun and visually very entertaining,
and plainly does what it exists for – and does so relatively well. If you’re
looking for a sci-fi, military, action movie with impressive fights and set-pieces,
this is it. If you’re looking for something meatier, with substance, steer
clear. I enjoyed GIJR, and if you’re in the mood, I think you would too.
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