G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Review by Anthony Morris
No-one came out of the cinema confusing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra with a good film, but it made enough money – and just as importantly, had a toy company demanding movie tie-ins behind it – to ensure a sequel would eventually make it to cinemas.
So the surprising news here is that the sequel is actually a step up on the original, thanks in large part to throwing most of the story overboard in favour of what people want to see in a toy movie: lots and lots of action.
All you need to know from the first film is that evil master of disguise Zartan is impersonating the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce) and he's decided to wipe out the Joes, including our leads Duke (Channing Tatum), Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) Flint (D.J. Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki).
After an attack which not everyone survives, Roadblock leads the remaining Joes on a mission of revenge, eventually connecting up with original "Joe" General Joe Colton (a sleepwalking Bruce Willis) and his kitchen full of guns.
Meanwhile the forces of evil have got their act together, busting Cobra Commander out of his mineshaft prison (bonus points for defeating the warden, played with fun energy by Walton Goggins) so he can put in place a scheme to do whatever it is evil guys do when they want to let the world know they're really evil.
Oh, and ninjas Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun) and Snake Eyes (Ray Park) – who turn out to both be students of the same blind master (the RZA) get to do a lot of ninja stuff, including a fairly crazy ten minute fight on the side of various mountains.
Johnson once again proves to be better than the film he's in, but even with everyone else struggling to act (apart from Pryce, who's having loads of fun hamming it up) the action comes fast and furious enough to keep things more than watchable.
Just don't stop to think too hard about exactly why everything is exploding and you'll be fine.
3 out of 5
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Australian release: 28th March, 2013
Official Site: G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Cast: D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Adrianne Palicki, Jonathan Pryce, RZA, Ray Stevenson, Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis, Dwayne Johnson
Director: Jon M. Chu
