Walking into G.I. Joe: Retaliation and expecting a serious and deep plot is like walking into Burger King expecting a gourmet meal. While the target audience of “Retaliation” is 13- year old boys, it suits them perfectly.
Fans of Channing Tatum will be disappointed in the sequel to 2009’s “Rise of Cobra”; Tatum’s character is killed off in the first 20 minutes to set up the main plot. “Retaliation” focuses on a huge nuclear disarmament summit, set up by the U.S. President (Jonathan Pryce) who is actually a Cobra operative. The Joes’ are framed for the assassination of a fictional Pakistani President, and are attacked by the Cobra forces inside the military. During the attack, Duke (Tatum) sacrifices himself to save the few remaining Joes’: Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), who is the remaining captain of the Joe’s, Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) and Flint . Not in the attack, were Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and newly recruited Jinx. The fugitive Joes’ seek help from founding member Joe Coulton (Bruce Willis).
“Retaliation” truly lives up to the franchise’s history. It‘s action-packed, fast-paced and has ninjas. The film’s main draw point is its spectacular use of CGI. The high intensity action scenes were masterfully created and rendered by the computer wizards at Industrial Light and Magic (http://ilm.com/), who were responsible for such hits as “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Star Trek”. One scene that showcases this is an enormous cliffside fight between Snake Eyes and Jinx as they fight a clan of mountain dwelling ninjas all while rappelling from slopes of the Himalayas. Snake Eyes runs along the side of a shear cliff slicing the ropes of his enemies, and you can hardly tell that it is computerized at all. The use of live actors blends perfectly with the animated, giving a sense that the action is real.
One thing that really detracts from “Retaliation”’s performance is the seemingly endless plot holes, and a forced revenge sub-plot between rivals Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee). For example, it is a huge secret that the president isn’t actually the president, but when the Joe’s survive the attack in the beginning, they come to the sudden realization that they were betrayed by a fake president. The ninja revenge storyline also feels like it was thrown in last minute just to fill space.
At the end of the day, the best advice I have for seeing “GI Joe:” Retaliation is check your brain at the door and enjoy yourself. The film knows it‘s not a serious, thought provoking cinematic experience, and thats why it works so well.
