My Review of G.I. Joe: Retaliation

"G.I. Joe: Retaliation" is the sequel to 2009's "G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra". I must say that I thought "Cobra" was a terrible movie, so I was hesitant to even see the sequel, but I decided I should. The great news is "Retaliation" is 100x better then "Cobra". However, that doesn't mean the film was great.

To start off, you probably heard that this movie was delayed almost one year to be converted into 3D. Some say it was delayed for other reasons. But anyway, I didn't see it in 3D because it wasn't shot that way and I almost always hate 3D conversions. I have also heard from several people that it was terrible in 3D. So be cautious if your debating whether or not to see it in 3D.

But anyway, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" follows the G.I. Joe's,  who were framed for crimes against there country, the G.I. Joe team is then terminated by the President's order, and the surviving G.I. Joe's must face off against Zartan (the main villain in the film), his accomplices, and the world leaders he has under his influences. I should also mention that in "Retaliation" there are LOTS of new characters. Sometimes, there are actually too many new characters introduced at once.




The plot in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" was honestly quite stupid and confusing. Some of it didn't make any sense. There were so many things going on at once and I couldn't keep up with the story or tell who the good guys and who the bad guys were. I will admit that there were a few things in "Retaliation" that surprised me. I won't tell you what those things were because I don't want to spoil it but I think you will know when you watch the film. The dialogue was also quite terrible in the film. It was so bad, that some people in the theater were laughing at things that weren't even suppose to be funny.

The cast of "Retaliation" includes Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Adrianne Palicki. The performances in the movie were not really good at all. I guess it's what you would expect from a movie like this but I was definitely wasn't impressed. I did, however, think Jonathan Pryce, who played the president in this movie, gave a pretty good performance.  I also thought Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Bruce Willis were great assets to the film. I guess it is true, that Dwayne Johnson is a franchise saver because he definitely made "Retaliation" better than "Cobra". I do believe if the actors were given a better script, the acting may have been better.

The action scenes and special effects in "Retaliation" are what saved this movie from being a complete train wreck. All of the action scenes were fantastic and actually really well done, especially the Ninja scene on the edge of a mountain. It was really cool and stylistic, and it may have been my favorite scene in the whole movie. However, the action scenes in general were not very realistic and there may have almost been to many action scenes, but that didn't bother me any because they saved the movie, and made the movie really fun and really entertaining.

I also want to add that this movie is literally the perfect length. It's about an hour and fifty minutes and I was never bored, I was entertained the whole time. If it weren't for all of the really big flaws with this movie, I probably would have loved it. The good news is "Retaliation" knows what it is, and that's a "turn-off your brain" action movie, it doesn't try to be anything that it isn't.

Overall, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" had awful dialogue, a dumb and confusing story, and bad acting. However, it is somewhat saved by some fantastic action and cool new characters (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson/Bruce Willis). So if your looking for a mindless action film and nothing else, you will probably really enjoy this movie. If you want anything more than that, go find another movie to watch.

Verdict: 3 out of 5

At the end of the movie, they somewhat left it open for there to be another sequel. I guess I would be OK with another movie as long as the movie's keep getting better. If they don't do that, I am not at all interested.