G.I. Joe: Retaliation

G.I. Joe Retaliation is a movie that fails to plant its comic avatar into a fantasy situation in the real world. A plot that moves in the predictable trajectory with usual firecrackers is nothing beyond a cliché “saves the day” movie. Compared to its first part which sucked big time in the visual effects department the Retaliation episode shows significant improvement in that section.

The plot here starts off with G I Joes being used by the US government for executing a critical mission in connection with nuclear power in Pakistan. The Cobra commander is held by the US government in a highly secure prison and the remaining Cobras who are lead by Zartan and FireFly are on a mission to free their commander and rule the world with major attacking plans. With an Impersonated Zartan as the president of the United States nearly killing all the Joes, the rest lead by Roadblock is on a mission to know what’s happening with the US administration and to fix it if needed. The movie is basically about the less numbered G I Joes fight against the Cobras who are on a deadly plan to demolish the world. What I wrote as the plot is clearly understandable from the trailers. So please don’t say that I revealed the story.

Well, the basic problem is in fitting the characters in the comic into the real world. Some logical questions are there about Zartan’s character in the movie. Like he is trying to get an answer from the president about the prison where the cobra commander is; at a time where he himself is the US president. The whole Ninja side was a half hearted attempt to drag Storm Shadow in to the good side. With the story moving forward in a predictably gentle pace, you won’t feel any sort of adrenalin in your senses.

On screen, the casting is good enough to impress us. Dwayne Johnson aka Rock gets more screen time as Roadblock and with his attitude and figure he is a good pick. Bruce Willis has done a cameo like appearance as General Joseph Colton just to offer some cliché weapon coolness towards the climax. Cotrona, Lee Byung-hun and Adrianne Palicki were satisfactory in their roles as Joes. Channing Tatum makes a brief appearance as Duke. Jonathan Pryce was also good as the impersonated president.

In the making, direction is quite conventional in this genre. The screenplay unnecessarily goes to the emotional shades of a few characters which at the end looks very unconvincing. The cinematography is good and the VFX showed great improvement. There were a few impressive scenes in those Ninja fight sequence. Cuts are satisfactory and the very limited 3D experience was all shown in the trailer itself.

Overall it’s a half baked film with some coolness scattered here and there. It is undoubtedly better than the first part but sadly not that good to recommend. I am giving G.I. Joe Retaliation a 2/5. This Hasbro product doesn’t really offer anything to cheer about.