G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Review by Stu Coote
My first exposure to G.I. Joe
came in the form of the 80s animated film and an action figure my grandmother
bought me. Many a weekend morning my sister and I would sit down and watch the
cartoon over and over again. I admire the simplicity of G.I. Joe which is good
(G.I. Joe) vs. evil (Cobra) with massive guns and cool vehicles. I never saw
the 2009 G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra,
however I went into this film with expectations set to sceptical. Much to my
surprise I was met by an entertaining film with never took itself seriously and
delivered exactly what I needed from the franchise.
G.I. JOE: Retaliation sees the
Joes being sent into Pakistan to capture nuclear weapons. At the completion of
their mission they are double crossed and left for dead, losing several high
profile team members. The remaining Joes are forced into hiding, where they
must clear their names and save the day. So basically following the plot of
every G.I Joe episode ever made. Like the A-Team or James Bond
films there is an instantaneous familiarity which just makes it so damn
watchable. By no means is it pretending to be complicated or high art and it
would be foolish of me to walk in expecting the same. This is guys with big
muscles chasing ludicrous villains across the globe and I’m definitely cool
with that.
The biggest strengths of the film
are the cast and the writing. Channing Tatum reprises his role as team leader
Duke, and yet again I was impressed by his comedic timing and screen presence.
Ray Park (X-Men and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) proves he can still pull off
the martial arts moves he’s renowned for as Snake Eyes. Whilst Jonathon Pryce
was easily the pick of the villains playing Zartan, a master of disguise
capable of infiltrating the upper echelons of the government. The addition of
Dwayne ‘Don’t call me the Rock’ Johnson as Road Block is a master stroke
considering how good he was in the film. He oozes charisma and damn well looks
like an action figurine. I’ve always loved his action films like Welcome to the Jungle and Walk Tall and I’m quite relieved that he
has been freed from whatever multiple picture contract he obviously had at
Disney, hopefully we won’t witness The Tooth Fairy 2. Even Bruce Willis brought
his A game to this party, with his portrayal as the Original Joe. Of late Mr
Willis has been guilty of taking every performance way too seriously, I mean
just look at what has become of the Die Hard franchise! I always prefer him
when he plays cheekier roles where is allowed to shoot the odd wink at the
audience. The writing credits were
shared by Paul Wernick (Zombieland)
and Rhett Reese (Monsters Inc). I
found it to be a very witty script with plenty of visual gags, most notably a
character playing angry birds whilst the world is on the brink of nuclear
holocaust. Films like this should have moments of comedy, it adds to the big
dumb fun of it all.
Whilst the script was good it
wasn’t quite good enough to defuse the controversy surrounding the film. In a
nutshell the film was scheduled to be released ten months ago, however it was
pulled from distribution a mere five weeks before its premier. The official
reason given was that the film needed more special effects, although it has now
been conceded by the studio that the reason was in fact to shoot more footage
of Channing Tatum since test audiences reacted to his limited appearance.
Unfortunately the opening 15 minutes of the film feels very much like they’ve
been reverse engineered to create a relationship between the Duke and Road
Block. Whilst it’s not the most subtle of efforts, I guess I should be happy
that even in a blockbuster they are trying to inject character development.
Sadly it smells likes like creation by committee.
Call me a cynic but I
know that every character, weapon and vehicle will soon be available
in a nearby Toy R Us for all the kiddies to enjoy, that being said I loved the
design of the vehicles. They reminded me of the original cartoon and had a look
that was both practical and fun.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a two
hours of disposable inoffensive fun that reminds me that there is still a place
for the big dumb action genre.
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