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Growing up is no fun. Just ask the millions of audience members who regularly flock to theaters to relive their youth by watching as their favorite childhood toys are turned into big-budget action movies. The latest of these midlife crisis flicks is G.I. Joe: Retaliation—director John Chu’s follow-up to 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Following a mission to recover nuclear weapons from Pakistan, the elite fighters of the G.I. Joe team are accused of murdering the Pakistani president and attempting to steal the weapons for their own use. After the president (Jonathan Pryce) orders their immediate termination, only a few manage to survive.
Led by Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), the remaining Joes make their way home to the States, only to discover that they were set up by Cobra Commander’s operative, Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), who’s setting a dastardly new plan into motion. With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, they turn to the original Joe (Bruce Willis) for help.
Like its fellow Hasbro-inspired franchise, Michael Bay’s Transformers movies, G.I. Joe: Retaliation is all about the explosions. The action is pretty much non-stop, with a combination of massive military maneuvers and martial arts combat that’s sure to satisfy just about any adrenaline junkie.
The plot, on the other hand, is pretty thin—just little bits and pieces of story thrown in between blurry action sequences. And when you stop and think about what’s going on, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense—if any. But, really, no one expects a lot of plot or character development from a movie like this one. In fact, when it does take a minute or two to delve into the characters’ stories—like Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) and her daddy issues or the series of events that turned Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) into the angry, bitter warrior that he is today—it feels random and awkward and completely out of place.
For the most part, G.I. Joe: Retaliation is exactly what audiences expect from an action movie based on a bunch of toy soldiers (which also inspired a popular cartoon series). It’s a mix of video game action and cartoony one-liners—with a story that’s almost entirely superfluous. It isn’t quite the effects-heavy spectacle that Michael Bay’s Transformers movies are—but it’s not quite as ridiculous, either (and, fortunately, Shia LaBeouf is nowhere to be found). G.I. Joe: Retaliation is far from a great action movie, but if you’re eager to relive your childhood with a bunch of brainless boom, these real American heroes will get the job done.
Blu-ray Review:
If you’re a diehard G.I. Joe fan, you’ll want to check out the special features on the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Blu-ray release. At first glance, there aren’t a whole lot of extras—just a commentary, some deleted scenes, and something called G.I. Joe: Declassified. But the features go surprisingly in-depth.
First: the deleted scenes. When you watch the deleted scenes from most movies, it’s clear that they were deleted for some pretty obvious reasons. Some of the cuts here, however, seem poorly made. The first deleted scene, specifically, offers some background information that would have cleared up a lot of confusion later. And while the third of the three was clearly cut for a reason, it’s still referenced once or twice later in the film. So watching the deleted scenes could actually help you put more of the pieces together.
Then there’s the behind-the-scenes feature. G.I. Joe: Declassified is actually an eight-part feature, clocking in at well over an hour. It covers everything from the film’s objectives to the locations and designs to the stunt training with a legendary Navy SEAL. It includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew—and, from time to time, the filmmakers get to geek out just a little bit about their involvement in a movie about something they loved so much as kids.
The feature is so in-depth, though, that it’s a little excessive. For loyal fans of the franchise, these extras are a must. For casual viewers, however, they’re just too much.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
