Review: G.I.Joe - Retaliation (3D)

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (3D)
Cert: 12A / 110 mins / Dir. Jon Chu



So after watching the first G.I. Joe movie at the weekend, I wasn't expecting too much from this sequel. The first one was passable, but on that fine line between being awesome and awful. I'm pleased to report that I enjoyed the sequel, although I needn't have bothered taking my brain in with me. All the basic exposition happened last time round, so we just get to focus on the 'still batshit crazy' plot, and watch live-action toys knock the living shit out of each other for just under two hours.

There's a bare-minimum catch-up narration at the start of the movie for those too impatient to watch both, and very little downtime after that. Everything's linear, borderline tongue-in-cheek, and just revelling in blowing shit up.

It's always a pleasure to watch Ray Park in action, and the melee sequences are the most satisfying in their execution (pun intended, if you want). The 3D's nicely done for a live-action, but not essential. It doesn't add anything to the film, but it doesn't derail it either. Elsewhere, Dwayne Johnson looks like he's loving the attention, Jonathan Pryce looks like he's loving the pantomime, and Bruce Willis is in full just give me the money so I can get out of here mode. Hey, a man's got to pay the bills.

Oh, and bonus points for Ray Stevenson, whose accent makes his character Firefly sound like he comes from Louisiana-Upon-Tyne.

Bottom Line: G.I. Joe: Retaliation is every bit as loud, messy and inherently stupid as you'd expect a 12A action movie, based on a toy-line, starring The Rock and Bruce Willis, to be.

In that respect, it succeeds rather well.

Yes.



Largely.



Yes.



Cinema/DVD.



Nah.



…at some point.



I think so. At the end, where Firefly comes off his bike, I could swear there's one low in the mix. I mean, seriously. This film is full of people getting shot, stabbed and falling over. There's an entire hand-to-hand battle on a cliff-face, and anyone wearing a red uniform (and there are a lot of them) takes a dive into the abyss. And you bury the Wilhelm at the end? Sort it out. *rolls eyes*





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