Review: "G.I. Joe: Retaliation"

After nearly all the G.I. Joe forces are wiped out in a sneak attack, three soldiers -- Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrienne Palicki), and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) -- must regroup with Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and recruit the assistance of General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis) in order to defeat C.O.B.R.A.

Directed by John M. Chu (Step-Up 2 & 3), I'd say that Retaliation is an average movie with an above-average sense of fun. Although Bruce Willis' involvement amounts to little more than an extended cameo, Johnson and Palicki both have ample screen presence to lead this film, and Chu never misses an opportunity to play to their strengths.

Channing Tatum is back in a limited capacity as Duke, but most of his scenes feel like padding from the production's highly-publicized reshoots, especially the buddy-relationship that he has with Johnson. Cotrona's character, Flint, takes a back seat, both personality-wise and during the action scenes, while Jonathan Price, reprising his role as the President, practically steals the show from his more action-oriented co-stars.

Doing the heavy lifting for C.O.B.R.A is Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow. Lee is an engaging performer that can hold his own with any of the cast members. Ray Stevenson joins the cast as Firefly, a sabotage and demolitions specialist, and although Joseph Gordon Levitt played Cobra Commander in the first film, he has been replaced by Luke Bracey for a faceless role that fits the image of the comic book character better. Fans may be disappointed to learn that Baroness and Destro, two high-profile baddies, have been left out of the action this time.

Speaking of action, there is one very good scene with Snake Eyes and another character named Jinx (Elodie Yung), who fight off an army of ninjas while climbing up and down ropes and swinging across zip lines -- like Spiderman -- on the side of a mountain. Other than that, however, the action scenes don't really make much of an impression.

With the exception of that mountaintop scene, the film feels very small at times, and the concept of G.I. Joe is anything but small scale. Using fewer characters and minimizing the campy sci-fi elements, Retaliation proves to be more of what fans said they wanted after the disappointing The Rise of Cobra, but in doing so, some of what defined the original concept was lost.

It seems that the filmmakers learned only two things from fan reaction to the first film: (1) keep the ninjas and (2) ditch everything else that isn't absolutely essential to continue the series without an outright reboot. But, why not reboot now? With characters like Duke, Scarlett, and General Hawk now dead, the list of potential Joe's [for any further sequel] falls to second-tier characters like Shipwreck, Rock 'n Roll, and Chuckles -- hardly household names even if you played with the action figures growing up. So, they've really got their work cut out for them if they choose to continue after this film. Unless they try to pull a Highlander 3, and say that the other "cool" G.I. Joe characters were trapped behind a Rock all this time (pun intended), they'll simply have to reboot at some point. If they don't, I'd say the future of this franchise is dubious at best.

STF Film Grade = C+