The sequel to G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA is a more grounded action film with a few good action set pieces.  It is nice to see Cobra Commander like he looked in the comics, but the plot is pretty thin and the actors mostly make up for the weak plot.    The weak link in the casting is Rza as Blind Master, but Rza is a better actor in his own movie (THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS) where he is a horrible actor in the G.I. JOE film (sorry, Rza).   Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are still very cool characters even though I feel both characters had more to do in the first G.I. JOE film.  The story mostly focuses on a new trio of characters led by Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) with the others being Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki who is better than she was in the never seen WONDER WOMAN TV pilot) and Flint.   Roadblock and duke (Channing Tatum in an extended cameo) have male bonding before everything goes wrong as Cobra has set out to eliminate G.I. Joe.

 

Picking up from the events of G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, Zartan is posing as the President of the United States as he sets in motion a plan to free Cobra Commander and fulfill Cobra’s plan to rule the world.  The Joes are out for revenge and expose Cobra’s plan.  They enlist the original Joe (Bruce Willis) in their plan to stop Cobra and rescue the President.   Snake Eyes and Jinx go to a mountain retreat to kidnap Storm Shadow. 

 

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION has some great action sequences and much less dependence on CGI like the first G.I. JOE film.  However, the sequel has holes wide enough to fill a desert as you wonder where are the other Joes from the first film are at.  They did explain why Destro isn’t in the sequel, but I just can’t believe other Joes like Scarlet and Hawk wouldn’t be springing to action.  Then the nuclear disbarment meeting between nations is so over-the-top that you wonder if they thought the scene through or they just couldn’t have come up with anything better.  Then there aren’t many new Cobra characters other than Firefly which is a character that makes me wish they had Destro back instead.  Cobra Commander and Zartan are the only Cobra characters that stand out as Cobra doesn’t really stand out as a villain other than the ones that Roadblock and the other Joes must stop to keep the world free from Cobra.  If you liked the first film, you’ll probably like this one.  If you thought the first one was crap, you will like this one more and still might come away as disappointed to some degree.

 

This movie review is (c)3-30-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com