Jon Chu's G.I. Joe: Retaliation is closer to the spirit of the cartoon series than the earlier Rise of Cobra, which is to say that Retaliation has a convoluted plot, is gun-happy, and is completely silly. That's not to say it rises to the level of the very best of the cartoon (or comic book). Too many body bags and no moments like this. At least, however, it does not feel like a total insult to my childhood.
The plot is so convoluted that it is best to just leave it simply as: Cobra threatens the world with a dastardly device, G.I. Joe has to go rogue, and lots of guns are fired and stuff blows up.
Chu puts together a few interesting moments. The mountain fight with Snake Eyes is given some interesting choreography and is thankfully given longer shot takes rather than just being a swirl of edits. Too bad the effects are so obvious. Another effects shot that works is London being destroyed as part of Cobra Commander's ludicrously convoluted plot. Beyond that it is mostly dreary gunplay and military fetishism with no subtlety (culminating in a blaring and mind-numbing sound effects track). When Chu puts away the guns and big explosions, he almost has a decent action movie. But the pressures of never going too long without an explosion get the best of the film. The writers and Chu don't bother to try inserting anything subversive or that serves as a wink and a nod to the audience. They take it too seriously as homage to a cartoon. That may have played real well with me when I was 10 years old, but I'm all grown up now.
Streamed via Amazon Prime Instant.
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