Here's the breakdown:
THE GOOD:
- Dwayne Johnson proves that he's not only the rightful champion to the World Heavyweight Title with his 'The Rock' persona in the WWE, he's also the rightful champ as being the big dog in G.I. Joe Retaliation. Playing the role of Roadblock, The Rock takes over the leadership role from Tatum's Conrad 'Duke' Hauser who was the lead star in the Stephen Sommers directed 'G.I. Joe'. The reason why he's the perfect fit here is because of his physicality his role required. Roadblock in the animated series and even the toy was this huge guy who loves barbeque and carries around a big ass gun. No Hollywood actor can ever pull that off at the moment except for Johnson.
- Adrianne Palicki, the Wonder Woman aka Lady Jaye is the visual eye candy for the fellers here. While she's not as cute as Rachel Nichols (Scarlett) who is visibly absent in the film, she definitely brings her own brand of appeal to the sequel. Unlike Scarlett who did only a couple of action scenes, Palicki kicked butt here. Of course there's also the necessary fanservice where we see her in a dress and the more amusing scene where she's in a jogger's outfit trying to kidnap somebody. It's also interesting to note that her canonical boyfriend Flint is also in the movie and the two of them provides some cute sexual tension.
- Oh god, Ray Stevenson aka The Punisher and Volstagg is also here and his appearance here alone is a treat. Stevenson plays Firefly, a saboteur who takes over that role from Cobra's Storm Shadow. The guy is such a fun character and despite him being a bad guy, he totally rocked.
- The non Joseph Gordon Levitt Cobra Commander is definitely cool IMHO. Its even better when you know that this commander isn't also using the raspy, hissy, Starscream-y voice from the 80s cartoon series.
Say goodbye to this kind of COBRA COMMANDER...
- The whole sequence where Snake Eyes and Jinx kidnaps Storm Shadow is also a treat in my book. It's a homage to the very rare and classic issue of Marvel's G.I. Joe written by Larry Hama entitled 'Silent Interlude'. My guess is that it's around 20 minutes long and filled with ninja slashing action. VERY HARDCORE.
- RZA also makes an appearance as the Arashikage Clan master. Not too familiar with the Arashikage related stories in G.I. Joe Lore but I do know that they did have a master. Still seeing the Wu-Tang clansman here doing his best Zatoichi interpretation kicks ass.
- The technology used in RETALIATION is pretty dumbed down. And I'm thinking it's a good thing because RISE OF COBRA made everything looked so ridiculous. This time the weaponry and vehicles are made to resemble more of the modern machines and weapons that are used, something that G.I. Joe has always been known for. The H.I.S.S. tanks alone are neat oh Firefly's bad-ass motorcycle was also another thing.
- Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Do I need to tell more? Okay then, Jinx and a flurry of rapelling ninjas too. Happy? I know I am.
- The 3D in my opinion was average. Not too shabby actually. However, if the conversion was the only excuse for delaying the movie for a year, i'd really frown on that.
- Arnold Vasloo's Zartan also plays a bigger role here although the actor himself is only shown in a couple. Filing this under good because, hey, I like Storm Shadow when he's working on the side of the angels (which he also did in the comic books for awhile, even calling Snake Eyes brother and master).
THE BAD:
- I don't know why the studio didn't want to give Flint his trademark beret. It's not something stupid nor campy in my opinion, it's actually one good way to designate who he is. Also what's up with putting Flint in the story when he only gets a couple of screen time. In the version I saw, the only real shining moment Flint had (played by actor D.J. Cotrona) was when he was freerunning in the middle of a firefight in a warehouse. After that he's suddenly relegated to the background.
- The same can be said for Jinx. After her glorious mountainside battle with Snake Eyes, we don't get to see her too much. She doesn't even have a female archenemy which makes me think that it would've been great if they took back Sienna Miller as the Baroness.
- Bruce Willis here was cool but I think I'm suffering from seeing him too much in the big screen lately. He's the original Joe and provides some necessary intel but his role could've ended there. Still not going to argue about adding him in the finale as it did bring more color and depth to all the explosions.
- Channing Tatum's Duke here was cool and I'm putting this in the bad because, well, they killed Duke. Sorry to spoil it to you ladies but Mr. Duke bites the dust as you've seen in the trailer and there's nothing we could do about it.
- No sign of the other JOES here. It would've been nice if they at least told us what happened to the other members of this elite global response team. It would've been stupid if they all got killed because, as the first movie iterated, they're the best of the best so it's going to take a lot more to kill them off. I sure do miss Rachel Nichols here.
- The humor's kinda dry. Still points for trying.
- As pointed out earlier, Zartan's story opens a can of worms for the movie as his story muddles the continuity of things. Short of it is that Zartan orchestrated something, which absolves somebody from his backstory/ past crime. In the same sequence that Zartan used the said person as a tool for a future war, so how could this have happened when COBRA wasn't even setup till around the events of the first movie? I told you, crazy.
- Pam also pointed out that Cobra Commander was sincere in his threats of destroying countries like China, NoKor and a whole lot more. if that really is the case, then what's going to be left for him to rule if he's already destroyed majority of the world and the population. It was never shown that he was bluffing too.
VERDICT:
G.I. Joe RETALIATION in my opinion, is a better movie than RISE OF COBRA. It still has a few faults here and there but honestly, we can't get everything we want when it comes to live action adaptations of stuff like toys and 80s cartoons. This movie redeemed the GI JOE franchise from the shitstorm it received with the release of RISE and hopefully, we get to see more exploits from the Joes in the near future.
And with that, you have to remember that knowing is half the battle.
9.5/10
This review wouldn't be possible without my friends from Solar Entertainment/ Solar UIP namely Romy and Sundy. Thanks guys.
Of course there's a ton of CGI and stuff like that, but I wasn't even expecting anything practical considering what I saw in the first movie. It was okay, just not perfect. Great review.
ReplyDelete