G.I. Joe:
Retaliation
I want you to go back in your mind and remember when Goldeneye came out. You had the man who was most suited to the role of James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, playing the role, and they had a new tone. There was still that camp that had so soaked into the fibers of Roger Moore, yet there was a new realism, harsher, stronger, more in the real world, but not nearly there yet. Go back and watch 'em, all the Brosnan Bonds, you'll get what I'm saying!
That is exactly how I feel about G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
If you asked me to find a human being walking around on the face of the Earth perfectly suited to playing a living breathing soldier action figure, I would name Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. he's got that charisma, and the look, that just screams G.I. Joe to me. So when I heard he was the star of the sequel to the camp off-masterpiece G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA, I was psyched.
Of course, Channing Tatum's right up there with him, but maybe it's the other stuff he's done (Magic Mike, for example) that set him just behind The Brahma Bull! And within the first three minutes, The Rock proves it. He's exceptionally smart in the way he plays his action heroes. There's a stoicism to him, much like Schwartzenegger, but there's also a smart-ass intelligence to the way he plays his kickers. Here, as Roadblock, he's that combination in full effect, and he establishes that this is going to be a film of both comedy and intensity. It's a good opening, and he gets to go out of the opening on a great line.
And then we're treated to the credits (which look great in 3D) and then a buddy cop moment between Tatum and Johnson. They two have great chemistry together and if there isn't a 48 Hours rip-off with the two of them as the leads, then Hollywood officially does not know a good thing when it sees it! They're playful, they're charming together, and though it doesn't work out for the two of them, they're strong on screen together.
The G.I. Joe team is interesting. There's the traditional young guy on his first mission, the guy who's remarkably good at his job but who's also kinda nutty (in this case Flint, played by D.J. Cotrona), the amazingly gorgeous and talented woman (Lady Jayne, played by Adrianne Palicki, aka 2010's Wonder Woman) and a ninja who is nowhere to be found.
Yeah, like every military team!
So, they're betrayed by the government that is secretly being run by Zartan, who can masquerade as the President (when he's played with AMAZING over-the-top madness by Jonathan Pryce), and only Flint, Roadblock, and Lady Jaye make it out.
Here's the first sign of a more realistic take on the G.I. Joe world. The battle where they're betrayed is more akin to those battles seen in films like Black Hawk Down or Zero Dark Thirty. Yes, there's a bit of video game battlefield physics going on, but they're far more realistic than that first film in the series. It's the kind of fight that feels serious, like there may actually be life-or-death stakes. You get a couple of these early on, but then, that old 'Oh, you're not serious, are you?' creeps in.
And we want that, don't we? At least a little? We're not ready for Sam Fuller's G.I. Joe, we want some of that Hasbro to stick around. We want some kung fu grip, and we get it. We get a few fights from The Rock that are, without doubt, awesome. There are kicks and punches and tosses and The Rock bleeds pretty.
Oh yeah, and there are ninjas?
If you're looking for any of the camp that was so soaked into G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA, then you only have to look so far as Snake-Eyes/Storm Shadow/Jinx storyline. How drenched in non-seriousness is it? We're treated to RZA as the Blind Master, the Kung Fu master who trains the ninjas. It's pure comedy gold, and there's no other way to look at it.
That storyline stretches the bounds a good deal, and even when surrounded by the more realistic elements, it still works. Of course, this section of the story also gives us the greatest cinematic battle of all-time: Ninjas vs. Ninjas – Rockwall City! There is no moment that I was more waiting for from the preview than that single fight between ninjas, on ropes, on a sheer cliff, with swords. It gets even better than I thought it would be, but I'll leave that delicious morsel for you to discover on your own.
If there is one weakness, it's on the obvious small stupidities. A group of trained desert military specialists walking in the desert in the day? The President just walking about a party with hardly a Secret Service Agent getting in the way? A major part of the mission to the take over the world is allowed to just wander off days before the plan goes down and it's not even commented on when he suddenly returns? It's all strange, but you overlook stuff like that in the face of the swirling awesomenesses that come at you from all sides.
And one of those awesomenesses has to be Adrianne Palicki. She's gorgeous, no question, and I saw her recently in that aforementioned Wonder Woman pilot where she was terrible, but here, she's tough and smart and plays the role really well. Yes, her role ain't brilliantly written, but she's good with what she does. It would have been very easy to have written a tacked on love story, but they didn't go that way, which makes me happy. I'm actually looking forward to seeing her in the next movie in the series.
And, as you'd expect, they left the door exceptionally wide open for just that sequel.
There's a lot of fun in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and there's some really good stuff. Yes, there's silly, and Bruce Willis, but the slightly more serious tone and shooting, coupled with an understanding of the ways in which they have to be campy, makes this a really solid Friday at 8pm film!
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