Movie Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation

As a child, did you have a favorite cartoon? I did. One of them was G.I. Joe. In March 2013 they brought G.I. Joe back (kinda) in this live action sequel called G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Who directed this sci-fi/action/adventure you ask? Jon M. Chu.

As a child, I ran to the T.V. everyday to watch the cartoon. Now as an adult I watched as my childhood heroes were given life by such individuals like. Jonathan Pryce as The President, Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock, Ray Parker as Snake Eyes, D.J. Cotrona as Flint, Adrianne Palicki as Jaye, Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow and Ray Stevenson as Firefly.

Cobra, with all it's tyranny, would once again look to gain global domination. Who else could stop them but... G.I. Joe. Yet this time the world would not be supporting the Joes, but rather, trying to hunt them down. Being the skilled officers they all are, and coming from all walks of life, they must not only evade capture but try to finally cut off the head of the snake before Cobra's venom has a chance to do permanent harm.

For 110 long minutes I watched in awe as, yet again, they filled known cartoon characters with Hollywood faces. They blew things up in perfect action style. A lot of hi-tech gadgets were introduced giving the movie even more POW in true sci-fi fashion. If you want adventure, this movie can give it to you. Special effects? Tons, and they look-so-cool! They even kept a rating of PG 13 with the violence and language.

They did great things in this flick. From the cast to the credits and everything in between... but... as a G.I. Joe fan... I didn't watch a G.I. Joe movie. I watched a cool movie that could have been great on it's own, just a bunch of commandos fighting the good fight against evil. I would have given it ratings through the roof if it wasn't called G.I. Joe. In this case though, Hollywood chewed on a known concept and spit out sensationalism. (i.e. changing known character identifiers to better sell a movie -- profit over perfection.)

 As much as it hurts, I have to keep in mind to rate this as a whole from the title down. With that in mind... 1 star. "Yo Joe!... what happened?"


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