Review: "GI Joe: Retaliation" delivers live action renegades fun

"GI Joe: Retaliation" (GI Joe 2) PG-13
Jon Chu, the director of the Step Up dance movies, takes over for Summers to direct another live action cartoon GI Joe movie, this time trading dance moves for choreographed ninja fighting. Like the last movie, the people doing this enjoyed GI Joe much more than the other tent pole, Transformers and Michael Bay, who had gone on record saying he didn't even play with or like the toys. Clearly Jon Chu's people like GI Joe and decided to pay homage to the newer stories, from Sigma Six to Renegades, and the comic books. Even though S6, Resolute and Renegades were not as well liked, he accurately had fun with making them interesting.
     Roadblock is really not Dwayne Johnson, as he'd be more like Sgt. Slaughter, or Stalker, but okay he kind of grows on you as the lead, after the apparent demise of Duke, Tatum Channing, and most of the Joes in an ambush, similar to the one in the 1987 GI Joe movie and to the one in Resolute. Flint and Lady Jaye and Jinx appear to be the newer versions. This is okay. They got better actors this time to play people. Early on they take a page from the last movie where Zartan had become the President, using a disguise made with nanobot machines, and he manages to free Cobra Commander using Storm Shadow, but leaves Destro behind, and then Firefly and the other Cobra people plot to use the world's nuclear weapons against each other while making a demented series of super bombs that would later be used to destroy cities.
     Snake Eyes is done better and no longer has that stupid mask from the first one, with the lips, and the other masks are better, like the Commander's.
     Jonathan Pryce chews scenery as the fake president and the real one.
     They even have Cobra HISS tanks! Nice.
     It's a fun movie with an all star cast  which even includes the oddity of General Joe Colton, Bruce Willis of all people, and it kind of works too.
     Dont' bother with the 3D version because it's nuts neough as it is and will look confusing converted. Just see it in 2D.
     Yo Joe!
     Review by Adam Browne