This is a marginally better effort than the first movie..they keep the 'Joe team small and focused like it should have always been, yet at the sacrifice of some absurd plot devices. There is a bit more respect to the GI Joe aesthetic, gone is the dreaded baby blue fashion camo that features "GI JOE" woven into the fabric..and I'm grateful for that.

Still, the movie is utter crap. Halfway through it I questioned my footing in reality as an adult male in my 30's that still enjoys this kind of stuff. That still enjoys 80's and 90's retro culture and toy collecting. It nearly made me hate myself and the things that bring me happiness. Here's why:

The performances are phoned in. They have a few big stars anchoring the schlock in place yet every single character lacks dimensionality. There is little personal development for key characters to advance and enrich the story, save for the obvious and unavoidable Arishikage subplot that for some reason has dominated GI Joe for over 15 years. I'll admit, there are some great scenes between the ninja in this movie, and it felt rewarding to sit through..but it couldn't make this movie worth recommending. It's fan service crap. This is what Hasbro Inc, a conglomerate worth billions, produces out of obligation. They have 300 million or so every now and again to burn on movies and marketing, and here you go: GI JOE Retaliation.

It's soul-less, it gets nearly every character depicted in it wrong, it strays from source material and is a disrespect to foaming-at-the-mouth nerds like myself. Fun to watch once and not take seriously, and wipe from your memory. This is what your fringe friends and distanced family think GI JOE is, to you. This is what kids half your age think GI JOE is...this ain't GI JOE. Watch some better spy thrill flicks instead, or watch the classic GI Joe cartoons instead..this stinks.

I hope nobody went to the theater to watch this.
The writing is so bad, the fight scenes look ridiculous, they use excessive camera shake to cover up elements in the movie and even the scaling in places looked awkward.
I feel like all the money went into paying for the casting and they skimped on everything else.
The movie is not immersive at all and really didn't hold my attention at all.
This is the third movie I had to give a 1 star review to; whats happening in Hollywood?

This was a well made GI Joe movie. Plenty of action and a good story. The fight scene along the mountain side is something that I have never seen in other movies with the exception of some Chinese movies, but in this movie it was much more realistic and exciting. The story was easy to understand. They introduced all the characters in the beginning, so you know the good guys are GI Joe's and the bad guys are Cobra. The bad guys infiltrate the U.S. government in an effort to take over the world. Bad guys used propaganda, fake news, and lies in order to get people to comply and destroy the good guys in order to have world domination. Oh wait, that sounded like Vladimir Putin and what he has been doing in Russia to destroy Ukraine. Is this the normal strategy of bad guys?

Considering they had so much material to work with this franchise has been devastated by the bad writing. They had plenty of talent, clearly spent plenty of money on sets, it has some cool fight scenes, some cool graphics in places, but a jr high school student could have written a better story.

The second installment of G.I. Joe was much better than the initial release. I liked the first one but there were some cheesy moments. This one is more serious and the story and action are better overall. My favorite part was the big showdown between Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes which Jink later joined in and turned into a race down the side of the Himilayas against Cobra ninjas. Yeah it involved a lot of CGI but it was dramatic and fun.

It's not "Saving Private Ryan."

The fighting in the mountain when they are flying is impressive.

Title says it all....