I had reservations about seeing this film after watching the first one. It had a lot of issues that needed to be addressed, and frankly I figured this one would simply be more of the same. However when the film hit theaters, it had a better buzz about it then the original. People were saying it improved upon what the first film was. And to be honest, they are correct.
The basic story for this movie goes something like this. The president has been kidnapped and replaced with a Cobra operative. He uses his powers to have the majority of the Joe forces taken out. The rest of the movie is the remaining few trying to figure out what else he is up to.
While it is odd to see them simply get rid of so many roles from the first film, it actually works very well in the end. For most of the film we follow two groups of smaller Joe teams. The main Team has 3 members and is led by the Rock as "Roadblock." The other is led by Ray Park as "Snake Eyes," and has 2 members. By focusing on smaller groups, the different characters are able to actually shine. While the finally does add a few more people to the mix, it really does not detract from anything. They have already established who the extras are at that point, and it all feels rather natural.
While that is certainly a point in the positive column, the movie quickly loses its step by forgetting realism at every turn. I understand they have some very high tech stuff, and ninjas are hard to call realistic. However the movie fails to work even within the much larger limits that things like that bring with them. In the opening scene the Joe team is in stealth mode to break into a compound. They are all dressed in black, and making a night entry. To get past the fence they break out these heat gloves. They melt the wires by turning them into a bright orange molten substance. It lights up the area, and really stands out. There is a reason people use clippers in these situations, it is stealthy. That may seem like a small complaint, but it is simply a example of constant issues within the movie. Having a ninja use a machine gun to shoot ninja stars out of the air looks neat. However when he is shooting straight ahead of him while waving the gun around, his bullets would travel down the hallway and hit the other ninja 10 feet away from him. I could name quite a few more, but by now you should get the basic idea of what I am saying. The movie has moments that simply make no sense, or do not work within reality.
So how is the action? Well that actually is another positive point from me. I enjoyed the ninja fight portions for the most part. Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow is a great fit, and he does very well with the combat stuff. Sadly he does not get many fights in the movie, and he acts more as a punching bag for most of the film. The Rock though truly surprised me. Usually his fighting is over exaggerated, looking at you fast and furious franchise. But he had by far my favorite fight in this movie. He has a fight with Ray Stevenson near the end where they break out the Hong Kong Gun Fu. I never expected to see the Rock doing something like that, and it worked really well. If you are unfamiliar with gun fu, think of John woo and Chow yun-fat. There were some bland action scenes, but for the most part they were all entertaining.
So we have smaller groups with more time for each role, we have good action, and poor logic. Sounds like a decent movie, however I have to mention the ending. I won't say what happens, but it is idiotic. It may not annoy you as much as it did me. But the more you think about it, the worse it gets. However we are talking about redbox rentals here, a dollar 27 after tax. For that price, the movie is not bad, just not great. If you are a joe fan, and felt burned by the original....well you may enjoy this one. It came off as more serious, and felt like a plot that could have actually been in the comics. It still has flaws, so don't go into it expecting it to live up to the Joe glory days you remember. But if you have a open mind, I think you can find something to like about it.
The basic story for this movie goes something like this. The president has been kidnapped and replaced with a Cobra operative. He uses his powers to have the majority of the Joe forces taken out. The rest of the movie is the remaining few trying to figure out what else he is up to.
While it is odd to see them simply get rid of so many roles from the first film, it actually works very well in the end. For most of the film we follow two groups of smaller Joe teams. The main Team has 3 members and is led by the Rock as "Roadblock." The other is led by Ray Park as "Snake Eyes," and has 2 members. By focusing on smaller groups, the different characters are able to actually shine. While the finally does add a few more people to the mix, it really does not detract from anything. They have already established who the extras are at that point, and it all feels rather natural.
While that is certainly a point in the positive column, the movie quickly loses its step by forgetting realism at every turn. I understand they have some very high tech stuff, and ninjas are hard to call realistic. However the movie fails to work even within the much larger limits that things like that bring with them. In the opening scene the Joe team is in stealth mode to break into a compound. They are all dressed in black, and making a night entry. To get past the fence they break out these heat gloves. They melt the wires by turning them into a bright orange molten substance. It lights up the area, and really stands out. There is a reason people use clippers in these situations, it is stealthy. That may seem like a small complaint, but it is simply a example of constant issues within the movie. Having a ninja use a machine gun to shoot ninja stars out of the air looks neat. However when he is shooting straight ahead of him while waving the gun around, his bullets would travel down the hallway and hit the other ninja 10 feet away from him. I could name quite a few more, but by now you should get the basic idea of what I am saying. The movie has moments that simply make no sense, or do not work within reality.
So how is the action? Well that actually is another positive point from me. I enjoyed the ninja fight portions for the most part. Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow is a great fit, and he does very well with the combat stuff. Sadly he does not get many fights in the movie, and he acts more as a punching bag for most of the film. The Rock though truly surprised me. Usually his fighting is over exaggerated, looking at you fast and furious franchise. But he had by far my favorite fight in this movie. He has a fight with Ray Stevenson near the end where they break out the Hong Kong Gun Fu. I never expected to see the Rock doing something like that, and it worked really well. If you are unfamiliar with gun fu, think of John woo and Chow yun-fat. There were some bland action scenes, but for the most part they were all entertaining.
So we have smaller groups with more time for each role, we have good action, and poor logic. Sounds like a decent movie, however I have to mention the ending. I won't say what happens, but it is idiotic. It may not annoy you as much as it did me. But the more you think about it, the worse it gets. However we are talking about redbox rentals here, a dollar 27 after tax. For that price, the movie is not bad, just not great. If you are a joe fan, and felt burned by the original....well you may enjoy this one. It came off as more serious, and felt like a plot that could have actually been in the comics. It still has flaws, so don't go into it expecting it to live up to the Joe glory days you remember. But if you have a open mind, I think you can find something to like about it.
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