Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis (plus numerous other stars) in one movie: that’s what you got in the 2023 sci-fi action flick “G.I. Joe 2: The Reckoning,” which you can watch now by subscription on the Paramount+ streaming service.
With “Barbie,” the genre of toy adaptations has reached its temporary peak this year, as director Greta Gerwig’s satire is not only entertaining as hell, but also incredibly successful. Barbie is far from the first toy to make the leap into cinema, however. After the huge success of “Transformers”, the G.I. Joes were also supposed to conquer the big screen in 2009, but “G.I. Joe – Secret Mission Cobra” succeeded rather moderately.
The sequel “G.I. Joe 2: The Reckoning” was therefore supposed to do a lot differently and everything better four years later – with unfortunately also manageable results. You can now get an idea of this on the streaming service Paramount+, where “G.I. Joe – Secret Mission Cobra” has been available for some time and “G.I. Joe 2: The Reckoning” can now also be streamed.
“Director Jon M. Chu relies much less on futuristic gadgets and more on gritty action,” writes editor-in-chief Christoph Petersen in the FILMSTARTS review of “G.I. Joe 2,” however, “The path taken is the right one, but some of the measures still backfire.” This includes, for example, the fact that “G.I. Joe” leading man Channing Tatum blows his stack right at the beginning of Part 2, even though his chemistry with newcomer Dwayne Johnson is the highlight of the film.
This is because Tatum wasn’t particularly keen on the first film and therefore requested that his character be killed off in the second part right at the beginning. With reshoots, those responsible expanded Tatum’s role in “The Reckoning” a bit, but this also ensures that the death of his character afterwards seems all the stranger. You can read the whole bizarre story here.
Thus, “G.I. Joe 2: The Reckoning” only gets an average 2.5 out of 5 stars in the FILMSTARTS review, the same grade as the slightly trashy first part.
If you have a soft spot for (science fiction) action movies with big stars and great visuals, you can still check it out – especially since action icon Bruce Willis also makes an appearance here as the rough-around-the-edges ex-leader of the Joes.
In “G.I. Joe 2”, the elite squad is nearly wiped out by their adversaries from the secret organization Cobra after they take control of the White House. Only three of the Joes survive: Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Flint (D.J. Cotrona) and sniper Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) make their way back to the U.S. to take up the fight against Cobra, while ninja Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and his partner Jinx (Elodie Yung) go to Japan in search of clues…
