G. I. Joe: Retaliation

Better than the first G.I. Joe film.

And a good episode of G.I. Joe.

Cobra's back and still tryin' to take over the world.

The Joes are betrayed and have to head to the underground for cover.

They're able to find this cover quite easily and confidently stroll around in broad daylight even though the American government, whom Cobra has infiltrated, is looking for them.

But like I said, it's a good episode of G.I. Joe, following a format which employs improbability as a cogent asset in order to conceal their recruitment tactics.

There is a clever scene which neutralizes attempts to analyze the film following the opening credits, wherein Duke (Channing Tatum) and Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) are found playing militaristic video games, a scene whose immediacy implies that the film has been made in good fun and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Message received.

Other highlights include the best poppy condensation of a strategical debate I've seen in a while, which is simultaneously bland, comic, disconcerting and instructive, plus Roadblock and Duke consistently dissect their discussions while conversing.

Agents of Cobra do not.

Cobra's not hip to Web 2.0 applications.

Adam Reed is hands down the master of humorous observational conversational commentary.

Adam Reed did not write G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

And would not have ruined the affect by introducing a remark endemic to the Terminator series in the film's concluding moments.

In such moments, you synthesize your intertextual research into a franchise specific all-encompassing one-liner.

Ad infinitum.