 In a negative review , <unk> <unk> of the Los Angeles Times panned the " overwhelmingly complicated , globe @-@ hopping , enemies within , enemies without story line " and 3D but noted that " the humor , when it works , offers ' Retaliation ' some redemption . " She ended with : " It 's <unk> . <unk> no one should have to think that hard to keep up with the Joes . " Another negative review came from Variety Magazine 's Justin Chang , who ridiculed the movie 's large @-@ scale destruction of foreign cities , writing : " <unk> who thrilled to the sight of Paris under biochemical attack in Cobra will be pleased to watch London endure an even more horrific fate here , although the sequence is tossed off in quick , almost <unk> @-@ hum fashion , with no time to dwell on anything so exquisitely crass as the spectacle of the <unk> Tower collapsing . " He summarized the movie as " a more straight @-@ faced brand of <unk> than its <unk> dumb 2009 predecessor . " 
