G.I Joe Retaliation topped the US Box Office charts on the Easter weekend with a pretty hefty share of the box office, but the results could have come as somewhat of a surprise given the relative panning it took from the critics.

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Ray Park and D.J Cortona, the film sees the G.I Joes fighting their mortal enemies the Cobras as well as a government out to get them. Sounds pretty ropey right? Right. And the critics thought so too, with the film only clocking a 29% average on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. There should be a "Fans Only" sign at the door of every theatre” wrote the New York Times, referring to the plot and how it had no hope in dragging in newcomers. The Chicago Sun Times meanwhile added “Like a Dumpster bin behind Tiffany's, this contains nothing but well-packaged garbage.”

The San Francisco Chronicle went further meanwhile, commenting “The filmmakers appear to have handed a dozen or so G.I. Joe dolls to a 9-year-old, watched him play for 110 minutes, and then shot a scene-for-scene remake.” Even in the UK, where the film also topped the box office, it did so without the backing of the critics. “It's like the childhood dream of the president of the National Rifle Association” wrote the Observer. It just goes to show that heavy marketing almost always beats opinion.

Dwayne JohnsonDwayne Johnson stars in G.I Joe Retaliation