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G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Saw this at the afternoon matinee in good old regular 2D, the theatre was less than half full.

The Good: This one atleast has the look and feel of the old GI Joe cartoon. Cobra Commander looks particularly awesome.

But I think the old cartoon was probably better written than this mess of a movie. Heck, this sequel makes the original look Shakespearean in terms of character development. But the ninja stuff was cool. The Rock is actually a nice addition, he was born to play a Joe. Speaking of Joe, Bruce Willis looks like he was sleepwalking through the film, he may be the weakest character in the entire movie.

As for the "extra" Channing Tatum scenes -- they add nothing to the film and actually cause a bit of continuity issue based on the dialogue.

In the end, it is not any better or worse than Rise of Cobra, so take that however you will.... :p
 
bionicbob said:
Speaking of Joe, Bruce Willis looks like he was sleepwalking through the film, he may be the weakest character in the entire movie.
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Does he have many more lame lines like in the trailer?
 
I actually feel that this movie has ruined my ability to enjoy the 1st one, which I actually thought was somewhat fun. This movie would've been better if the got The Rock to play The Rock, like with Sgt. Slaughter.
 
I would have to agree, I think Rise of the Cobra was slightly more fun -- the entire underwater base and battle was extremely entertaining, it felt like the cartoon series brought to life. This movie definitely lacked that sort of epic cartoon GI Joe style final confrontation.

As for lame one liners -- honestly, Willis' performance is pretty much instantly forgettable. He had some dumb ongoing joke about calling Lady Jaye by the name of Brenda...?
 
bionicbob said:
As for lame one liners -- honestly, Willis' performance is pretty much instantly forgettable. He had some dumb ongoing joke about calling Lady Jaye by the name of Brenda...?
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Would it be possible to completely remove him from the film, or is he necessary in some part?
 
He gives Roadblock a gun that he got from General Patton (no, really) so that he can use it when he finally confronts Cobra he can shoot him with it.

This movie's biggest problem is that it takes itself so dang seriously. I'll admit, I never watched the G.I. Joe cartoon, but like I said, the first film was actually pretty good, in terms of fun. I also watched adult swim's "gritty" mini-series which, while maybe a bit too serious, was, I imagine, taking the series to it's logical conclusion. This movie just feels like a generic army/revenge movie with G.I. Joe, and not even some of the more iconic characters. Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, yes, but Cobra Commander (in addition to no longer being played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is barely in it, and Destro is written out completely! In fact, this review accurately sums up my feelings on the film.
 
I thought the first movie was shit so definitely passing on this one.
 
^ This is a pretty good summation of the sequel. Though to be accurate, there was a very brief voice over explaining while Dukes team was being slaughtered, the other Joe bases and personnel were being attacked too. But since it happens off screen, it would be easy to miss this fact.

But the smaller budget and scale of the movie definitely hurt it many ways.

I also don't know why they went the General Joe Colton route? Roadblock says he is the only man he trusts (actually there is a redubbed line earlier in the movie where he says Snake Eyes in the only one he trusts....confusing!) and that they are the reason they call themselves JOES. But nothing else. No further explanation or character reveal. What you see in the trailer is what you get in the movie. I mean they could have kept Dennis Quaid instead of Willis for the amount the character really does.

Maybe one of the problems in their attempt to reboot closer to the cartoon continuity they forgot they needed to add background info on these characters for those not familiar with the cartoon and comics?

I also think they needed better Cobra villains... Destro and the Baroness were greatly missed.... especially the Baroness... hee hee... ;-)
 
To be honest, I preferred Retaliation over Rise of Cobra.
Not only was it painful to watch Gordon-Levitt in that, but the Baroness was an appalling character, the cat-and-mouse play between her and Duke not interesting in the least, and Eccleston was not much of a memorable villain.
Also, what happened to Destro? Did he get blown up when that warden fired at the gas tank?
Kind of a plot hole, don't you think? If the warden hadn't done that, Destro would have survived...
I kept thinking about Destro being rescued somehow, until I remembered that explosion.

I prefer Retaliation because of Cobra Commander, who looks far better now, and bigger, better and more scenes between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (their scenes where the only thing keeping me from turning off RoC). Johnson was a welcome addition, but it's true that Willis just pranced around for money. He didn't add anything. I'm a fan of Punisher Warzone, but Stevenson was bad in this one. From the very start his mouthing off was a clear indication that he was going to get killed by Dwayne Johnson... A clear set-up, and a bad one at that.

As far as Rise of Cobra's concerned, the most annoying bits are anything and everything that includes Dennis Quaid and Marlan Wayans. Channing Tatum was a good lead in the first. I actually felt sorry to see him out of Retalation, even if the reshoots didn't add much in terms of character development.

I'll probably buy both when they arrive in Blu-combo-deals, but the first one will only be because of Ray Park and Byung-Hun Lee.
 
Frantic Canadian said:
QuickCut said:
Now this is a different topic for a different thread, but I have high doubts that anything Marvel will ever top anything Nolan.
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I agree. Especially with all the build-up there is going for The Dark Knight Rises and Christopher Nolan completing his trilogy. I know there's a lot of build-up for The Avengers as well, but I'm pretty sure The Dark Knight Rises will come out on top. Personally, I don't really care about The Avengers movie. I mean I'll watch it at some point, but I'm not going to be waiting in line on opening day, or even opening week, and chances are I probably won't even see it until it hits Blu-Ray, but I've been waiting four years for The Dark Knight Rises, so yeah, I'll definitely be seeing that opening week at the latest.
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Pretty funny to run into this all these years later!
 
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