I get why they wanted to name him Flint, but with the way the used the character, I wish they had named him Lt. Falcon, instead. They could have played with the whole half-brother bit, too.
Did all the Joes' plans involve Lady Jaye showing her stuff, even though the reason she joined the military was to show her dad women are just as good as men?
Saw it today, loved every minute of it, so much better than the first one and I enjoyed the first one
Hmph. A mixed bag, definitely. My wife and I finally went to see Retaliation and that's the same reaction we both had when it was finished. Let's just say it, the first movie, while not the greatest, was definitely over the top. So over the top that it went into the "So bad it's cheesy good" category. Granted, not everyone feels that way, some just outright hated it, but a few, including myself do like it. That was what was established in the first movie, and this is the same universe. This movie doesn't continue that trend, except in small doses. In fact, it's when it DOES go over the top, that it saves itself. Firefly's extraction of Cobra Commander? Bad ass. Over the top, ridiculous and a lot of fun. The satellite weapons platforms? Bad ass and over the top. The Stormshadow extraction? Bad ass and over the top. And that's pretty much where it begins and ends. The rest of the film is a slightly confusing, muddled mess, honestly. Let's start off with one piece that bothered both me and my wife.... Roadblock is Duke's best friend? No. Ripcord is his absolute best friend. He was there through it all. He was there when Rex was "killed", he was there when all the M.A.R.S. shit went down, THAT is an absolute best friend. Roadblock? Some dude he plays XBox 360 with and babysits his kids every now and then? That makes him the absolute best friend? Bullshit. I need more than that. Oh, wait, you can't provide that because you're in too much of a mad dash to distance yourselves from the first movie. And that's what grinds my gears. The characters, as a whole, weren't terrible in the first film. Some of them worked quite well, honestly. Killing them off was pointless. In fact, they weren't even mentioned prior to the attack, like they never existed. They excised so much of the first film's characters, locations, story to semi reboot, that they left gaping holes and universe problems that can't be fixed for me. The movie opens with them putting Duke front and center, and mentioning the capture of Cobra Commander and Destro and then that's it. Nothing about nanomites, the Baroness, nothing about The Pit, or anyone else. Just a few random holdovers from the last film, flung into another that just barely ties in. It felt very much like watching a TV series. Follow me for a sec.... Okay, you have this universe that's already begun to be fleshed out. You have characters that make you laugh, shock you, entertain you, you have sets and special effects and all kinds of gadgets ready to go. Ratings are going down. Audiences are dwindling. (much like the hatred for the first film, once the initial wow factor wore off) So, they reboot or redirect the path midseason, or at the start of the next season and go with it. Season 2 starts, you're immediately met with "Who the hell is this guy?" and how he's always been there for the main character, completely ignoring the other best friend he had. (terrible idea. Really friggin' horrible idea.) Less special effects, more practical (not a bad thing, just a little jarring.) None of the first season's cast can be found outside of a handful of people, and what's left is now mixing with a new cast of characters, none of whom we know. But, we're expected to just take it as is, because it'll be awesome. "Trust us, just you wait and see!" The storyline, just as you'd expect, is your random story of the week, but told with new characters. Where's the follow up we were promised? Where's that "Oh shit!" story line that tells it all, fills you in, and sells you on the adventure you're about to take? That's exactly what happened in Retaliation. It was like a bad TV show. It was more realistic than the first one, I'll give it that, and people do want some semblance of realism. However, that massive scale felt in the first one, just wasn't here. I realize it was supposed to be barebones and grittier, but damn. This was as bare as you can get. There's a dude with a metal HEAD in a prison cell. A METAL HEAD. That surely must be worth a use, right? WRONG. Let's just leave him there and do jack diddly squat with him. They wanted to be so realistic and so far away from the first film that they went to the trouble of bringing key components back, only to leave them useless. WTF would you even do that for?! And one would think "Bruce Willis? As a Joe? AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!" right? WRONG. His character's inclusion was pointless. His "team" was in the film a total of what...a minute? I would've thought a badass vet squad would be awesome and school the youngin's on how to do this right. *BUZZ* How wrong I was. Yet, with all I found wrong in it, I still enjoyed it enough that I'd add it to my video collection when it hits Blu-ray. I did like their take on Cobra Commander. I wish he had more to do in the film, other than stand there and look pretty and remind us that we're finally seeing a childhood memory come to life. I thought Firefly was excellent, though that southern accent was strangled and a bit tough to swallow in some scenes. I liked the warden in the prison, I thought he was excellent. (A bit weird to hear him without his current trademarked Kentucky backwoods twang from Justified.) He just chewed up the scenery. Loved every second of it. The vehicle that Roadblock drove? Awesome. The H.I.S.S.? Awesome. There were elements that did work, and worked well, and when they did, they were just enough to keep me satisfied for the time being. The barely over the top moments helped the rest of the way. I did enjoy Zartan playing Angry Birds. That was the shiznit. Heh. The entire theater laughed at that. That was a scene of over the top goofiness that should've been embraced more throughout the film. Much like it would've been in the first film. But, for the most part, it just seemed like your run of the mill action flick, with some recognizable names attached to it. Whereas the first one was anything but. It was meant to be ridiculous, much like the cartoon it was based off of. This kinda sucked the fun out of it. At least, for me it did. RZA? Don't even get me started. Just...don't. Ugh. If you liked the first one, you might not like this one. If you didn't like the first one, you'll LOVE this one. I do have to recommend everyone go see it and experience it. Plus, if it makes money, we'll see a sequel. (and I have high hopes that the sequel will find the right balance between Rise Of Cobra and Retaliation) Oh and two other things.... Colton clearly says he served WITH Lady Jaye's father. He is NOT her father. And, I must agree with everyone else... the London destruction? Not a damned word. That wasn't merely a terrorist attack, that was devastation, the likes of we haven't seen in possibly eons. When Pompeii was ravaged by the eruption, it was left behind, frozen in time for future generations to see. The Japanese bombings in WWII, look at Japan now. But here? Nothing, not a damn thing was left standing in London. Not even an intact, yet fallen building, no. Not one thing was left standing or complete. It was eradicated and not so much as a single word about the whole damn thing. Who the hell writes that shit?
Lets be honest: women say that but are NEVER above flaunting their goods to get what they want. They burn their bras when they need to show cleavage.
Saw it over the weekend. Was alright, but I thought Rise of Cobra was better. Not saying Rise of Cobra was a great film by any stretch, but all the needless distancing from the first film really hampered my enjoyment of Retaliation. They did a great job with Cobra Commander though, I have to say. That bugged the hell out of me.
Yeah I agree with everyone here. Although I did like this one better than Rise of Cobra, I just couldn't get over the fact they Spoiler killed duke. There was just no need for it, at all. It made the story break and then they needed to recover. There were a few bits I found confusing and unnecessary. Spoiler the whole "im from the hood and thug guys arent so bad" bit kind of took me out of the Gi Joe vibe, but it was interesting I liked Cobra Commander, but hated that they arbitrarily decided to not free Spoiler Destro from prison . What was the point of that? Did they run out of money for more actors? I highly suspect we see Duke in the next film, and I also hope we see more of a balance between the two versions.
First point, killing him off was a terrible idea. I'm not sure what the whole delay was for, really. It certainly didn't help the film. Second point, the 'hood scene, yeah, felt very out of place. Which is why I used the TV series analogy. It felt like something you'd find in a serial drama, rather than a midquel of a trilogy of films. Like you said, it kinda broke the film up. It was jarring and out of place, honestly. Third point, I think leaving Destro in the prison leaves yet another storyline for them to use in the third film. (Dwayne Johnson already confirmed that a third flick is coming.) There could be members of his M.A.R.S. company still around, waiting for a leader. Cobra Commander certainly wouldn't use them, at least not for anything other than cannon fodder. I think we'll see him again. Final point, like it was said in previous posts, days and weeks ago, you never see his actual dog tag, you never see his face, just a body and then they say who it is. Granted, in most storylines, that's all that's needed to end it. However, this franchise has proven that no one dies. No one. Storm Shadow should've been graveyard dead after the first film. Getting slashed up like that, being hit by the energy from the cannon AND hitting that ice cold arctic water? Would've killed anyone...other than him, apparently. Whenever the 3rd movie does come out, I'll go and see it, but it better be a nice mix between TROC and Retaliation, because another one of these and I'm done. I won't watch a 4th, if it comes to that. I have no problem with them trying for a sense of realism, I get that, but they went way too far in the other direction and it made a mess of the universe. I do worry though... The 3rd film's writer has a hard job ahead of him/her/them if they address these complaints and try and fix 'em in the next one. They'll spend too much time trying to piece the universe back together, and new material won't have enough room to breathe. And, Cobra Commander, while visually impressive, was an absolute waste, the more and more I think about it. He just stood there, barking orders, looking all fancy. Whoopity frickin' doo. Impress me, make him a badass. This shit didn't do it for me.
Roadblock on coworkers: "If there's one person we can trust, it's Snake-Eyes." "Stoop is a friend. We can trust him." (On Colton) "There's only one man we can trust right now." Man the writing in this movie was shoddy.
I saw it last night. It was a typical high tech action flick with GI Joe names on actors/actresses. My notes: -Flint is so young -where's Scarlett? -poor Destro -there's a whole lotta Cobra Agents out there -how was that vehicle able to be stored in Joe's garage? -Firefly using fireflies was interesting -how did Storm Shadow go from rescuing Cobra Commander, gets injured, gets kidnapped, to naming Zartan as the one who killed the master, and then kinda switching sides? -Jinx wasn't Asian enough, and her red outfit early on was fine, but then it was yellow and black...leftover outfit from Kill Bill? -I liked the idea of Duke and Roadblock playing videogames -I don't think I missed it, but was there a "YO JOE!!!" battle cry? -I liked Cobra Commander's outfit and face plate -thus far, the planet has now lost the Effal Tower, and was it ALL of England, or was it just London that was destroyed? Either way, the death toll was pretty high. Was Mouse Flint? It's not like the cartoon where you can tell. So uh, where's Scarlett, Ripcord, Gen Hawk, Heavy Duty, Breaker, and Sgt Stone?
