Jump to content

G.I. Joe: Retaliation Movie Review


JoeRhyno

Recommended Posts

So I was running around the interwebs and I saw a post on facebook, asking who else was going out to see the movie. I thought that only media and such were getting special screenings, but I was curious as it seemed like more than a few people posting about it. I checked on Fandango and sure enough, 3 theaters surrounding my city had 7PM showings.

 

My wife walked through the door and I said, "Lets go see GI Joe!!"

 

At first she was saying, lets wait for my son(he was visiting the in-laws on spring break), but then I hinted that we could always "screen it", to make sure it was okay for him to watch. She was up for it, so I ordered our tickets online, and we jumped into the car and we were off.

 

 

 

 

 

Now before I go on, I'll give a tiny background on me as a GI Joe fan. I grew up with it like most here, the 80s cartoons, the Cobra La movie, the comics... like most, I left it for a bit in High School and a little after while meeting my wife and having a son, and was brought back into the fold when I stumbled onto the GI Joe vs Cobra two packs at Target one year(I believe my first 2-pack was Flint and Lady Jaye). I stuck with it, and to this day has been one of the 3 toy lines I still collect(Halo, Star Wars and Joe).

 

Like most of you, I was happy when I heard of Rise of Cobra, and like most, I was a bit let down when it came out. I recently popped the DVD in again the other night and sat down with my son to watch to see if he was interested at all in it and I actually enjoyed it this time around. It still didn't have that feel that it needed, and the Accelerator suits were still a horrible idea.. but it was still an okay action movie.

 

So with that said, I wasn't one of those who hated RoC then, and I don't hate it now... but to be honest, after just watching Retaliation, they're not even on the same level.

 

 

 

The movie starts off with a bang, I'll try to keep this a spoiler free as I can, because it is an awesome action flick, and it feels like GI Joe, I honestly think that everyone that considers themselves a GI Joe fan, in some way, shape or form, should go and see this. After the bang, there is s small part where they explain what happened after the last movie and then a little story telling to get the characters moving and then another bang up action scene and then another, and from there it just seems to hit you left and right. Even the tiny flashback scenes here and there don't seem boring or out of place and keep rolling with the story.

 

One of my favorite scenes is the Ninja scenes that we saw a small 4 min clip of. I was worried that what we see in the clip is the whole scene.. boy was I wrong. It's at least a good 15 mins long and really well done.

 

Without giving too much away, the lead up into the "final battle scene" was awesome and I feel the final battle was great too. I honestly wish it was a little more fleshed out taking more turns with all the main characters, but overall, I was really happy with it.

 

 

 

Was it worth the 9 month wait? HELL YEAH! Was it worth seeing it in 3D? I'm not sure.. I'm still not a fan of 3D, but I can say, it was well done in 3D and there were a couple times I was ducking out of the way of a ninja star or flinching because of a rock tumbling towards me.

 

If I was told tonight that Jon Chu and The Rock were coming back with GI Joe 3 in a couple years, I'd be all for it and would be backing them 110% and will be first in line to see it. I wasn't sure if I wanted my son to see the movie because of a couple suggestive scenes, but to be honest, he's seen the transformers movies.. and those are like soft core porn compared to what happens here. I expect there to be lines of kids snatching up the Roadblock and Snake Eyes figures off the shelves(if the stores actually get any in).. so if you have plans of getting any figures, you might want to get them before the weekend.

 

If I was to give it a rating, I'd give it 3 thumbs up, 11 stars, and anything else over than what you'd expect it to get. Please don't listen to any of the main stream critics, dig deep, listen to the fan critics and the fan sites and blogs that are out there and take their word, if you even remotely like GI Joe, you owe it to yourself to go and see this movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the buzz wore off a little and I caught my breath enough to add that I think the story is well done and the plot with what Cobra Commander wants to do screams Joe, just like some of the crazy ideas he had in the old cartoon and comics, it's the same thing here. Also, I love CC's character, he IS COBRA COMMANDER... My wife loved Firefly's character, I wasn't sure about the accent, and I wish Stevenson worked out a little(in one scene he looks like he has a big ol' beer gut), but she loved his cockiness and now I have to hunt her down a Firefly figure, lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for the review.. that gives me a little bit more confidence to go see it in theaters instead of waiting for Netflix.. but I am not sold yet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm seeing comments like yours over at HissTank as well. If folks like you & those guys over there are giving it great reviews, I'd say me & my buddies will love it too. Not sure how soon (defintiely before the weekend is over) we're going to see it, but it sounds like it'll be worth our time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Joe gives it a much favorable review than I do. I don't think this was a very good GIJoe movie. If you took all the GIJoe elements out of it and just made these generic characters in an action flick and you removed all the baggage from the first movie then I think you would have a semi-enjoyable action flick, not a great one but one you could come away having enjoyed. However this is a GIJoe movie based on characters with a lot of established background and for better or for worse a movie sequel that is supposed to take place after the events of ROC. This movie does not do a good job of being true to the character based on the ones that appear in this movie. Here is an example I will give cause the scene actually appears in one of the TV Spots. Duke and Roadblock are having a shooting competition and Roadblock makes some comment about Duke not getting his panties in a bunch and Duke responds you love my panties. Now the scene by itself if you weren't viewing this as Duke and Roadblock might have been funny (in fact my wife who does not know GIJoe that well liked these scenes) but could you really see Duke making a comment like that????

 

Another example. Flint to me will always be the second in charge of GIJoe after Duke. In this movie he is presented as a cocky newbie and anything but a leader. The actor does a good job portraying that cocky type character but it's not Flint to me. Lady Jaye is probably the best of the 3 and Bruce does a decent Joe.

 

Also it does not do a good job of continuing the story begun in the first movie or explaining for those who have not seen the first movie what is really going on here. Its almost like they tried to have the best of both worlds by trying to pick elements they wanted from the first movie while trying to sweep everything else under the rug an hope we forgot it.

 

The movie is an improvement over the last. They did do a better job with Cobra this time around, especially with Cobra Commander but not enough IMO to make this a great GIJOe movie. There is also a lot of serious stretching of plausibility here. Now I know some will say of course there is stretching of plausibility, it's a GIJoe movie which is true to some degree, but you can go to far and I think this one kinda did. I loved and still do love the old cartoon series but I think if you went back and took those stories and redid them today as a live-action movie they would come off somewhat corny and think to some extent what has happened here. Maybe I am just spoiled by movies like Avengers which I think does a good job of balancing the elements the original content it's based on but still provides a pretty well thought-out and presented story.

 

Without going into SPOILER specific examples it's hard to elaborate why I don't think this is a Great GIJoe movie, but my advice to those going to see it is to try an approach it more as just a general action movie not one based on the franchise you grew up with. If you do that I think you will have a better chance of enjoying it overall.

 

I think this movie is better than ROC or the previous two Transformer movies, but not neatly as good as most the current Marvel movies or Star Trek (probably is better than Amazing Spider-Man). Mainly if you like The Rock and Bruce Willis its got some good moments with them which is probably the movies best saving grace.

 

After the movie officially opens tomorrow we can start a separate SPOILER thread for those who've seen the movie and discuss more specifics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Duke and Roadblock are having a shooting competition and Roadblock makes some comment about Duke not getting his panties in a bunch and Duke responds you love my panties. Now the scene by itself if you weren't viewing this as Duke and Roadblock might have been funny (in fact my wife who does not know GIJoe that well liked these scenes) but could you really see Duke making a comment like that????

 

This sounds like something that I could give a pass to because the reality is, with every different incarnation of GI Joe, the characters are slightly different. Both in looks and personality. Sunbow Duke was slightly different than comic Duke, was different and Resolute Duke, was different than Renegades Duke. True, he's always "leader guy" but beyond that it seems every incarnation gives most ALL Joes and Cobras slightly different personality quirks. In a perfect world, there'd be more consistency but for GI Joe--between comic, cartoon, and movie--that's just not the case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think people like Jay are trying to go into the movie with a real world, today mind set, and when something like the over the top cliff scene and Cobra Commander's "I want to destroy the world" machine happens, it's hard to see that happening in a realistic movie, where as someone like myself, go in thinking it's a GI Joe movie, which while is based on modern military, it still, at it's heart a cartoon and comic, so I try to take it in for what it is and enjoy the movie at that.

 

Stating that parts are stretching the reality and come off as corny and then talking about how well Avengers was I think gives merit to how I think you think Jay. Going into movies like Avengers or Star Trek, you already have this sense of suspended reality, where it's okay to have giant green monsters, flying fortress monsters invading the earth through a huge worm hole in the atmosphere, or a space battle and the future earth that we might never see where we have green aliens and pointy ear friends, but those are believed going into the movie and then the story is accepted as it plays out because they're comic book and Sci-Fi movies... I'm betting, that has a lot to do with the handful of "reviews" I read of people not liking it, even from fans.

 

 

 

I hope that makes sense, lol.. Anyway, I enjoyed it as a GI Joe movie, I felt the characters transitioned well into movie characters, and I agree with some of the rumblings out there that I felt a better connection with Duke and Channing Tatum's acting was far better and tuned in this movie than it was in RoC.

 

I do agree on the jump from RoC to this movie and the lack of explanation on the Joes and what happened to some of the ones that were in that movie and not in this movie, but...

 

semi spoiler...

 

 

I think they kind of covered themselves on that later in the movie when Lady Jaye sets up a beacon to see if there are any other survivors out there.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually like the cliff battle scene. I thought it was well choreographed and looked pretty good on screen. Was probably the best action scene in the whole movie, course if you've watched all the tv spots and trailers then you have basically already seen that entire portion of the movie which kinda takes away from it.

 

Like I say when we start a spoiler thread after the movie officially opens I will go into detail about the things that either made no real sense to me or just came off really corny.

 

I think people like Jay are trying to go into the movie with a real world, today mind set, and when something like the over the top cliff scene and Cobra Commander's "I want to destroy the world" machine happens, it's hard to see that happening in a realistic movie, where as someone like myself, go in thinking it's a GI Joe movie, which while is based on modern military, it still, at it's heart a cartoon and comic, so I try to take it in for what it is and enjoy the movie at that.

 

Stating that parts are stretching the reality and come off as corny and then talking about how well Avengers was I think gives merit to how I think you think Jay. Going into movies like Avengers or Star Trek, you already have this sense of suspended reality, where it's okay to have giant green monsters, flying fortress monsters invading the earth through a huge worm hole in the atmosphere, or a space battle and the future earth that we might never see where we have green aliens and pointy ear friends, but those are believed going into the movie and then the story is accepted as it plays out because they're comic book and Sci-Fi movies... I'm betting, that has a lot to do with the handful of "reviews" I read of people not liking it, even from fans.

 

 

 

I hope that makes sense, lol.. Anyway, I enjoyed it as a GI Joe movie, I felt the characters transitioned well into movie characters, and I agree with some of the rumblings out there that I felt a better connection with Duke and Channing Tatum's acting was far better and tuned in this movie than it was in RoC.

 

I do agree on the jump from RoC to this movie and the lack of explanation on the Joes and what happened to some of the ones that were in that movie and not in this movie, but...

 

semi spoiler...

 

 

I think they kind of covered themselves on that later in the movie when Lady Jaye sets up a beacon to see if there are any other survivors out there.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Joe gives it a much favorable review than I do. I don't think this was a very good GIJoe movie. If you took all the GIJoe elements out of it and just made these generic characters in an action flick and you removed all the baggage from the first movie then I think you would have a semi-enjoyable action flick, not a great one but one you could come away having enjoyed. However this is a GIJoe movie based on characters with a lot of established background and for better or for worse a movie sequel that is supposed to take place after the events of ROC. This movie does not do a good job of being true to the character based on the ones that appear in this movie. Here is an example I will give cause the scene actually appears in one of the TV Spots. Duke and Roadblock are having a shooting competition and Roadblock makes some comment about Duke not getting his panties in a bunch and Duke responds you love my panties. Now the scene by itself if you weren't viewing this as Duke and Roadblock might have been funny (in fact my wife who does not know GIJoe that well liked these scenes) but could you really see Duke making a comment like that????

 

Another example. Flint to me will always be the second in charge of GIJoe after Duke. In this movie he is presented as a cocky newbie and anything but a leader. The actor does a good job portraying that cocky type character but it's not Flint to me. Lady Jaye is probably the best of the 3 and Bruce does a decent Joe.

 

Also it does not do a good job of continuing the story begun in the first movie or explaining for those who have not seen the first movie what is really going on here. Its almost like they tried to have the best of both worlds by trying to pick elements they wanted from the first movie while trying to sweep everything else under the rug an hope we forgot it.

 

The movie is an improvement over the last. They did do a better job with Cobra this time around, especially with Cobra Commander but not enough IMO to make this a great GIJOe movie. There is also a lot of serious stretching of plausibility here. Now I know some will say of course there is stretching of plausibility, it's a GIJoe movie which is true to some degree, but you can go to far and I think this one kinda did. I loved and still do love the old cartoon series but I think if you went back and took those stories and redid them today as a live-action movie they would come off somewhat corny and think to some extent what has happened here. Maybe I am just spoiled by movies like Avengers which I think does a good job of balancing the elements the original content it's based on but still provides a pretty well thought-out and presented story.

 

Without going into SPOILER specific examples it's hard to elaborate why I don't think this is a Great GIJoe movie, but my advice to those going to see it is to try an approach it more as just a general action movie not one based on the franchise you grew up with. If you do that I think you will have a better chance of enjoying it overall.

 

I think this movie is better than ROC or the previous two Transformer movies, but not neatly as good as most the current Marvel movies or Star Trek (probably is better than Amazing Spider-Man). Mainly if you like The Rock and Bruce Willis its got some good moments with them which is probably the movies best saving grace.

 

After the movie officially opens tomorrow we can start a separate SPOILER thread for those who've seen the movie and discuss more specifics.

 

 

Who has the rights to G.I. Joe?And do you think maybe if Disney took over they could do the franchise more justice?I did not expect the film to be horrible but i also knew it wouldn't be anywhere on par with films like Thor,Captain America and The Avengers.Was it better than Battleship(sarcastically)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading between the lines of these lukewarm reviews, this thing already reeks of the sort of movie where at best people will say "Well, it wasn't as bad as I expected" or that faintest of praise, "It's better than the last one." Then in about six months everyone will be ready to come clean and admit to themselves, "Yeah. I guess that really did suck after all."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know......overall I would probably give it a 6 out of 10 stars.........as a live-action movie. This includes story, pacing, and overall quality of the film......not as a GI Joe fan but as a 31 year old man seeing it with his wife.

 

It kinda frustrated me overall........and most of it was from the story point of it....the whole thing seemed rushed to me. The movie really needed another 30 minutes to flesh some stuff out.....and I thought there was too much stuff going on at once many times.

 

Plus, we've seen the same images and videos over and over for the last year now.

 

In the beginning I feel like they were trying to push the Duke-Roadblock friendship waaaayyy too much.....I was like "We get it, these guys are supposed to be really close friends!!!" It felt like forced bro-mance......to the expense of Lady Jaye and Flints characters. Zartan was a little too over the top as the President.....Jon Pryce probably had a great time playing him...he looked like he was having fun but I wish he was a little more sinister and not so much circus showman.

 

Cobra Commander was pretty good this time though.....not too many complaints there...

 

No real character depth to anybody except Roadblock and a little back-story on Lady Jaye but NONE on Flint whatsoever......"He's a Joe and a hot-head" and his name is Flint.....pretty much it. Also Jinx is Stormy's cousin and thats pretty much it.....also she's british for some reason???

 

I really liked Firefly, Roadblock character overall, really liked Palicki as Lady Jaye, the mountain scene was awesome but we've seen too much of it already in trailers and TV spots.

 

I think its a good starting point for the Joe franchise going forward......kinda a re-boot without completely starting over, hopefully it does well enough to warrant a 3rd film and to keep going in the right direction.....they are getting warmer to what I think will be an awesome GI Joe movie/world. Honestly, if I was 13-14 years old and saw this movie my head would probably explode.....I think kids are going to be really into it....but as an adult it was cool but didn't hit me in the heart the way the Marvel films do......but Marvel is on another level....and I feel its not fair to compare the 2.

 

 

Bottom line- if the movie gets kids into GI Joe.......great job.

 

oh yeah, it was still 100 times better than any Transformers movie......so we still got that going for us.....:-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No desire to even care about this anymore. I was on the fence for my hatred of the Rock. To me this whole movie was catered to Dwayne at the expense of anyone else. He wanted top billing and to be the main guy and they gave it to him. Roadblock should not be the main focus. That's just part of a large problem I have with this fim. Don't mention Flint to me, Duke etc. I liked the forst movie ok enough but ehhh i'll pass for now on this. Its not my Joe or what I want from Joe.

Draven

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reviews, really looking forward to seeing it tomorrow, some of the complaints i have heard brought already don't bother me. I can see the melding of two characters Roadblock (has a little stalker) Flint, (starts out falcon, but has the potential to be more) so that doesn't bother me. It still sounds like the first film hurt this one, as they had to spend a lot of energy to move away from it, but still use a major plot point from it. I'm sure i'll type a full review tomorrow night.

 

if nothing else, this movie has really had the Joe talk up on all forums, and I really like that, for a while there everything was so quite, especially after the delay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I LOVED IT!!!!!

 

Flint reminded me of when he first came on board in the comics!! Lady Jaye, was extremely gorgeous but still tough!! Roadblock was great, true not supposed to be a lead, but I can live with it!! Colton was well done!!

 

We finally got the Cobra Commander we demanded!! What he did with Destro, nice!! Firefly was awesome, the words or back and forth with Zartan was a nice touch!! I laughed!! The whole scene of Cobra Commander coming down with his Commanders, and Cobra officially taking over, the Cobra flags unravelling, it gave me chills!!! -_- Yes, I'm a nerd!!

 

While it's not entirely faithful to the Joe mythos, its a hundred times better than the first one!! And there's more than enough to be called a GI JOE movie!!

 

My issues, the Blind Master, his dialogue and way he spoke was awful!!! No introduction of some new Joes in the end!! And some of the deaths!! >_< I wanted to see them back!!

 

Even with that said, I will watch it again, and wait in anticipation for part 3!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roadblock being the center didn't bother me and I happen to like The Rock and his involvement is what pumped me into this.

Frankly, I feel if anyone should be the center of GI Joe, it shouldn't be Duke or Flint but Stalker. Being the first and oldest member of the team and all.

But enough about that. I thought the movie kicked ass! I liked the first movie and I for one thought this was better. Had a much better GI Joe over all, Cobra Commander looked like Cobra Friggin' Commander, and there were no silly all-black body armor or accelerator suits.

 

 

if I had any complaint, it was that they never explained how Storm Shadow survived getting stabbed in the last movie. If they did, I missed it. Also, does anyone else think CC ditching Destro is setting us up for the Iron Grenadiers?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

if I had any complaint, it was that they never explained how Storm Shadow survived getting stabbed in the last movie. If they did, I missed it. Also, does anyone else think CC ditching Destro is setting us up for the Iron Grenadiers?

 

 

 

Maybe you missed it but Destro was blown to bits. That base blew sky high and Destro was trapped in the container at ground zero.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I never go into these expecting a perfect re-creation of the source material. For what it was, it was fun and had a better GI Joe vibe than the first

 

When I go into a movie like this I expect something on par with Avengers, Star Trek or Dark Knight. Sorry this is supposed to be a major blockbuster movie kicking off the summer season, and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something more than some fancy explosions and gun fights. Especially when you have a all-star cast consisting of The Rock, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Find Action Figures on Ebay

×
×
  • Create New...
Sign Up For The TNI Newsletter And Have The News Delivered To You!


Entertainment News International (ENI) is the #1 popular culture network for adult fans all around the world.
Get the scoop on all the popular comics, games, movies, toys, and more every day!

Contact and Support

Advertising | Submit News | Contact ENI | Privacy Policy

©Entertainment News International - All images, trademarks, logos, video, brands and images used on this website are registered trademarks of their respective companies and owners. All Rights Reserved. Data has been shared for news reporting purposes only. All content sourced by fans, online websites, and or other fan community sources. Entertainment News International is not responsible for reporting errors, inaccuracies, omissions, and or other liablities related to news shared here. We do our best to keep tabs on infringements. If some of your content was shared by accident. Contact us about any infringements right away - CLICK HERE