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Old 03-29-2013, 02:23 AM   #1
Robimus
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G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

Since I'm headed out to watch this tomorrow, happy that it is finally out, lets talk G.I.Joe Retaliation.
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Old 03-29-2013, 02:46 AM   #2
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

when I think of G.I.Joe I think of "team" and this movie seemed to not embrace this idea....on both sides....

but Lady Jaye makes up for everything! she is so yummy!

also there were plenty of vehicles galore!
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Old 03-29-2013, 02:58 AM   #3
mattneutron
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

Caught it tonight in 3D! and I really enjoyed it! Wish i could get my hands on more figures.
What I wouldn't give for a cool version of Firefly's bike!
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Old 03-29-2013, 10:07 PM   #4
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

Spoilers:








I was really looking forward to this film and it pretty much falls flat on it's face.

What I Liked

- Duke & Roadblock's Early Interactions. I thought this developed their friendship really well, or as well as it needed to be

- Firefly was alright. Nothing spectacular, but I like that they had him kick Roadblock's ass to establish him as a bad man. I liked his insect bombs as well.

- Cobra Commander's Outfit was brilliant.

- I liked the prison warden. I don't know if he is suppost to be an actual Joe character, but honestly he was one of the more interesting characters in the film.

- The continued, comic inspired plot for Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow. They could have done way better with this but at the same time I'll give them points for trying.

- I enjoyed the dialog at times. Stuff like, "Destro, your out of the band" and "Thats for the tax hike!" when Firefly hits the president only to have Zartan respond to Firefly "Like you pay taxes"

- In general the carry over of the Zartan Plot from the first film. I liked the first film in general(it was mostly the over the top visuals that I didn't enjoy in that one) and the Zartan cliff hanger was in no doubt my favorite part.

What I did not like

- The lack of carry over of the original cast/ the way they were not carried over. There is a possibility that they could have found a way to make the cast turnover work, but just waving a hand and kinda pretending every Joe from the first film(minus Snake Eyes and Duke) basically never existed was kinda lame. Yes the door is left open for them to revisit those characters in the future, but it was too big of a shift, too fast.

- Killing Duke, for whatever reason, was absolutly the wrong move to do. The mass audience that helped make the first film the success financially that it was(like my wife) will not take well to this move. Irrelevent if you like him or hate him, Channing Tatum is a big star now that appeals to a mass audience of people who are not G.I.Joe fans.

- G.I.Joe kinda turned from a World Wide Organization to a solely American institution. No more characters from France and Morocco - just red white and blue through and through. While this might be truer to the whole "Real American Hero" aspect of the franchise - In Canada the toys I bought as a kid came with Canadian Flags. In Brasil they came with Brasilian Flags, so on, so forth. This was one of the things the first film really got right that ended up kinda messed up in this one.

- Zero explanation about why Storm Shadow is not dead. I have no issue with him coming back to life, hell he did it in the comic, but come on. Don't pretend that half the first film didn't happen.

- I would have liked to have seen more classic style G.I.Joe Vehicles alongside the more realistic stuff in this one. Yes we get to see modified version of the Hiss Tank & Fang, but I really wanted more than that. For instance we saw the Night Raven in the first film, but nothing in this second film really matches up with that level of cool. USS Flagg is another great example of a toy that made it into the first film that was awesome.

- Where did all the Joes goes? Them all getting wiped out minus 6 really didn't work for me.

- Who was with Joe Colton? This was a missed oppurtunity. Joe's team could have well been named, could have been Grunt, Zap, Flash & Rock ' N' Roll. Would have been a homage to that first toyline from 1982. Hell, Joe Colton could have been Grunt promoted up.

- Where is Stalker?

- 3D. This film was showing on like 14 screens in Winnipeg, all 3D. I had to go in the middle of the afternoon to the one theater in Winnipeg that offered one showing of 2D in the afternoon to catch it. If this is the way movies are going, frankly, I will not be going to the theaters anymore. I won't have 3D, which I hate, forced down my throat. I'll save my money while the studios continue to whine about piracy destroying their profits.

Maybe, just maybe, piracy isn't the whole problem they are having trying to attract people to theater .

Overall

I really didn't think much of this film, and think less of it as I think about it more - all of which is really dissapointing to me because of my like for this franchise and even how much I enjoyed the first film.

To me the first film had way more fan wanking moments than this one did. Stuff like mentioning "Real American Hero" or "Kung Fu Grip" that they did in the first film, well, there is nothing like that in this.

Now don't get me wrong, this has some small nods(like Major Bludd or a Zandar that didn't look like Zandar), but overall it felt like they were trying harder to make generic action movie #2 than something more G.I.Joe centric. The fact that it failed to adequatly explain so many of the changes from the first film, prefering instead to pretend more that the first film only existed in part, is a mjor fault of this one.

I loved the little nods from the first one like Dr. Mindbender and the Night Raven flight suit looking like Wild Weasels getup. This seemed to just have way less of those things as if these new creators, who claimed to be fans got a lot wrong, while Sommers(who never clained to be a fan) got so much more right in my opinion.

I'd give this a 2/5 if I were giving a ranking.
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Old 03-30-2013, 01:09 AM   #5
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

no mention of Flint and Lady Jaye Robimus? what about Mouse?
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:16 AM   #6
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Talking Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robimus View Post
Spoilers:








I was really looking forward to this film and it pretty much falls flat on it's face.

What I Liked

- Duke & Roadblock's Early Interactions. I thought this developed their friendship really well, or as well as it needed to be

- Firefly was alright. Nothing spectacular, but I like that they had him kick Roadblock's ass to establish him as a bad man. I liked his insect bombs as well.

- Cobra Commander's Outfit was brilliant.

- I liked the prison warden. I don't know if he is suppost to be an actual Joe character, but honestly he was one of the more interesting characters in the film.

- The continued, comic inspired plot for Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow. They could have done way better with this but at the same time I'll give them points for trying.

- I enjoyed the dialog at times. Stuff like, "Destro, your out of the band" and "Thats for the tax hike!" when Firefly hits the president only to have Zartan respond to Firefly "Like you pay taxes"

- In general the carry over of the Zartan Plot from the first film. I liked the first film in general(it was mostly the over the top visuals that I didn't enjoy in that one) and the Zartan cliff hanger was in no doubt my favorite part.

What I did not like

- The lack of carry over of the original cast/ the way they were not carried over. There is a possibility that they could have found a way to make the cast turnover work, but just waving a hand and kinda pretending every Joe from the first film(minus Snake Eyes and Duke) basically never existed was kinda lame. Yes the door is left open for them to revisit those characters in the future, but it was too big of a shift, too fast.

- Killing Duke, for whatever reason, was absolutly the wrong move to do. The mass audience that helped make the first film the success financially that it was(like my wife) will not take well to this move. Irrelevent if you like him or hate him, Channing Tatum is a big star now that appeals to a mass audience of people who are not G.I.Joe fans.

- G.I.Joe kinda turned from a World Wide Organization to a solely American institution. No more characters from France and Morocco - just red white and blue through and through. While this might be truer to the whole "Real American Hero" aspect of the franchise - In Canada the toys I bought as a kid came with Canadian Flags. In Brasil they came with Brasilian Flags, so on, so forth. This was one of the things the first film really got right that ended up kinda messed up in this one.

- Zero explanation about why Storm Shadow is not dead. I have no issue with him coming back to life, hell he did it in the comic, but come on. Don't pretend that half the first film didn't happen.

- I would have liked to have seen more classic style G.I.Joe Vehicles alongside the more realistic stuff in this one. Yes we get to see modified version of the Hiss Tank & Fang, but I really wanted more than that. For instance we saw the Night Raven in the first film, but nothing in this second film really matches up with that level of cool. USS Flagg is another great example of a toy that made it into the first film that was awesome.

- Where did all the Joes goes? Them all getting wiped out minus 6 really didn't work for me.

- Who was with Joe Colton? This was a missed oppurtunity. Joe's team could have well been named, could have been Grunt, Zap, Flash & Rock ' N' Roll. Would have been a homage to that first toyline from 1982. Hell, Joe Colton could have been Grunt promoted up.

- Where is Stalker?

- 3D. This film was showing on like 14 screens in Winnipeg, all 3D. I had to go in the middle of the afternoon to the one theater in Winnipeg that offered one showing of 2D in the afternoon to catch it. If this is the way movies are going, frankly, I will not be going to the theaters anymore. I won't have 3D, which I hate, forced down my throat. I'll save my money while the studios continue to whine about piracy destroying their profits.

Maybe, just maybe, piracy isn't the whole problem they are having trying to attract people to theater .

Overall

I really didn't think much of this film, and think less of it as I think about it more - all of which is really dissapointing to me because of my like for this franchise and even how much I enjoyed the first film.

To me the first film had way more fan wanking moments than this one did. Stuff like mentioning "Real American Hero" or "Kung Fu Grip" that they did in the first film, well, there is nothing like that in this.

Now don't get me wrong, this has some small nods(like Major Bludd or a Zandar that didn't look like Zandar), but overall it felt like they were trying harder to make generic action movie #2 than something more G.I.Joe centric. The fact that it failed to adequatly explain so many of the changes from the first film, prefering instead to pretend more that the first film only existed in part, is a mjor fault of this one.

I loved the little nods from the first one like Dr. Mindbender and the Night Raven flight suit looking like Wild Weasels getup. This seemed to just have way less of those things as if these new creators, who claimed to be fans got a lot wrong, while Sommers(who never clained to be a fan) got so much more right in my opinion.

I'd give this a 2/5 if I were giving a ranking.
GREAT REVIEW...no idea they kill off DUKE...and I totally agree with you on the 3-D"LETS MAKE EXTRA MOOLA "crap...HATE 3-D...

POWER to the pirates!
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:46 AM   #7
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

Quote:
Originally Posted by pandaprime View Post
no mention of Flint and Lady Jaye Robimus? what about Mouse?
I thought that Mouse would survive and become Tunnel Rat

Flint & Lady Jaye were really secondary. Couldn't really say I liked or disliked them, they just were. Jinx kinda more of the same. Hot Ninja girl, not much characters development.

The film also lacks any kinda of romantic storyline(where the first film had two significant romantic plots)
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:58 AM   #8
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!





Never thought the first movie could be better. I think this movie tried too hard to essentially be a reboot by disregarding so much of the first movie except for what they had to keep. (Duke for 10min, Snake Eyes and Zartan President) Also, it tried too hard to be serious. The first film may have been campy, stupid and corny, but I found it more enjoyable than this one. I don't mind Bruce Willis, but putting him in everything isn't gonna make the movie better.

















SPOILERS MAY BEGIN HERE!!














Also, my biggest complaint is that this movie made all the same mistakes as the first. I still don't feel Cobra Commander has "risen". Yes he did some damage, but for what, 20min. I would have prefered a full on takeover that lasted longer and showed Cobra is a real force over the "lets use CGI and do lots o damage" instead. See H.I.S.S tanks rolling down the streets, Vipers everywhere, Cobra looking like a real hostile threat...would have been better.
I also dislike Duke dying and Scarlett pretty much obsolete as well as Destro. I think it was a huge mistake to take away core members of both groups. Sure Destro got a nod and possibly blew up, but for f*** sakes, that's all we get for Destro? Better than Baroness and Scarlett whom both remain unmentioned along with every other single Joe from Movie 1, save Duke and Snake Eyes, and Duke doesn't survive the first 20min.
This movie tried way to hard to restart and push aside the first movie that it literally made this movie worse by showing that much disrespect. I get it, the first one wasn't gold and you are kinda forced to continue with Zartan President, but to spit in the face of the first movie as a form of "improving" and making all the same mistakes, not a wise move.
Also, the extra scenes with Duke and Roadblock were added afterwards because the studio decided Tatum was more famous and they needed the two to look like really good friends. Otherwise I don't think the video gaming part was originally in the movie.

Last edited by joshimus; 03-30-2013 at 12:07 PM.
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Old 03-31-2013, 03:39 AM   #9
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

I liked GI Joe Retaliation. Sure I can name a lot of better action movies but this is a GI Joe movie based on a toyline. I won't be asking much in terms of a good story. This movie is more catering towards mindless action flick with characters that stand out. Right from the first trailer when Roadblock said "There's one person we can trust." it's Bruce Willis. He plays the real "GI Joe" in this movie but Bruce Willis is Bruce Willis. It's like casting Willis as Alfred Pennyworth, his celebrity status outshines the character. Some people may be taken away by it but it is what it is. They want an action star in the movie and for me, somehow including Bruce Willis in the movie sounded fun.
From the trailers it seemed like the story might be all over the place with Cobra taking over the whitehouse, Ninja fights and the military scenes but the overall plot was able to combine all these elements into one general story.

I too didn't understand why Duke had to die in this movie other than for Roadblock having more screen time. I think this movie follows up the first run quite well. The style was a bit more serious than the giant toy commercial - Rise of Cobra. This one still feels like a toy commercial but at least the weapons don't feel so goofy.
I don't think this movie is trying to retcon or reboot anything (Besides having Stormshadow well and fine after what happened in the first movie) but rather attempting to use a better tone to make a better story.
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Old 03-31-2013, 09:14 PM   #10
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Re: G.I.Joe Retaliation Movie Discussion(Spoilers)

Saw this in 2D (refused to support 3D, when it was the whole reason for the delay) on Friday. The action was really great, but the movie overall I felt was very mediocre. Maybe my expectation was a little high, but I guess I was just wanting more. It didn't help that the commercials, trailers, and promos kinda gave away the best bits. I found to be better than the first, but still came away a little disappointed.

The thing that bugged me the most was the lack of character development. I know, I know, I shouldn't expect this kinda stuff in a movie like this. But Flint, Jinx, Firefly, they were just kinda there and weren't really given any backstory (Jinx barely said anything). I also thought it was kinda of dumb, that the only surviving Joes were Roadblock, Flint, Jaye, Snake Eyes, Joe, and his retired lot. I mean, really? They're supposed to be an elite fighting force.

Didn't Ray Park say Timber was supposed to be in the movie? I'm guessing it's a deleted scene now. I can't help but wonder that maybe all the character/plot developing scenes were left on the cutting floor.

Storm Shadow not being dead, I guess to an extent, can be explained by them somehow finding his body and bringing him to heal in the mountain retreat by the old lady and machine. It was cool seeing Snake Eyes and SS fighting side-by-side, though I felt that the subplot of him not being responsible for the hard master's death a little forced. Also, it was disappointing that there was only the one SE vs SS fight in the movie.

Big credit should be given to Jonathan Pryce's performance as the President. Especially his take as the evil/Zartan one, he was hilarious! Also love that little nuance with Cobra Commander's voice, where he'll sometimes hiss.
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