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I saw the movie tonight and I am pleasantly surprised by the experience. It is by no means a perfect movie, it has a few weaknesses, but the strengths far outnumber them.

Retaliation isn't a reboot but it might as well be. While it is a sequel in that it carries over story elements from Rise of Cobra, it is a vastly different experience with respect to tone of the story. Gone are the super fantastic tech of RoC. There are still uses of advanced technology but nothing in the realm of what was seen in RoC(ie. Delta 6 suits).

Retaliation feels more like Batman Begins in that it grounds the larger than life concept of the source material in realistic elements. This is compared to Rise of Cobra, which was trying too hard to bring the 80s cartoon, laser guns and all, to the live action medium.

I'm probably gonna see it on Thursday.

My only question is how long is Sgt. Slaughter in it? Cameo or actual role?

Slaughter does make a very brief cameo in the movie.

Convotron wrote:Retaliation feels more like Batman Begins in that it grounds the larger than life concept of the source material in realistic elements. This is compared to Rise of Cobra, which was trying too hard to bring the 80s cartoon, laser guns and all, to the live action medium.

That itself is worth the price of admission. I didn't really enjoy ROC precisely because of those elements you mentioned; tried too hard to bring the feel of the cartoons into the movie.

Saw the movie myself. Totally awesome. Now, I felt that because they ended up killing off 90% of G.I. joe, only The Rock and Snake-Eyes were cool. And even then, the Cobra heavy hitters were cooler than the Joes. Just my opinion though. And i was so happy that they didn't have any delta suits.

Convotron wrote:Slaughter does make a very brief cameo in the movie.

Where was this? I thought I would've caught that, nut obviously...

I enjoyed it. It moved at a good pace and the story was much better than the first one. However, I do not feel like it was the same GI Joe experience that I've grown up with.

Most of the characters could have been given different IDs and the movie could have easily have been any number of generic action movies.

It was a good flick, but overall it wasn't all that memorable IMO.

Cobra Commander was pretty awesome though.

As a casual Joe fan I enjoyed it, but I have feeling hardcore Joe fans probably didn't. I agree with Mkall, outside of Cobra Commander they could have gave most of the rest generic names and it could have been any other action flick.

Where was the Sgt. Slaughter cameo?

I thought I spotted Slaughter during the last scene of the movie. I may be mistaken. I saw that Robert Remus(Sgt. Slaughter) in the cast list. Maybe he is in a deleted scene.

I agree that for the most part, characters in Retaliation and their namesakes from A Real American Hero(ARAH) don't match up that well but at the same time, I think it was for the best. If we had a Roadblock that was derived too faithfully from ARAH or subsequent continuity lines, the character wouldn't have served well as the CO of the remaining Joes.

I think that the main weakness of Retaliation is that Paramount wanted to continue on from Rise of Cobra. The baggage of carrying over elements from RoC made the first 3rd of Retaliation a matter of story catch-up, trying to explain what's going on with the main Joe forces, Snake Eyes, and the remaining senior members of Cobra. We saw a few attempts at character establishment but Flint got a bit part while Roadblock and Lady Jaye were given more to work with in the script.

Apparently Paramount has greenlit a third GI Joe movie so we'll see how things go from here. I think that if the third GI Joe movie continues on from what Retaliation established, it should allow for more and better character development.

Convotron wrote:I thought I spotted Slaughter during the last scene of the movie. I may be mistaken. I saw that Robert Remus(Sgt. Slaughter) in the cast list. Maybe he is in a deleted scene.

I agree that for the most part, characters in Retaliation and their namesakes from A Real American Hero(ARAH) don't match up that well but at the same time, I think it was for the best. If we had a Roadblock that was derived too faithfully from ARAH or subsequent continuity lines, the character wouldn't have served well as the CO of the remaining Joes.

I think that the main weakness of Retaliation is that Paramount wanted to continue on from Rise of Cobra. The baggage of carrying over elements from RoC made the first 3rd of Retaliation a matter of story catch-up, trying to explain what's going on with the main Joe forces, Snake Eyes, and the remaining senior members of Cobra. We saw a few attempts at character establishment but Flint got a bit part while Roadblock and Lady Jaye were given more to work with in the script.

Apparently Paramount has greenlit a third GI Joe movie so we'll see how things go from here. I think that if the third GI Joe movie continues on from what Retaliation established, it should allow for more and better character development.

I do agree that the stories from the dirst film had a somewhat adverse effect on the Joes as far as characterization. But I also thought they did a pretty good job with the villains in both movies. I really loved all of he core of Cobra other than the Commander and Baroness. She was just stupid.

Well i guess i'll start it off on the bad note..

I didn't like it. I found myself questioning weather or not i was even watching a G.I. Joe movie. It felt like it was a completely generic action movie and like others have said, had the names of the characters not been mentioned, i wouldn't have even considered this to be Joe related material. It did have heavy influences from G.I. Joe Resolute, which was good, but that story line had already been done.

I also didn't like the fact that there was very little vehicles. Part of G.I. Joe was the kick ass vehicles. Yes, there were some good shots and few cool vehicles. But for the most part they were just a few seconds of coverage.

Cobra Commander's look was far better than the first movie which was good, but what's up with his voice?? Not saying he needed to have his star scream voice over like in the cartoon, but it sounded like the voice of a lion coming out of the butt of a chiwaawa. Also, what's up with Leaving Destro to die in the prison??? What a complete waste of a character.

I now can see why they postponed it for a year to re-film in 3D. Cause if it had any saving grace, that would have been it. (though to be honest, i didn't think the 3D added anything redeeming. Oh well. Life will go on.

I just think the whole sequel thing got in the way. None of the other joes were even mentioned, and they killed off the rest, leaving us with very little to work with. Also, why kill Duke? I mean, he was the most developed character and his dynamic with Roadblock was great. Just kill him off and forget about his brainwashed girlfriend and Ripcord. Just seems like alot of ilogical thinking there.

The movie's saving grace, for me at least, was the dynamic between Stormshadow and Snakeyes. From beginning to end, the two continued to impress me. They even had a little heart to heart moment, which felt like it fit. Even if Stormshadow surviving made no sense.

Lastly, the Nuclear Launch sequence scene. That deserves all the praise. It was ingenuous, and a ton of bonechilling fun. Well, up until london was destroyed anyway.

I think its a good movie, it just has holes and inconsistencies. What will happen to Destro? And where was Sgt. Slaughter?

Hopefully the 3rd film will answer the questions about Cobra Commander, Destro, and Stormshadow.

I saw it last night and liked it. I went in expecting it to be a stand alone film, and it worked. I knew, because of the cast, that it couldn't and wouldn't be a sequel.

As for killing Duke, I also thought it was a bad idea, but it occurred to me that Hasbro did a reverse 1986. Back then, Prime died and Duke lived. In the live-action movies, Prime lived in RoTF and Duke died in this film.

And Slaughter was listed in the credits online, but he wasn't in the credits in the film which means he wasn't in there. I was looking for him. He's probably in a deleted scene and it will be on the DVD/BR.

Stormshadow surviving and the joe's from the first movie disappearing probably wont even be touched on if they make a part 3. Hasbro isn't there to make good, consistent film. They are there to cash in to make more toys.
I think this one should have started with Roadblock and his team going after cobra separately, as a last ditch effort, black ops sort of deal. Characters from the first film should have never been a part of it, save for Snake-eyes and all of Cobra

It would make more sense than what really happened...

BeastProwl wrote:I think its a good movie, it just has holes and inconsistencies.

This sums up my view of the movie. I thought it was good. Not great but a good movie that, despite the plot issues, was able to shine through the flaws.

Now the third movie has absolutely no excuse for flaws relating to carrying over elements from Retaliation as long as it maintains the tone that has been established.

I do think that we need more named Joes and Cobra characters in GI Joe 3. A common criticism of Retaliation is that only a few characters shine and most others lack personality. There is a ripe opportunity in GI Joe 3 for getting more Joes and Cobra on the screen in a significant capacity.

BeastProwl wrote:Stormshadow surviving and the joe's from the first movie disappearing probably wont even be touched on if they make a part 3.

But it was touched on, or rather it was inferred.

When Stormshadow took that explosion in the prison escape, it looked pretty fatal, or at least near lethal. That's why they took him to that monstary and that crazy old healer lady (and COBRA tech). I suspect that was the same method used to revive him from GI Joe 1.

I like it based on rule of contrast. Compared to that first mess, it was great, as a standalone its really just another generic action movie - as others have stated.

I'm glad they sorted out Snakeeye's mask, the lips from the first movie were just... odd.

I liked that they made Cobra Commander more inline with his character. Very glad they had Baroness out of it, she was just a walkign disaster in the other one. Destro might be in the 3rd as kind of a revenge play or "yes master, I deserved it" spiel when he does [if he does] get free.

Of course, Hasbro being Hasbro, and with Stormshadow's return from the dead, who's to say none of the other Joes won't pop back to life. Or they'll just introduce an old Joe as a new Joe.

So I now have 2 copies of this on Blu-Ray because I couldn't decide which version I wanted. I still haven't seen Retaliation yet. I'd like to watch it on 3D because we don't have many 3D movies for my almost 2 year old 3D TV and because they made such a big deal about converting it to 3D. However, the fanboy in me said "screw 3D you want the Best Buy exclusive that's the extended version with an extra 13 minutes of footage". Unfortunately, the Best Buy version is not in 3D. I like G.I. Joe and I like supporting the brand, but I don't think I need two different versions of Retaliation. Which version should I open???

Seibertron wrote:So I now have 2 copies of this on Blu-Ray because I couldn't decide which version I wanted. I still haven't seen Retaliation yet. I'd like to watch it on 3D because we don't have many 3D movies for my almost 2 year old 3D TV and because they made such a big deal about converting it to 3D. However, the fanboy in me said "screw 3D you want the Best Buy exclusive that's the extended version with an extra 13 minutes of footage". Unfortunately, the Best Buy version is not in 3D. I like G.I. Joe and I like supporting the brand, but I don't think I need two different versions of Retaliation. Which version should I open???

I don't really care for the 3d gimmick myself, so I'd go for the best buy version.