I never understood the whole ice sinking complaint from the first movie. There was metal in everything they showed in that arctic base. The elevator shafts and piping everywhere would be enough weight to sink the ice, wouldn't it?

And yeah, I thought about the same thing with the nukes...but I just try to not let stuff like that bother me.

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After thinking about the movie for a few days, there were some things that started to bug me.

Storm Shadow's redemption. He destroys the Eiffel Tower, assassinates a ruler of a country while disguised as Snake-Eyes, and frees Cobra Commander, yet he shows the sword isn't a true Arashikage sword and all is forgiven.

Rex became Cobra Commander near the end of the first movie. He gets captured and spends time as a popsicle before being freed, yet he has all these people recruited for the Cobra cause (Firefly has been working for him for some time), has them working on this satellite, and manning various locations (White House, President's retreat, Cobra satellite prep area, etc).

The plot of the second movie revolves around Zartan having gotten into the White House. Was this Destro's plan or a Rex guided plan from the first?

No mention of the Flagg, Ripcord, Scarlett, Heavy Duty, Breaker, General Hawk? Are they dead too?

The President deciding to eliminate the members of GIJOE is troubling, given the explanation of General Hawk as to the recruitment of the JOEs from various countries. Unilaterally eliminating the JOEs, especially the ones from foreign countries would have been a political issue from the get go.

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My fanwanks and theories:


Ninjas don't care about that sort of stuff. Now if he winds up on the actual Joe team, there might be some issues.


I figured CC had it all planned out before he was captured (he certainly seemed to have something bigger planned, as alluded to when he turned Destro all shiny). With him captured, things went on as planned, along with a contingency to bust him out when possible. Zartan was probably interim director of Cobra for the time being, with FF doing CC's other bidding that CC had given him before being captured.


I think it was Rex's plan from the start. Rex was just using Destro in the first movie, letting Destro think he was in charge. Once Destro had gotten Rex to where he needed to be, he was of no more use.


Hawk and Ripcord (and I guess the Flagg), I'm not sure, but am I imagining things or at the beginning wasn't there a crawl or something that explained that GI Joe had been brought back 'in-house', so it was at that point American only? It'd be cool to see them bring back the foreign members in #3 as members of Action Force.

See above

Just saw it.

Really liked it... especially compared to ROC. It's very impressive and surprisingly respectable that Paramount and/or the creative team decided to continue on from the clunky first movie. I would have wiped the slate clean and started anew. However, building off of the first movie was a smart move since having an impostor president is a clever concept. Changing the tone from "super duper over the top" to just "super over the top" helped.

I was okay with Channing Tatum's Duke in both movies and disappointed to see him go. Great chemistry with the Rock, too. If they really want to bring Chuke back in the next movie they can. His body was swiped with a super realistic dummy so Cobra could turn him into Venomous Maximus or whatever ridiculous idea they want. His body was unknowingly infect with nano-mites in the first movie and they rebuilt him. Perhaps a remorseful Rex has Dr. Mindbender bring him back from the dead. All silly ideas that would easily fit within the tone of the movies so far.

Arnold Vosloo should've been given more screen time as Zartan, even if Jonathan Price was delicious as Zartan as the President. (Price's American accent was near perfect this time around- much better than in the first movie.) In the death sequence in particular, Vosloo should have gotten to portray Zartan after his heart was pierced. Like Duke, Zartan could be written back in. Firefly? Not so much.

Whoever took over as Cobra Commander (and the voice) did a good job. The uniform was good, but it needed the Cobra logo on the chest.

All of the introduced characters were very well done. Lady Jaye, Mouse, Flint, and especially Roadblock were enjoyable.

I am undecided on Willis' Colton. He seemed to be there for the paycheck at times, but he was hired to be window dressing to frame the Rock, so it's a hard call...

Walton Goggins as the world's worst prison warden was fun. Ridiculous, but fun.

Firefly did really seem to be written more like Copperhead. I agree completely. I hated the uniform, too. Why is grey camo so hard to do?

Likewise, why couldn't we just be treated to standard Cobra soldiers? The ones in digital camo were fine as placeholders, but they didn't quite read as the iconic Cobra soldiers.

The Joes that were slaughtered at the top of the movie could have been named "real" characters- and only captured by Cobra. Given the tone of the movie, the characters' deaths didn't really carry much weight, so it was a wasted opportunity to introduce and grow more team members.

I would have liked to have seen a few more ROC actors carry over- even if just as images on computer screens. The intro explained that Duke was now running the team, so maybe the surviving Joes might have gone to the retired Hawk instead of Colton. Or both. And if Paramount didn't want Dennis "Why am I here?" Quaid back, how about letting Michael Rooker take over the role?

And even though it's a fluff popcorn movie, Paramount really needs to hire (or at least listen to) a military advisor. I understand that things need to be warped and dumbed down or altered to make the story flow, but there was a sloppy feel to many of the military aspects in the movie. The dress uniforms looked peculiar and rank didn't seem to make any difference.

The Joe uniforms didn't have much individuality to them, but they did look pretty cool. The plated armor/webgear combo was a step up from the stuff in ROC.

The last 1/4 of the movie got a bit choppy, but most of it was very good. The mountain fight scene was dynamic and energetic.

Snake-Eyes' uniform (and screen presence) were vastly improved over ROC. I'm hoping that we can see Ray Park in a simple ski mask w/goggles in the next movie.

Speaking as one who hasn't seen the first movie, but knows a few of the details --

I'd completely forgotten about the international aspect of the team from the first movie -- and my guess is the producers did as well -- intentionally.

I agree that Vosloo should've gotten more screen time as Zartan. It's a wonder he was even in the credits.

Agreed, Storm Shadow's redemption was mostly from the ninja standpoint -- and he didn't hang around once business was concluded, either.

Lordy, that prison warden was annoying (intentionally, I know). Like something between a game show host and a used car salesman.

I tend to be of the overall opinion that this movie was aimed to some degree at people who avoided the first one, for whatever reason, but had a passing familiarity with the events of it, but could still go in to this one and enjoy it. They carried over just enough components from the first movie for the sake of continuity, without burdening this movie with all the worst aspects of the last one. And, in my opinion, it worked.

And I'd like to see Shipwreck in the next one, too!

That's what I meant by COMPLETELY ignoring the international team aspect. They just don't address it at all. Also, Rex doesn't become CC at the end of ROC, he reveals himself to be CC. All the while he was using Destro's money and resources to get the Nanomite schtick up and running, including getting Zartan Nanomited and into the white house, he's had Cobra in his back pocket, developing and building the HISS and Zeus. While he kept Destro busy with the Baroness and whatnot, he was suborning MARS to become the Cobra Army, indoctrinating the soldiers with Nanomites, siphoning off money. That's why Destro's sub already had the Cobra Sigil painted on it. He just finally got what he wanted, then sprung it all on Destro like "Surprise, Jiveass!! I've taken all ur stuff!!"

Yeah, the one I forgot was how did they go from working on one Zeus to getting 7 done AND launched into space...

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Overall I liked it, way better than RoC (which was enjoyable). This felt like a complete G.I. Joe to me. Instead of the Frankenstein of RoC. That said, It was a brisk film with a lot on the cutting room floor (looking forward to the extras), Would have loved Jinx.

I liked how they left the door wide open for surviving Joes. Firefly can come back, slightly more burnt, hah.

Cobra Commander getting away... strutting out no less, at a calm pace was excellent. He'll be ready to hatch another scheme in no time.

I just saw the movie for the first time today. I have heard reviews from raging fanboy love to "RoC was way better". Personally I thought it was somewhere in between but overall I liked it. Enough to watch it again. RoC didn't have much that made me want to see it again other than the GIJoe name. Sure, Retaliation had flaws and holes, but it was better than RoC. Getting rid of the international aspect of the team was a good move. I never liked that about RoC. After RoC, I didn't look forward to this move at all. I waited this long to see it and even then did so on some free passes I scored. Now, I'm glad I saw it and now I am actually looking forward to the next one.

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....this movie... was awful. It was bizarre cartoon logic without any of the cartoon fun and not enough Hama with interesting layered storytelling with sensical action.

Thank god Jonathan Pryce is a great actor since he was the only thing worth watching.

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just watched the movie... kinda late, but i did avoid spoilers beforehand...

loved it.

cons: Larry Hama not in this sequel... lol

oh yeah, can anyone identify the "extras" in the movie? like quick-kick, clutch, the sarge, grunt etc.?