I admit that I had been looking forward to this movie. You could almost say that the first G.I. Joe movie (and the Transformers movies) was a guilty pleasure, except I don't feel that guilty about it. They did not remake the cartoons I watched as a kid, nor the comic books I read. But let's be completely honest here, those cartoons and comic books served the sole purpose of selling more toys. Marvel worked a little bit on trying to make the Autobots and Decepticons fit into their universe, mostly with a mini series that featured them and G.I. Joe and Cobra with a small part, little more than a cameo really, by Spiderman. The G.I. Joe comic at least had some mini series spin-offs and developed some story lines far away from what the cartoon did, however they were obligated to throw in at least some of the new characters and contraptions whenever Hasbro released another batch. They mostly provided simple stories for us kids to act with our toys if we had right ones. Present company included. I've got to say that I personally, when left to myself, i.e. not playing with my dollies with my friends, saw G.I. Joe teaming up with the Rebel Alliance to fight the evil Empire which had joined forces with Cobra because those generic Cobra soldiers looked a lot like the Bespin guards who we all know are Stormtrooper wanna-bes. Then legos would get involved to make fortifications quickly followed by the Transformers and some other robot toys, as mechs to help their sides do battle. But, eventually they all joined forces to battle He-Man and his posse. He-Man even though vastly outnumbered would lead his giant troops to victory, only to appear to be thwarted by the Warlord (from DC comics) who lead forces including Hercules who were the same size as the He-Man figures, but they would join forces at the crucial moment and the Star Wars/Transformers/G.I. Joe army would be defeated with the rare exception when the Justic League of America would show up to fight the giants. But mostly I built defenses and little vehicles to prepare for the epic climax.
The first movie was a sci-fi action film with some surprisingly strong characters. This time around the sci-fi is pretty much dropped. Oh, it's there, but is secondary at best. What has replaced the sci-fi part is a ninja part, or more correctly, G.I. Joe seems to be part of a ninja movie.The character building has been completely replaced by more ninja action
With that being said, it's not a very good sequel, but it is a decent movie. Aside from a very small number of characters, it's new folks all the way around. Don't they know that the new toys were always fun because you integrated them with the old toys, not replace the old toys? I guess not.
I had heard before the first one came out that there was a planned trilogy. I wonder if those plans still exist or if two and three got pushed together. They totally leave the end open for more, but the story arc seems to be pretty well wrapped up. I guess I'll have to just wait and see.
G.I. Joe: Retalliation on IMDb
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