So last week I had posted links to some major site reviews for the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film… but as a G.I. Joe fan, shouldn’t we care more about what fellow G.I. Joe fans think? Aren’t our peers even more important than the main stream critics?
To that end, I’m stealing a page from JoeBattleLines’ book and posting some links to other community sites that have posted reviews of G.I. Joe: Retaliation. It’s a great exercise to cruise around the web and see what others thought. In many cases the reviews match mine, but in some cases they certainly do not. Check them out below:
- GeneralsJoes
- JoeBattlelines
- What’s On Joe Mind (podcast)
- ToyNewsI.com
- HISSTank.com
- The Terrordrome
- UnderScoopFire.com
- Imperial Holocron
- The Next Great Adventure
Pretty neat to see what other fans think of the film… certainly more opinions to come!
Personally I’m more interested in what mainstream critics and non Joe fans think. G.I. Joe fans tend to be a little biased, (as indicated by the number of them calling this movie “AMAZING”, and the “BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!” on other sites).
Most of these reviews are pretty sober looks at the film, however. Fanboys will be fanboys forever (you’ll still find people on TF forums who’ll defend Dark of the Moon, which might’ve been one of the worst movies ever made), but these are all well-reasoned takes.
I think we’ll be looking at a lot of ** – **1/2 / **** reviews for this one from mainstream critics, although from the sounds of things the first act isn’t great.
Actually, I thought the first half of the film was a solid setup. The second half was a fun ride but with a heavy bent of flash over substance and some melodrama, which I guess was to overstate the perils involved. It was alright. But the first half had more interpersonal drama to establish character obligations.
What hurts most is the “summer popcorn flick” comments I’m reading everywhere. Which means perhaps entertaining but completely forgettable. I haven’t seen it yet and will draw my own conclusions when I do but so far it sounds no better than a slightly better Rise of Cobra which would be very sad after all the hype. Ah well.
I caught an advanced screening of Retaliation with my wife, who is not a big Joe fan. We both liked it plenty.
Years ago I watched Rise of Cobra on opening night and hated it for lack of intelligence and misuse of original characters. Also, nanites and powersuits. So I never owned that movie and completely ignored many movie-related toys. As a longtime Joe collector and fan, that was a disappointment.
I would, however, catch a second viewing of Retaliation in 3D. The Rock was right, I didn’t feel insulted, the story played out smarter, and they did honor many things created by Larry Hama that the first film ignored (re: ninja drama). Not a masterpiece, but definitely better than the first Joe film, or any of the TF Bay films.
I’m a longtime Joe fan and a movie critic, so not sure if I qualify as fanboy in this case, but here’s my review: http://lylesmoviefiles.com/2013/03/28/review-g-i-joe-retaliation/