I just saw GIJoe Retaliation

I liked this movie.   This was fun.

There were only about 7 of us in the theater for the early showing, but the comments that some of those other movie goers passed on to people coming into the theater as we exited echoed my first two sentences.  It was fun, and the people looked the part; not just saying it, but they looked like they had fun.

I recommend it, but I'm sure it isn't for everybody. 

Dare I review?   "Review" sounds slow and boring, almost technical.   Instead, I'll tell you how I feel right now after watching the movie:  I feel VERY GOOD.  So good I could go bust out some 'Joes and play along with the movie story line.



Spoilers may come forth below, be warned!!!

SERPENTOR IS CREATED!!!!




NO, just kidding, but you may read some movie spoilers in my ramblings below so...

SPOILER ALERT TO CONDITION YELLOW!
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See that little Star Trek like warning?  With colored text, at that to match?  Yes, I really had fun, and I am pumped up.

Well, I don't want to ruin it, so let's make that RED ALERT for Spoilers for below!!!


Now, to begin with, I saw the 3D version of the film (MAN OF STEEL preview looks great, btw!).   This was my first official 3D film on a personal note, having only done a 4D show once.   I wasn't too sure on the 3D aspect, but a lot of the locations really called for it, and there is a real sense of depth and height.  The 3D TOTALLY rocked the ninja battle scenes.   I mean, the camera would follow down the rock face, but there was even like an extra second where I kept looking down and realized, that was far down!

As I think back on the story as it starts out, I had not read any spoilers on the film, and here's a possible HUGE SPOILER, but Duke is killed.  I think this was speculated, and I've said it in many forum discussions that I wouldn't mind if this happened, as it should have happened in 1987.   But...., I almost feel a little emptiness right off the bat.

No, really, I feel a little empty with the loss of Duke right now.  Not because it was "Duke," the glossy corporate mandated figure.  I actually liked the little GIJOE group that Retaliation Duke was in charge of in the opening sequence.  Roadblock and Duke seemed like a couple of people that I would totally love to hang out with.  That "Mouse" character was kind of interesting, too.  Only "knew" him a few minutes.  But, there was no time for grieving, and I'm glad there wasn't any chance to get bogged down, but only one mention of Duke for the rest of the film, until that final pistol shot.

(Did I help to kill Duke?  Are we truly heading for a GIJoe Renaissance with no Duke!?  Is he really gone??  IS ROADBLOCK in charge?)

 So much to take in with this movie!

 The prison sequence was pretty wild, it just felt like some kind of James Bond film as the flamboyant warden brought Snake Eyes down there into a relic cold war era facility.  Here is where I was hoping there would be NO connection to the Rise of Cobra Cobra Commander, and in a sense, there really isn't one.  All a person knows going into this film is that Cobra Commander and Destro are imprisoned.  So when it comes to "playing" GIJoe, I think this film did a great job here.  It was a classic prison break when it comes right down to it, with the disguised ninja penetrating the facility.
Only to invoke what I imagine is the sleeping Phoenix, foil the medical monitors, and totally escape, freeing the Commander.    

Right there in that scene, that is totally something I could imagine playing with my own GIJoe figures; the prison break!  However, with my figures, I would not have left Destro out of the band.  THAT little fact leaves so much for a third film to allow for the Rise of the Iron Grenadiers, SEPARATE of Cobra.

We also get to greet Firefly in this film.  Did we get any background information on this guy?  Anything at all?  Zartan and Firefly meeting up upon the Commanders home arrival really is the only hint, and it's a huge supposition, or Easter egg, that unless I missed it in the film, is a small flavor of the Zartan-Firefly relation in infiltrating the Arashikage from the Marvel days.   (I could be reading it wrong, but I wanted to tell everyone all this stuff in the theater so they would know.)

The film keeps going, too.  That's what made this fun for me. 

We had Lady Jaye doing some investigative work, slipping right up next to Zartan to confirm the 'Joes suspicions of an imposter President.  Sure, that covert move could have been set up longer, with more disguises, more ear-phone comm chatter, and what-not in the film,  but I'm glad it wasn't, there was great pace overall.  I think I read over at GeneralsJoes.com's posts on Twitzillers reasons why Retaliation will be great, and pacing is one of them I remember right.  If I remembered right, then I agree very much.

Were there little story spots where I felt like I missed something?  Yeah, like, when Storm Shadow was sent to the mountain to heal.   If I knew nothing of GIJoe, I would want to know where, what, who, and why are we in the mountains with red ninja guys.  I'm glad they didn't stop the film to explain it all, though.  Heck, we don't know why Snake Eyes was trailing Storm Shadow to the prison facility in the first place, do we?  

How did Snakes even know Stormy was alive, and what's been happening between films?  So much more wanting, perhaps this is something intentional, and that's what makes it fun.  What if....?  Here's that point where imagination wants to bust out the GIJoe figures and play it out.

One highlight of the movie is the "revelation" of the Hard Master's killer for me.   I bet everyone in the theater was thinking, who is the Hard Master?   It was handled excellent, minimal flashbacks, limited dialogue, and the best thing of all, was how Storm Shadow proved it was not his sword. 

Snake Eyes even looked surprised at that moment.   (Yes he did, don't argue.)

Once again, we didn't get bogged down in that ninja battles side with long-winded back story.  We got the jist of it with the scene of Zartan taking off his disguise in the flashback. 

And to continue in SPOILER fashion, I am surprised that Zartan was killed.  But what a closure for that old Marvel comics days story line.  Instead of letting go of the anger in Retaliation, however, Storm Shadow closed that avenging/ anger book with a sword.  Well, at least from what I saw on screen.

Same with Roadblock, he said in the beginning of the film he was going to kill whoever was responsible for his teammates deaths, and he did it.  Unfortunately, does this mean that Retaliation Firefly will grow in a so-called cult-status?  Well, maybe he survived, like maybe Zartan survived....

Heck, Lady Jaye even got some personal closure that was briefly mentioned in the only really sappy moment (and it wasn't that sappy, it was like that one or two panels in a comic book brief) where she mentions her ambition to rise to her fathers level.  That was something when "Joe" mentioned knowing her father and that he'd be proud of her.  Or however it was said.  I thought that was a pretty good moment, and I hope to see Lady Jaye appear in another film.


Maybe that's what made this movie fun?  Almost like a comic book, where there isn't that much space in the panels from beginning to end to cram every detail into it.  But there is SO much put into this movie. I feel great about it from start to finish....

I want more of it.

Whatever the hiatus, re-filming, whatever the delay, for me it was worth the wait.   Best thing ever?  Can there be a best thing ever?   So, Hasbro, Paramount, or whoever is in the power seat:  I think you have a great team started up here, I see a solid foundation with talent that I hope is built upon in the future.

For my own personal "JoeVerse?" 
Right now, on the excitement of coming out of the theater, yeah, I could incorporate so many elements into my own little world.  What's kind of funny, is that the Retaliation world and my thing aren't too far separated. Things are small, if you will, more intimate.   (Much like GIJoe: Renegades.)

What more can a guy say?  Probably more if I had another 'Joe fan right next to me in the room.  And if there was another 'Joe fan in the room, I'd suggest we go see it again.  Or even check out RoC, and then go see Retaliation.

I'll leave it at that.  For now.  

I recommend it.  FUN movie!!!

Well done everyone involved!!!

old custom Parasite

 Riding the topic of the Cobra Parasite from Forgotten Figures,  the mention of the Parasite with different colors having the potential to kick the coolness factor up is what originally inspired me to paint up a used Parasite I must have found at a Goodwill years ago.  (It seems like a lifetime ago already!)

I have not been one to really paint original ARAH-era vehicles or customize them much, there's always been something about taking away from the original toy, especially if it something that is in really decent condition (or mint, like the one I had originally bought in the store).  However, I have found some used vehicles over the years that were less than mint, often missing parts and pieces. These typically were vehicles that were (and sort of still are) not really highly valued by collectors for potential trades or sales.   A couple of these later ARAH vehicles I did some quick paint jobs on.

One old custom, for examples, was the custom Cobra Devastator (Cobra Detonator), and another one was a flat-black painted Badger.

The used Parasite I found was missing the mines and catapult lever.   The Parasite was a vehicle that with the purple-blue and sandy-orange-yellow colors never really bothered me a ton, but I had really wished it was a more drab military color.   I probably thought this used Parasite would make for a great test subject to see if I liked it black.  And probably to see if I could paint it well enough to attempt a paint job on my original mint Parasite at that time.  (However, the stickers were all on my original-bought-and-built Parasite, not something I wanted to scrape off or paint over...)

The Parasite was one of the vehicles that I traded or sold during my 2005 vehicle trimming.  The used painted Parasite has hung around, however, and the "junior Joe" of the HQ has been able to get some use out of it.  It currently resides in the general toy motor pool, and squares off against the 2010 VAMP.  (Why it was easy for me get this Parasite out for pics today, too.)

This is one of those vehicles that even at a really young age the "junior Joe" could play with.  There was no way that the W.H.A.L.E. was getting into his hands, for example, just too fragile.  But the Parasite was something that we could load some figures into and it was sturdy.  (not that the man plays hard with things, sometimes it is just the wrong place for some play pressure or the over-opening or extending of a hinge or moving part....I have been surprised on how things play wear, needless to say!)     So, I guess I'm saying it's a fairly rugged vehicle.

But there is also a lot of interesting detail packed into what is a fairly simple vehicle.  I thought I would snap up some shots of the painted Parasite since it is at hand right off the "junior Joes" collection shelf.

I don't know why I didn't paint the bottom.  But one can see there is a nice ground clearance and the large wheels roll over carpet, blankets, or backyard grass with ease.   Despite being catapult-less, this Parasite still has eight barrels of armament, the top four have a very nice elevation angle, too.  Sure, it is an open seat, but the ball shape sort of takes on a little wrap-around protection..., to an extent.  Figures fit into this seat easily, too.

A feature of classic GIJOE vehicles that I have always liked is the use of interlocking tabs.  In the photo above, the two "hinge tabs" make for an almost head light look, or some sort of vents.  Not that I dislike screws, but, here is a vehicle with none of those, something that more modern vehicles seem like they can't do without.


At the time of me painting this, I think I was using some old enamel paints from possibly 10 years prior to this point in time.  I thought some silver on the details that looked like screen vents would "pop" those details more.   I also used the same silver for "paint wear" detail, that's what the silver mess is on the gun turret ball, and on seemingly random spots on the gun barrels.  This was definitely more of an experimentation painting project at the time, one can see where I was painting the rim of the front left tire to see what that looked like.

For a simple form, there is lots of interesting layers of armored panels, and screen vents.  The guns have a lot of shape to them, even molded wires and hoses.  One of my favorite little details are the suspension springs on the front wheels.  They're painted (what else...) silver in the picture above.

The little open slots are another neat feature.  It could have been just as easy to make it one flat surface, but the slots are fun.  On my original Parasite, I remember posing to have the passengers in the inner compartment shooting their rifles out these ports.   This is a very IFV-style feature, something not often seen,   ... off-hand I think the Warthog was another vehicle with little windows like this.

 On the back, on either side near the inner wheel axles are details that made me think these are where the motors are.  Another simple, but interesting detail.  There are even tail pipes just above each one.  There's room for two figures on the pegs, but I'm almost surprised not to see a tow hook there, it would seem like a natural location to me.

Would I buy one of these if it were produced today?  Maybe.  There's a few things I would probably re-design if I could.

With such an "off-road" style to the vehicle, and in scale, these are some hefty tires, I would definitely re-think the long gun barrels sticking out from the bottom front.   Perhaps a new turret, maybe something like is on the R.O.C.C.?

The side running boards are perfect locations for some gun stations like the 1990 Hammer has, don't you think?

While I like asymmetrical design, do you think the current compartment hatch is the best egress point?  Perhaps two slimmer hatches that are off-set for opening on each side?  And then the interior seat that faces away from an opening door would have the slotted weapon window, enabling covering fire from either side for the disembarking troops?

Instead of a catapult, perhaps a mortar launcher on the back deck angled slightly forward, even spring loaded?

Now, I'm not sure about you, but this is a vehicle that I questioned just how it was driven.  It would seem like the guy in the turret is the man in control, but when it comes to battle, that guy is going to be busy targeting and shooting. 

Back in the day, sometimes I would imagine the guy in the front is in his own little gun nest, that's the whole purpose to the front gun turret on the Parasite.  In the back compartment is where the important troops would be, perhaps even Cobra Commander himself.  I would imagine one of the seats in the back was the actual driver seat, entirely enclosed and protected.  (All the normal troops were riding on the outer boards.)



The big vehicle mass sometime in late 2004.  My original Cobra Parasite can be seen in the back lower corner on a shelf above the Tomahawk.

...and the HQ is still not started...

March 1st already, February seemed to fly by!  Sadly, no HQ progress has really been made, unless one counts moving the stacks of stuff just a little bit across the room.

My 'Joe fix has been primarily from the internet, many excellent sites have kept me informed and entertained greatly while I haven't even seen any of my own collection.

The most exciting thing for me over February has to be the Eaglehawk, that according to other sites is due out in August.  Put me down for two of these, seriously.  I thought the Kre-O was looking like the most exciting thing, but I may completely switch my toy budget off that just for the Eaglehawks.

As I build the "junior 'Joes" facilities amenities, I'm already coming into the old situation where I don't have the tools to really do what I want to do easily ...., so a lot of things are already making frustration appear, and that doesn't help get things done.

On top of it, some serious expensive landscaping for long-term safety and convenience, as well as the unintended, unplanned, and expensive purchase of a new HQ furnace adds on top of frustration.   The money that could have been used for the tools to really get some good things going is really going out the door faster than anticipated off the bat.

Slowly but surely!