My first impression of Palicki in the movie was favorable because she seemed wiry strong like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. As soon as they put her in a slinky dress, I kind of rolled my eyes because that is just so cliche, but overall I liked her way better than Jinx (waif fu!).

I didn’t really watch the 80s cartoon much, so I can’t offer any perspective from that angle. Leading up to the movie, I was mostly excited that the characters from the previous movie were being killed off and that Storm Shadow would have more lines. Love the Rock in pretty much anything, so I loved him as the lead. The hardest thing for me to buy into was that Tatum’s Duke was ever in charge instead of him.

Long time no hear! I think Palicki did well in the first 15 minutes when they placed her in soldier gear and showed her interacting with the Joes on missions. But, after that, she lost the military bearing and strength, which Johnson and Willis maintained. And, yes, leadership-wise the Rock definitely popped more than Tatum, but I made assumptions for why that happened based on the film.

It’s interesting. I forgot to mention I found the film funny. Everyone in my highly packed preview audience laughed at every comedically intended line, including the Duke-Roadblock interactions.

Regarding Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, those two will always remain my boys. However, considering the first film delved into their backstory, I didn’t need anymore. I felt the film could’ve included less focus on the master, but I liked the mesh of the two different genre styles, which didn’t feel discordant to me. I didn’t need more backstory on Willis, but, yes, CC could’ve used more dialogue. Then again, after the first movie, I’m not opposed to their cutting back on CC’s words after the convoluted way they developed him in the first film.

Aside from that, what’d you think of Johnson as Roadblock and were you excited to see lady Jaye and Flint?

The 3D was a waste of money. I twitched once when a bullet flew straight at me. But overall, this was much better movie than the first GI Joe. The Rock and Bruce Willis are true badasses with more action-hero charisma than Magic Mike will ever have. Still, even as I acknowledge that this was a better movie, I must say I was only mildly entertained by it.

Every attempt at humor fell flat; no one in the theatre laughed at any of the jokes. Jonathan Pryce was pretty funny as the impostor POTUS, but even he couldn’t get a laugh. I know this isn’t a comedy, but it felt dull and badly written – like someone tried to write some funny lines but the lines weren’t funny enough so they had the characters point out how lame the jokes were.

Storywise, I felt like I was watching two movies, neither of which were fully realized. There was the main story (the Joes vs. the fake POTUS and Cobra Commander), and there was the Storm Shadow story, which I was actually more interested in (partially because I like martial arts stories and partially because I love me some hot Korean actors). The Storm Shadow stuff could have been its own movie; I would have loved to see that story fleshed out, but as the B-plot in this movie it felt shallow and underwhelming and it took up screen time that could have been spent beefing up the main storyline (for example, they could have done more with Willis’s character, given him more backstory; they could have done a better job of explaining Cobra Commander’s motives and goals; what’s more, they could have done a better job reacting to the obliteration of London!).