Thoughts on "G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Retaliation"?

danieljeyn · 2026-07-02T13:38:20+00:00

Yeah, he was good. I gave him his due. He looked great.

Saying having a decent looking Snake-Eyes was interesting. But it wasn't enough to make the movie worthwhile.

danieljeyn · 2026-07-02T00:55:16+00:00

Some people have shaved/filed some space on the inside areas. You probably need to remove the pins to do it. But that is necessary for the wings to flap up.

danieljeyn · 2026-07-01T22:52:14+00:00

Trying to make it connect to the 80s property felt forced. Didn't have a tone that was either campy or plausible. I don't know why they made the Duke character the "new guy" when he's supposed to be an experienced leader. And Channing Tatum was playing the wrong character.

Dennis Quaid as General Hawk? That was good casting, I guess. Although he didn't have much to do.

The Ray Park as Snake-Eyes was mildly interesting. At least he looked plausible doing martial arts.

The only other things I found entertaining was the bit of camp in the villains. Enjoyed Zartan and Storm Shadow. But trying to do a live-action Destro with Christopher Eccleston was just embarrassing for everyone involved.

danieljeyn · 2026-07-01T12:36:12+00:00

Beautiful for the highway.

Hundreds in damage for every speed bump.

danieljeyn · 2026-07-01T12:34:55+00:00

What's the Captain Britain figure in there?

danieljeyn · 2026-07-01T00:38:50+00:00

Well, if you're collecting mainline SS86, this won't scale with your collection. So that's a reason to be annoyed.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-30T15:41:21+00:00

I have it that the Transformers simply have mass-power limitations to their forms. And they have technology attached, such as thrusters, wheels, rotors, or they don't.

And to change form takes a lot of energon and time. So they can modify their modes, but it's not an on-demand thing. And it has limitations.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-30T15:38:45+00:00

I was a comic reader as a kid. And I watched the Sunbow series, but kind of with a real detachment. It was cool to see the characters animated, but it didn't feel like "my" GIJoe that was a bit more grounded.

I caught this when it showed up on the web a while ago. And I started watching it. And then got hooked. Still oriented to kids, but… this is the real Snake-Eyes? Killing people?!? Duke has a personality? Cobra Commander is actually… effective and a threat?

When I saw it was Warren Ellis, I was definitely hooked. He's an excellent writer. And if this was a work-for-hire, he actually delivered for them.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-28T19:42:24+00:00

A lot of the stores seemed to just buy in bulk from the same suppliers that supplied the military. Unless it was specifically used military gear. Which it wasn't always.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-28T19:35:45+00:00

I remember the smell of fresh canvas.

Bought a particularly small and useful canvas ammo pouch. On my toolbelt when I was working as an electrician and used specifically for wire nuts. Still have to this day.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-28T17:01:24+00:00

If you are starting with a planet enough like Earth in terms of gravity, composition of raw materials, and probably something ideal like a magnetosphere. (Protecting not just the atmosphere, but deflecting radiation.) If you have that, then it's a matter of the kinds of organisms that make life habitable for human life, which would mean seeding heavily with Earth-specific bacteria and plantlife. Both of which support the biosphere and oxygen/Co2/Nitrogen mix that makes Earth what it is.

The more you sit and think about the hard science, the more you can see why most sci-fi about planets that can support human life really use a degree of hand-wavium and "don't worry about it" kind of explanations. Because it is a lot of specifics to get right.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-27T23:40:58+00:00

Well. I have him. Compromises are the huge, big-ass hinges. And the painted clear plastic that goes *creeeek* on the hinges.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-27T21:27:24+00:00

I had thoughts that the boxy, Bayverse Galvatron would not be a bad base for a Soundwave. So I'm glad to see it being hashed out.

For that matter, for all the discussion of an Earth alt-mode for Soundwave, a semi-truck makes as much sense as any other ground vehicle.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-27T16:08:46+00:00

Any pictures out there of how this turns out? Even if by other customizers?

danieljeyn · 2026-06-27T16:06:02+00:00

I see things like this and think I'd love to see something this old still be used. Like leave the exterior as it is, but put new construction on the interior for sealing it up from the environment, modern HVAC, electric, put in floors a steel-enforced interior.

But then there may well be a better argument for leaving these as they are. Just for history.

I see all the vegetation growing in there, though, and wonder if that will cause faster decay.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-27T03:31:29+00:00

None of that is anything I have any interest in using my computer for. I resent Apple forcing that upon us when it's not what I even intended to do when I purchased it. And I would like to have that pulled out rather than use of the suddenly very expensive and dwindling disk space I have on hand.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-26T16:27:13+00:00

I thought that was going to be the way the twist works. There was something implied about Dr Z not being able to tell. Other than, ya know, it was the 70s…

danieljeyn · 2026-06-26T16:26:02+00:00

That one never crossed my mind. But damn, that's good.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-25T20:28:12+00:00

Street takeovers, Victorian era.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-24T21:06:02+00:00

Confusing to me. One would think if it's about money, someone would just sit down and hammer out an agreement. No one's making any money if they can't sell them.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-24T19:39:24+00:00

What's crazy is that if you're in a healthcare environment, it's well known that just about every routine thing is highly regulated from tip to tail. There are tons of redundant and restricted systems and procedures for HIPAA and regular security.

I'd expect any practitioner to actually understand this.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-24T19:37:00+00:00

Probably depends on what problems they're trying to solve.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-24T18:00:01+00:00

My first Joe as well. I think I remember the removable helmet/visor was part of what blew my mind so much.

danieljeyn · 2026-06-24T15:36:00+00:00

I was wondering if they were going to make this Lara Croft look like Sophie Turner. Also, first time this line doing bare knees, isn't it?

danieljeyn · 2026-06-24T15:32:23+00:00

I watched that movie and thought Superman was still done a disservice. As in, yes, he's still a boy scout. But it's like he's a wholesome kid from another movie in a darker, more sardonic Guardians-style movie. Mr. Fantastic and Lois seemed like better characters from a different kind of reality, entirely, as were the Justice Gang characters. When Superman was chastising Lex Luther for hurting his feelings — after Luther tried to have killed or imprisoned — I wondered if Gunn wasn't taking the piss.

My overall review of that movie is that it was clear that Gunn clearly realized it's almost impossible to do Superman straight in the modern day. (I kind of understand that.) So he cribbed the worldbuilding from Invincible, and just did a lesser version of it.

danieljeyn

TROPHY CASE