Meh, I got a hi-res TV in of it on my laptop in case I want to watch it again. If they released it with figures, maybe. But by itself, I would not pay for that rickroll.
Rickroll?
How so?
In that they tricked/mislead us. We were told we'd get a gritty, dark, realistic Joe story with blood, deaths, etc. and no crap like lasers, parachutes, and the like.
The first few parts of Resolute were very strong, but ultimately, it fell apart as it progressed. It degenerated into the same crap we got in the 80's cartoon: characters shooting and no one getting hit, weak characterization, bad guys' lack of marksmanship, jetpacks, and surprise surprise, lasers and parachutes. Plus, they threw in the non-canon I-know-it's-from-the-80s-cartoon-but-that-got-it-wrong-too Duke/Scarlett relationship thing.
Combine that with Duke usurping leadership from Hawk [where was he, anyway? In Washington getting chewed by the Jugglers?] and making a very non-Joe decision: "We
kill Cobra Commander." Wait, what? Maybe you should check with your superior officer, Hauser, before issuing an order like that and then blowing up nice little American town like Springfield. I'm sure Washington was thrilled.
Sure, there were some good elements. The new Cobra Commander was very badass, and Zartan was cool too, despite the clich?d "monologue instead of pulling the trigger" deal, and Snake-Eyes' and Storm Shadow's scene was fantastic. The redesigns were for the most part good, the animation was too, and it was really nice to see a bunch of old characters updated, even if it was just for a cameo [plus, seeing Zap's bazooka in the Armoury right before the Flagg was bombed made me smile]. I still hoped that they would have snuck in my favourite Joe greasemonkey. Maybe when Wild Bill's talking about preparing the vehicles, we could have seen a bearded guy fixing up a VAMP.
Despite the good intentions, Resolute, at least to me, felt like a fan service that ran out of steam, like they went into the project without a solid plan and ultimate dropped the ball because of that. Needless elements like the "technofuture" gadgets [jetpacks, "supersonic transports," huge command room inside the boat, the sci-fi story involving a doomsday device that unleashes "Independence Day"-like death, the satellite scene, etc.] made me cringe (is modern army equipment not cool enough?), the characterization was terrible in some parts [Scarlett was just awful], and the lack of an ending was inexcusable. Also, airing it once at midnight without much advertising if any really didn't help in attracting attention to it.
All in all, Resolute was a nice albeit half-assed fanservice that fell flat. I guess they wanted to give fans something to keep them quiet before the so-called "G.I. Joe movie" crapstorm hit.
Rant over. Hate me, ban me, do what you want. I'm just trying to give Jay an answer to his question.
