In the world of movies, March ended with a bang and a couple of explosions with the release “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.”  The newest “Joe” movie is a sequel of the 2009 film “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra,” which are both loosely based on the action figures and the 1980s cartoon series.

The idea is circled around what are considered the “best of the best” soldiers from all around the world joined as one military organization known as the G.I. Joes.

“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” released March 29 taking over number one at the box office with $42.1 million. The film knocked off the kid favorite cartoon movie “The Croods” from the top spot, which released last week and now takes the number two spot at $25.6 million this week.

In this movie the Joe’s find themselves under certain duress as they are targeted for extermination by their arch nemesis Cobra, a villain’s equivalent of best of the best and just like the Joe’s all under one title.

As G.I. Joe Commander Duke, reprised by Channing Tatum and a new second in command in this movie RoadBlock, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, try to weave through Cobra’s dark plans.

Overall the ratings for “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” have been very mixed.  According to Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie-rating site for moviegoers and professional critics, the movie is hard to pin down as good or bad.

On one side the critics gave it what is considered a “rotten” 29 percent out of 100 with 134 reviews submitted.  On the other side the casual audience seem to like it a bit more, giving it a fresh 64 percent audience review and a 3.7 out of 5 star overall review from almost 65,000 moviegoers as of March 31.

The regional audience reviews appear to echo those nationally according to those polled randomly as they left the auditoriums at Rave Motion Pictures in Florence, Ky. Out of the 100 patrons asked between March 29-30 over 85 percent enjoyed the movie.

NKU student Austin Chatman, freshman business major, who stopped by to see the movie, believed it deserved a high rating.

“It was absolutely awesome.  It was packed full of action and it had some pretty good acting.  It was like any big action movie, but I think it was better than the first one,” said Chatman.

Like Rotten Tomatoes’ reviews though, opinions varied amongst NKU students.  That being true with NKU student Curtis Harmon, sophomore electronic media broadcast major and employee at Rave Motion Pictures in Florence.

“I felt like the sequel was everything that was wrong with the first one amplified and kick up an extra notch.  It was a lot more cheesy and it’s just not good,” said Harmon.