So far, MGM has released two trailers for the upcoming ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’. The film is a sequel to 2009’s ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’. The first film garnered a lot of criticism from both film critics and Joe fans alike. MGM is hoping that the addition of action film powerhouses Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis will save the sequel.

Based on the trailers so far, it seems as if MGM dropped the majority of the fluff that fan’s complained about. Gone is the almost universally panned character Ripchord, played in the original by Marlon Wayans. The Cobra Commander costume has been revamped to be more in line with the silver-faced version of the comics and cartoons. Pretty much the only thing that Retaliation keeps from the original are Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee).

The plot gets around the drastic changes by having Zartan, who was left impersonating the US President at the end of ‘Rise of Cobra’, proclaim the G.I. Joe team as a national threat and orders an attack to wipe them out. The surviving Joes, led by Roadblock (Johnson), “G.I.” Joe Colton (Willis), and Duke (Channing Tatum) must take down Zartan and Cobra and restore the G.I. Joe name.

Coming in at only 30 seconds, the new trailer mostly rehashes footage that we’ve seen before. But it does provide us with a couple of quick glimpses at some new action shots and a pep talk from Roadblock to the Joes.

I am in the minority, but I had a blast with the first G.I. Joe film, but I do understand why MGM is making the changes. It’s sad to see Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) missing from the sequel, but here’s hoping that they’ll find a way to bring them back for subsequent movies.

Update: Apparently the above trailer isn’t the only new one. ComicBookMovie posted a new TV spot for the film as well. This latest trailer is almost the same as the one above but includes about 3 seconds of new footage. Enjoy!

Check out the other two ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ trailers:
First theatrical trailer
Super Bowl TV spot

‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’, directed by Jon Chu, and starring Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Ray Park, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson, and Arnold Vosloo hits theaters in 2D and 3D on June 29, 2012.