They completely ruined Martin's character in this.

To be fair, he did kill the main bad guy.

I do see what you're saying though. I think it just comes down to the fact that Martin Lawrence was arguably the bigger star at the time the original was made. By Bad Boys 2, Will Smith's paychecks were the size of the original movie's entire budget.

I get what you're saying. Right at the beginning I rolled my eyes because Smith comes out of the KKK robe in slow motion looking all cool while wielding two pistols (because cops train to accurately shoot two guns at once...) and Lawrence just takes off his hood but keeps on the robe because no one is allowed to look as cool or as tactical as Smith.

Then Smith talks to all the Klan members like he's in control, moving his guns every which way to keep people from drawing on him (never mind that he doesn't have eyes behind his back...) not bothering to say something along the lines of: "Everybody face down on the ground now!"

No, he had it under control with that retarded plan to stand in the middle of a Klan group with two guns and bantering comically with them. His fellow officers must've watched in the distance thinking "Great, all is going according to plan - two of our best black cops revealed themselves in the middle of all the dangerous and armed Klan members and are singing a song but let's not move in and help control the situation...especially now that one of them was disarmed and has a gun to his head...Mike's got this - he has two guns after all..."

What were all the cops waiting for again? I don't remember why they decided to wait to move in. Oh wait, I remember now, they had to wait so that Smith could have a minute to look cool holding two guns.

I agree to a certain extent. I think they made Will Smith look more like the action hero in the sequel by giving him all of the driving scenes and by highlighting his action scenes with more gore and slow-motion shots. They made Martin Lawrence too whiny in the sequel and he is mainly the comic sidekick. In the original movie, he was a brave cop and took on all of the dangers of his job. He only got nauseous around a dead body (without throwing up) and was slightly panicky when he was driving the big truck after they went to the club to nab Noah. The sequel disappointed me because I wanted to see both Martin Lawrence and Will Smith shine like they did in the original movie. I do think that Martin had some cool moments in the sequel but it was downplayed:

1. In the KKK scene, Marcus trips the tall KKK member, Floyd Poteet (played by Michael Shannon), when he runs toward Marcus and Mike's direction. That's the reason why Marcus gets held at gunpoint in that scene.

2. When Marcus is held at gunpoint by the Klan member, he sees another Klan member grab a gun and yells at Mike to duck.

3. During the KKK shootout, Marcus shoots down one of the KKK members. You only see the back of Marcus's head but you know it's Marcus because he still has on the sleeves of the KKK shirt (he had only initially removed the face cover) and he is shooting with one gun. Mike Lowrey was shooting with two guns and he had removed his whole KKK outfit when they revealed themselves to be cops.

4. Marcus calls for backup as Mike drives after the Haitians chasing Sydney.

5. Marcus shoots a car with two Haitians (one armed) inside it during the first chase scene, causing that car to crash into another car. He was trying to be peaceful at first by showing his badge but Mike orders him to shoot them. The scene points out that Marcus can still shoot with precision if he wants to.

6. After getting out of Mike's car, Marcus does a frontal flip and a dodge roll to avoid getting shot by a Haitian in the street shootout following the first chase scene. He also does a flip when they are in the Haitian house.

7. Marcus shoots a Haitian guy atop a car during the street shootout.

8. Marcus shoots one of the Haitians at their house while barricading himself by a toilet. He also kicks the last remaining Haitian guy twice, with his first kick sending the guy flying in the air. Again, this scene shows that Marcus has a tough side, maybe even a karate background, as I remember him kicking two guys in the first movie.

9. When they are interrogating the remaining Haitian, Marcus points out to Mike in a hilarious way that you can't get information from dead suspects.

10. When Marcus and Mike are looking at funeral footage from the Haitians' camera at the video store, Marcus notices that one of the pallbearers carrying a casket had a gun on him.

11. When Mike comes up with the plan to plant wires at Tapia's home, Marcus was against the idea because it was illegal to do so. This scene shows that Marcus is a by-the-book cop.

12. When Marcus shows his badge to the exterminator guy, it showed that he had been promoted to a lieutenant. In the first movie, when he showed his badge to Julie, he was a sergeant. He must have been doing something right.

13. Marcus was able to plant wires in Tapia's attic despite having to work around rats.

14. Marcus cleverly kicks through glass and effectively jumps onto and slides down a pole attached to Tapia's house in order to escape after their cover is blown.

15. When Fletcher identifies the Dixie 7 boat as belonging to the Poteet brothers, Marcus reminds Mike who the Poteet brothers are by bringing up how Mike shot Floyd Poteet's ear off. They later used Floyd Poteet as an informant for Ecstasy drop schedules at a shipping dock.

16. When Mike is following the Cubans carrying the coffins, Marcus reminds him not to drive so close so their cover doesn't get blown, which eventually happens.

17. Mike beats up the guy on the monorail but Marcus was the one who notices the guy running away. Mike was too busy looking for the coffin.

18. Marcus finds money in a coffin when he and Mike are at the morgue.

19. When Marcus and Mike are in the helicopter going after suspects in a boat, Marcus warns the pilot that the suspects have a gun.

20. During the invasion of Tapia's house in Cuba, Marcus throws a grenade that kills of one the guys that Mike tried to shoot but missed.

21. As already mentioned, Marcus saves Mike's life at the end of the movie by shooting Tapia in the head.

All in all, Martin did some cool stuff in the sequel but his character is less of the focus while Will was made to look more like the supercop. I hope the third movie (if that actually happens) doesn't allow Smith to overshadow Lawrence. Give Martin more supercop moments and cool camera shots like he got in the original movie!

It's because Smith was a mega-star by the time of BB2, so they made his character the focus. Lawrence was almost like a supporting character in this one.

I agree. Finally saw this film for the first time this week (not a fan of Bay films, so I never really bothered), and I found this whole film to basically be a 2 and a half hour Will Smith circle jerk, while *beep* on Martin Lawrence every chance it got.

My Top 5 Movies:
Aliens
Terminator 2
The Shawshank Redemption
The Iron Giant
The Matrix