Movie Review: Snake Eyes

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GI Joe is a really famous toy brand created by Hasbro many decades ago. Even though the brand itself is old, many fans love the toys although its movie history is a bit patchy.

Fans of GI Joe loved the cartoon from the '80s, but the live action movies have been misfires. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra from 2009 was a turkey and GI Joe: Retaliation was and boring average too.

Paramount Pictures isn't giving up on the franchise because Snake Eyes is a somewhat new reboot aimed at making a new movie series. Does this origin story manage to be the best GI Joe movie ever?

This movie does not follow the original source material though as Snake Eyes (Henry Golding) gets a new backstory.

Here in this movie, his father dies when he's only a young boy and he's taken in to be a Yakuza member 20 years later.

After refusing to kill Thomas "Tommy" Arashikage, Snake Eyes is taken into Arashikage's clan. However, Snake Eyes still has to do work for the Yakuza and Cobra because they're the only ones who know who killed his father.

Snake Eyes' morality is tested because the Arashikage clan are the good guys, but he still wants to do missions for the Yakuza and Cobra to get his revenge.

His loyalty is tested throughout the entire movie, although it's predictable to guess where he sides with at the end.

The only problem some people may have with this movie is the fact that Snake Eyes doesn't even use his iconic suit until he rides into the sunset at the end of the movie.

For the majority of the film, you'll be seeing Henry Golding's handsome face instead!

It's also a bit disappointing that some of the other GI Joe characters don't get enough screentime. I was hoping to see more Scarlett (Samara Weaving), but sadly she doesn't show up until the latter half of the movie.

Most of the movie takes place inside Arashikage's hideout because Snake Eyes needs to do three tests to be accepted by the clan. The cool action scenes don't really happen until the end.

Speaking of action, there is some nice fight choreography in this movie, although the editing is sloppy.

The director of this film uses too much shaky cam that it's hard to see the fights sometimes. It's a bit of a shame since some of the action sequences are entertaining.

I also think making this movie an "origin" film made it kind of boring. A part of me wished they made a proper GI Joe movie with all the good guys and Cobra members fighting it out.

Despite being an "origin" movie though, it doesn't really tell us much about how the character learns his ninja skills. It also does not look like if this version of the character will stay mute like in the source material...

Anyway, Snake Eyes isn't the worst movie I've seen in 2021, although it's not a great movie either. It's a watchable action movie if you can handle the poorly shot fight scenes.

That being said, I still think Snake Eyes is the best GI Joe movie ever made. The other two movies are still terrible watching them even today.



Verdict: 3/5 stars

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Paramount Pictures