Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe - Le origini

Having grown up with the "G. I. Joe" cartoons on TV and always liked them, I must say that my expectations for this 2021 movie "Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins" weren't exactly sky high, given the previous live action movies based on the cartoons.

But still, of course I sat down to watch this movie and see what writers Evan Spiliotopoulos, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse would come up with.

And while "Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins" certainly was a watchable movie, this was essentially a no-brainer. You just disconnect your brain, lean back and munch the popcorn while watching the action on the screen. In terms of proper contents for a deeper storyline or a fulfilling storyline, then "Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins" is not the movie you should watch. Nay, this was just mindless action with a "G. I. Joe" template dragged down over it to sell it to a wider audience.

I must admit that I sit here with a feeling of this being a rather unnecessary and unfulfilling movie, now that the movie came to an end. Sure, the movie was a cheesy action flick and watchable enough for what it turned out to be. But this was by no means an outstanding movie from director Robert Schwentke.

The action sequences in the movie are good, and they are what keeps the movie afloat. That, and also some nice visuals and special effects. But other than that, then this movie was a shallow shell.

The cast ensemble was interesting, though, I will say that much. I am not familiar with Henry Golding, but he did a good job at bringing Snake Eyes to life on the screen. And actor Andrew Koji was definitely a good choice for Stormshadow. Now, it was really great to see the likes of Iko Uwais and Haruka Abe in the movie as well.

I doubt that I will ever return to watch "Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins" a second time, because the storyline just barely had enough contents to support the first viewing.

My rating of "Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins" lands on a very mediocre five out of ten stars.

First of all, this has *nothing* to do with G. I. Joe, as it is a medieval story about two Japanese clans and the protagonist is caught somewhat in between. Yes, it happens today, but 90% of all fights are using swords and the prize of the war is a magical stone. It's like someone took an existing Japanese samurai and ninjas script, added an extraneous character and made him the protagonist, then plastered on a Joe/Cobra connection and brought it into the present. And the way they added this stuff is like fixing a broken mirror with industrial sticky tape on the visible side.

And what a cast this had: Andrew Koji from Warrior (I still crave for a new season), Iko Uwais from Raid, Peter Mensah from Spartacus, Takehiro Hira (who in my mind did the best job in the film, even if he was the villain and had a really dumb role), Samara Weaving from Guns Akimbo. Not to mention Eri Ishida, who did more in a few scenes than "Snake Eyes" in the entire film. They did nothing with all of this. The fights were fractured and made little sense, focused on form and ignoring substance. Two people fighting 50 and succeeding because they all used swords and the heroes had unlimited stamina, the usual running (slowly and awkwardly) from bullets scene, people running in the sword range to fire a gun, ugh! It was incredibly ugly. Even the motorcycle and car scenes were ridiculously bad. A team of 5 snipers could have finished *everybody* without loses.

Worst of all, it's called G. I. Joe Origins and it features a character who has never heard of the Joes in a time when both Cobra and Joes have been established for a long time. There is no origin story at all! There is no story, really!

Bottom line: this film is something that whole teams of people should be fired because of. A 100 million dollar film that manages to waste every resource it bought. Avoid it like it's the plague.

I saw this mainly cos of Iko Uwais n got terribly disappointed cos his footage is less n he doesnt get to kick ass.

Then i thot lets just enjoy the action but then again none of the fight scenes are noteworthy.

Recently i saw Lee's Fist of Fury n i loved the Japanese garden. This movie too has some some beautiful gardens, lakes, hill tops houses, etc.

The editing ruined everything.

Cos of the shaky cam n fast cut editing, one cannot make out what is going on during the fight scenes.

The character of Snake Eyes is more spiteful n the character of Shadow Storm more sympathetic.

How conveniently the clan n the Major Scarlett work together with Baroness, a Cobra member.

Also how easily Snake Eyes forgives his dad's murderer n after that fight alongside Baroness inspite of knowing that Cobra gang gave the orders to eliminate his dad.

I miss those old ninja movies man.

So this is now essentially the third attempt to bring GI Joe to the big screen. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura returns at the helm and proves once again - he does not really care... Honestly - how this film actually came to be is beyond me - a group of professional people working in the industry collectively decided that firstly : this film should be made - then that Evan Spiliotopoulos (who has hardly written a single great film to date) should write the damn thing - then add a director, Schwentke (who has a track record of terrible blockbuster films) - and let's top it off with TV travel host/Rom-com break out - Henry Golding to play Snake eyes himself. Shocking....

SO - It definitely is not the Snake eyes that people know and love. He does bad things in this film and unfortunately, Henry isn't a skilled enough actor to make you like him. I disagree that it was purely in the writing - a great actor can make you care for the most despicable characters but Golding proves here he should stick to Rom-coms...and his own accent. His physical skills and acting feel forced and awkward and in my opinion needs a lot of work if I would ever buy him as a legitimate action star. He does have some charisma and good looks though.

It seems like the majority of the articles and social media agree that the film's saving grace is Andrew Koji's Storm Shadow. He adds nuance and depth to Tommy (even though he is dealt the rough hand with having to deliver the majority of the exposition) He commands the screen whenever he is on and delivers us the most layered Storm Shadow in almost any medium to date - just too bad he is let down by an awful script. Koji steals the show with his performance and to top it off you can tell he knows how to move - his action moments were by far the most fun to watch - although he was let down by a terrible filming style there too. I definitely want to see more of Koji. Jin Sakai for Ghost of Tsushima!

The rest of the cast are great in their limited roles - Samara, Ursula, Iko and Peter Mensah - all do great. They are well cast but under utilised. Hollywood SERIOUSLY needs to stop thinking they know best with martial arts action sequences - Iko and Kenji Tanigaki's team is absolutely wasted here.

There was a lot of potential with a GI Joe reboot. There was some potential for a good Snake eyes film - but these people clearly are not the right people to do it. Paramount needs to learn. You would have thought Lorenzo etc would have learnt something since the last films 10 years ago - but clearly not. They have not only destroyed many people's favourite character - they have simple made a bad film and wasted a lot of money and talent....

5.5/10.

Ah now we have your average Joe.

I haven't watched any G. I. Joe movies, so I have no idea about Snake Eyes coming in. Because of this, I judge this movie only as an independent action, hoping it to be a great summer blockbuster. And I was disappointed.

Before the movie began, Henry Golding shared that there's gonna be a lot of action. That's true, as there were multiple sword fights. However, each fight was short and unsatisfying. The camera angles were bad, and I couldn't see the choreography clearly. Iko Uwais was in this movie, and he's a fantastic martial artist actor. However, he got little screen time. It's almost like they don't have the budget for long fight choreography.

The story was boring and not special. Snake Eyes was a bland and bad protagonist. I don't care much about his journey, and the ending for his character felt unjustified. It's not that Henry Golding's acting was bad, but the direction for his character made him like a side character.

The acting was okay across. Only Andrew Koji stood out as the Storm Shadow. He was pretty badass with the swords, especially his serious face. I think he stole the spotlight from Golding's Snake Eyes.

Overall, a mediocre story with unsatisfying action scenes. 5/10.