Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
Di Posting Oleh : Admin (Admin)
Kategori : action Andrew Koji Hasbro Henry Golding review Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins Stream thousands of movies and TV shows free INCINEMAX

***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching!  More action movies need to make their action sequences impossible to see.  

Snake Eyes:  G.I. Joe Origins – 2 out of 5

There are some properties that have stuck with me either my whole life or a good majority of it.  Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and others like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I’ve been a fan of from the moment I discovered them as a kid.  However, there were things from my youth in the 80s that I didn’t stick with.  Franchises like Transformers and Masters of the Universe I found myself aging out of (sure, I’ll watch the live-action Transformers movies, I’ll grant that, but MOTU just didn’t stick—so, no, I haven’t seen the new Netflix series but have seen the enormous amount of toxic nostalgia and entitled fanboy-based raged going on with it).  Another series that I was big on as a kid and collected the toys for was G.I. Joe.  The Joes were something I found I aged out of quickly and just stopped caring about as I focused on other things.  However, the new film; Snake Eyes:  G.I. Joe Origins, definitely had my interest when I saw the trailer.  So, since I’m venturing back in the theaters now, I decided to hit the cinema and check out this film about, arguably, the most famous Joe.  Shockingly, I was really, really bored with this movie and was incredibly disappointed.

Paramount Pictures

Every breath he takes fogs his visor.

Orphaned at a young age, a mysterious loner who calls himself Snake Eyes (Henry Golding) finds himself working with the Yakuza after one of the bosses; Kenta (Takehiro Hira), offers him a chance at finding revenge for the death of his father.  However, when he is called upon to kill Kenta’s cousin Tommy Arashikage (Andrew Koji), he instead rebels and helps out the man.  The act gains Tommy’s trust and he is taken to Japan to train with Tommy's clan.  Little does Tommy realize; the act of compassion was a ruse and Snake Eyes is still working with Kenta and has been sent to infiltrate the clan and collect a mysterious gem with magical powers called the “Jewel of the Sun.”  As Snake Eyes trains and learns more about the clan, he soon learns that Kenta is teaming with a woman who calls herself Baroness (Úrsula Corberó) and she works for the secret terrorist organization known as Cobra.  Now Snake Eyes must decide if he will help a man working with a villainous organization or allowing the ends to justify the means and get the revenge he has been desiring his whole life.

Paramount Pictures

He spends the next 3 minutes making faces and looking at his reflection
in the sword.  At least, that's what I would do.

My expectations weren’t exactly low for Snake Eyes, but I was hoping that I would see something action-packed and entertaining.  Instead, I watched a film that nearly made me fall asleep twice in the theater and made me consider leaving and getting my money back after an hour and a half (both of which are things I never do).  And here’s the kicker, it isn’t because it was an overtly bad movie.  Snake Eyes has a great concept and the foundation of what it is trying to create is solid and primed for a great film but there were some things that just held it back and made it really boring and incredibly messy at points.

Paramount Pictures

I like Golding and had high hopes for him with this project.

There are some things this movie is doing great.  The concept and the basic ideas of the story are fantastic.  Seeing the rise of Snake Eyes and seeing him take on a more antihero persona was fairly captivating.  Additionally, the film has an awesome cast and their performances are outstanding.  Iko Uwais from The Raid and its sequel and Peter Mensah play two masters in the Arashikage clan and, even though their scenes are short, they play these masters terrifically.  Takehiro Hira was absolutely enthralling as the antagonist.  Andrew Koji’s performance as the ninja who would go on to become Storm Shadow nearly stole every scene he was in and the level of emotion he brought to the character quickly made him my favorite performer in the film.  Finally, Henry Golding had the right level of charm and shadiness to play this new take on the hero and was able to make his flirtation with the darker side of things understandable and even relatable.  However, a great story concept and a fantastic cast was pretty much where the good things ended for me because the drawbacks in the film were large and of the entertainment killing variety.

Paramount Pictures

He looks cool but the reality is his socks are soaked and no one likes
wet socks.

One thing that really hurt the movie for me was the pacing and development.  The story, despite being a solid idea, had no real flow to it.  There was a “go and slam on the brakes” feel as the story would be moving fine one second and then just slow abruptly down—and would constantly do this back and forth.  Adding to this was how uneven the development felt.  From a character perspective, no one really felt that complete (even Snake Eyes).  In my opinion, I think the most rounded, established, and developed character in the film was Tommy but, even then, this film treated development and character redemption like it was an afterthought as everyone makes up their minds on people and situations incredibly quick.  At no point, did I feel much hesitation on what was happening or how people were responding to what was occurring and, when there was, it felt more like it existed to move the tale along rather than evolve the character.  It is this dynamic, alongside the pacing, that made this film really boring to me.

Paramount Pictures

I'm not kidding, at one point the movie makes a point to show that Baroness
lost her glasses and I thought it would have a Velma-like effect but
literally nothing came of it.  It was odd.

The pacing and development were the film’s biggest killer for entertainment, but the biggest disappointment was the absolutely unwatchable action.  It wasn’t that the action was boring, it was just literally unwatchable.  I literally couldn’t see what was happening.  At first, I figured it was my aging eyes (I did hit 40 this year) but by the time the third action sequence hit, I noticed that the camera is very tight on the action and it is constantly shaking.  Adding to the problem, every fight has way too many edits and the end result is the reality that I couldn’t see a single punch land.  It was just a chaotic mess of visual noise and it was a bummer.  At the very least, this movie should have had killer action sequences and set pieces but, instead, I just saw jumbled messes that I think were meant to be fight scenes.

Paramount Pictures

I never should have watched The Toys That Made Us because the makers
of G.I. Joe perv to an uncomfortable level over Scarlett and it is now
forever associated with the character for me.

Going into a G.I. Joe film, I never expected to find myself nearly falling asleep twice and having a desire to just get up and give up on it but Snake Eyes:  G.I. Joe Originsended up accomplishing that for me...and that made me sad.  At the very least, this should have been a serviceable action film because of the great cast and solid story but thanks to weak pacing, poor development, and action that was impossible to watch, the film ended up being incredibly boring and very disappointing.  Maybe the next reboot of the live-action Joe films will be better because I honestly can’t see this one kicking off a franchise.