The Sunday Mail
Film Review
Tinashe Kusema
AS far as origins stories go, “Snake Eyes — G.I Joe Origins” is not the worst outing.
Yes, it is flawed, but it is nothing an easy quick fix couldn’t cure in the next outing or two.
One of the bigger problems with the narrative here is in how the film tends to tell one particular story, all the while almost ignoring the bigger picture.
While this is a Snake Eyes origins story, we shouldn’t forget that the film, and story, belongs to the G.I Joe canon.
This is to say the Joes should have played a bigger role in the scheme of things.
Also, I think the fact that big boss Lorenzo di Bonaventura doesn’t look like he is afraid to take liberties with some of the film’s source material is either going to be a good or bad thing going forward.
It is either going to make or break this latest attempt at reviving the G.I Joe franchise.
Only time will tell.
For now, I am just going to reserve judgment.
All I will say for the time being is that I found it to be quite a ‘serviceable’ outing for one of G.I Joe’s most popular and yet underrated characters.
The Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow rivalry is one of the most underrated stories in the G.I Joe canon, and here we have a unique take on the said relationship.
In my research to ascertain whether this was a reboot or a spinoff, I came across an interview by the filmmaker in which he explains, first, the decision to reboot the franchise and, secondly, why he chose this particular character as a starting point.
“I think, first of all, as you know, really as a fan, Snake Eyes is the most popular character and the dynamic between him and Storm Shadow is just too rich,” di Bonaventura said.
“And we thought that for the people who have grown up with it and know it, it’s such an interesting experience to actually see Snake Eyes and hear him talk.
“We felt like that was really a lot of new news for the fan base,” he said.
It’s hard to argue against such facts, and just like that, I was sold.
I grew up on the animated series.
I happened to be one of those that played with the toys and watched — disappointedly, might I add — previous attempts at bringing this franchise onto the big screen.
But, 180 minutes later, I, for one, can’t wait for one or two more origins stories, and then the big ensemble outing.
“Snake Eyes: G.I Joes Origins” begins with the death of a young Snakes Eyes’ father, whose identity is never revealed.
In fact, Snake Eyes’ actual identity is never really mentioned or revealed and plays a part in the character’s mystic.
The boy, roughly nine or ten, immediately takes up the moniker Snakes Eyes (Henry Golding), a name inspired by watching his father’s murderer force him to roll a pair of weighted dice to determine his fate, killing him when he rolled double ones.
We jump to the present day, as Snake Eyes, now proficient in martial arts, is still on the hunt for his father’s killer.
His skills put him on the radar of a rogue Yakuza boss, Kenta (Takehiro Hira), who promises to deliver his father’s killer on a silver platter.
The catch is that he has to join his crew and do one big job for him.
The job in question requires Snakes Eyes to gain the trust of a rival, Thomas Arashikage (Andrew Koji), infiltrate his family and retrieve a mysterious weapon only known as ‘the jewel of the sun’.
In the process of doing his assignment, Snake Eyes is trained in the ways of a secret society of the ninjas and gains a new friend who later becomes his sworn enemy when all is revealed. This all plays out as both the G.I Joe and Cobra stories are revealed.
Solely based on the above, the film has all the makings of a good G.I Joe origins story.
You have a talking Snake Eyes, killer martial arts fighting scenes and ninja mythology all wrapped up into a nice little package.
The problem arises in how the movie reduces the G.I Joe story to a sub plot rather than the main story.
Like I allude to earlier, it is after all a G.I Joe movie. A more recent example of how a film can address a particular sub plot without sacrificing the big picture can be seen in the more recent Mortal Kombat movie.
There, the Scorpion and Sub-zero rivalry was the main driving force, but it never really took the attention away from the Mortal Kombat story. Missing here were the G.I Joe secret society, nifty gadgets and cool names and mantras.
In fact, the Joes are only introduced midway through the movie and never really get a moment to shine. Instead, we are treated to an hour of ninja family drama, corny dialogue and a lot of pandering. I also felt the prolonged wait for Snake Eyes’ vow of silence was a bit cruel.
I don’t expect the film to suffer much on the box office, especially given the fact that the previous G.I Joe movies were not that good but brought in a lot of cash.
And so the long wait begins.
Here is to a better showing in the next instalment.
