The Mosley Review: Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins

If there's one film franchise that got off on the insanely wrong foot, its the G.I. Joe film franchise. I grew up watching the original 80's series from time to time and I had the 1987 animated film on repeat. Yeah the show was pretty over the top with alot of action, a ton of vehicles that turned into toys, but there was a grounded nature to it at times. The camp was always there, but the themes of fighting evil and being good to one another was intact. The first live action film took the franchise into Michael Bay territory with so much CGI nonsense and Retaliation tried so hard to scale it back to a more realistic and grounded nature. Both films are still bad with Retaliation at least being a step in the right direction. Now comes this film and it had a chance to act as a soft reboot by learning from past mistakes. Well it did learn from the past, but it made all new ones. The action was cool when I could see it once the camera would stop getting so close and shaking. This entry into the franchise not only lost its identity after about 30 minutes in, but it bogged itself down with a pointless plot that you've seen a hundred times before and a scene that changes the entire film into a samurai version of Anaconda. I had a sliver of hope for this franchise, but man was I let down 10 minutes in.

Henry Golding is always great and he does an excellent job as Snake Eyes. I dug his revenge story and excellent fighting skills, but something really went wrong here. If Snake Eyes is the hero, why does he do so many villainous things and cause so much pain. Sure he learns his lesson about vengeance as the story progresses, but I ended up feeling like he was the villain in his own story. Andrew Koji was awesome as Storm Shadow and I loved his determination. I felt he was one note for the majority of the film and had nothing, but killing on his mind. The chemistry between him and Snake Eyes was good, but not amazing. Haruka Abe was awesome as Akiko and I thought she was one of the strongest parts of the cast. There's a history behind her character that I thought was intriguing and she’s a great parallel to Snake that I wish was explored more. Iko Uwais as Hard Master was cool and I always love seeing the man fight and that's all he really does in this film. Peter Mensah was wise and fun to watch as Blind Master. I liked the way he carried himself and he was particularly dangerous in a number of scenes. Samara Weaving was good as the G.I. Joe Operative Scarlett, but I felt this was one of her more wooden performances. Úrsula Corberó was alright as the Cobra Operative Baroness, but she was just there to be the face of the evil organization behind everything. Takehiro Hira was good and shady as Kenta. Its so obvious of a plot with him that its not even that entertaining. Eri Ishida brought some gravitas as Sen and the feud between her and Kenta could've been more fleshed out for something more fun.

The score by Martin Todsharow was cool and felt traditionally Japanese while mixing in modern tones and beats. The action in the film is plentiful and sometimes its awesome, but it is ruined because of the terrible camera work. Intense close ups and shakey camera don't make a fight scene all the more brutal or exciting. It just makes it more headache inducing. I really thought we moved past the 2010's style of action. Honestly, this film was a real let down and it got worse as the film progressed. The biggest problem is the fact that your lead is supposed to be the hero, but he is ultimately the villain and you end up hating him for what he does. That is the prime example of a story that didn't really want to know what it wanted to be. Maybe one day we'll get a proper G.I. Joe movie that's grounded in reality. Let me know what you thought of the film or of my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!