Snake Eyes (2021)
A legendary warrior. His epic origin story.
Hey, you know who was my favorite GI Joe character back in the day? If you said Tunnel Rat, you were wrong. Obviously, you’ve seen the title so you know the real lead up here is me saying Snake Eyes - and you’d be right to think that! Sweet ninja guy with a cool mask, machine pistols and a katana with a romance of some hot action-hero lady? What more could any kiddo want? Well, they made a movie that’s supposed to serve as his origin story based on the GI JOE movie franchise, which escapes me as to why, but I’ll watch the crap out of it anyways, so take a vow of silence, it’s time for Snake Eyes.
A vow of silence that’s nowhere to be seen in this movie. I mean, if I’m being honest, there’s a lot in here that contradicts plenty of things - and that’s even if we look only at the other movies. You might be surprised to know this - but I actually do know a good bit about the character Snake Eyes - even though I was never super heavy into the comics. That being said, I put all that aside when the trailer couldn’t keep it’s ducks straight with the other movies, and it looked like my boy was gonna be mask-less for the majority of the movie. The trailer is actually quite a beautiful pitch for the movie - do you like action scenes? Do you not care too much about accuracy of adaptation or prequel-to-sequel continuity? Then you’ll have a blast here!
The story is that in the title - an origin. Little young’n Snake Eyes has to run away when his dad gets murdered, and lives off the grid as a whatever nobody doing stuff like pit-fights. At one such brawl, he runs into a man who offers him an offer he can’t refuse - revenge on the man who killed his dad, all for the low price of working for him. Whilst working as a gun smuggler for him and his Yakuza gang, a new character enters the fray - and after saving his life he offers a new home to the man we call Snake Eyes. Thus embarks a story of learning about oneself and the ability to not let your rage control you. Real talk, you might see one twist not coming, but everything else here feels quite paint by numbers - which if I’m being honest is basically what I expected out of another GI Joe movie based on the last two, so if you are looking for a masterpiece you will be rather disappointed.
The movie does have some character names you’ll recognize though - besides Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, we also get some Scarlett and Baroness! Yes, the later two mean almost nothing to the plot and could have been better used or replaced by any nameless character - but I’m not going to push too hard on this thing, given that Snake is supposed to be the main character. Oddly enough, you do feel a lot like it’s Storm Shadow’s story told through the vessel of Snake, but it is what it is with how they have this one set up. The characters aren’t horrible - but the only real one that has a positive arc is Snake, whereas Storm gets sent rather in the opposite direction and the others have just enough for you to really know their role.
Impact!
The actors do a fine job here, and the deliveries are alright as well. I’m not going to say they are stellar - but they get the job done. They do a good job with the physicality side of things, and you will see some folks you can recognize like our buddy from The Raid. They pull off choreography well, and can deliver when the parts call for some form of emotion, but I’d argue that Storm’s role only really excels at delivering rage, with the Security aide being the most efficient at delivering at a stronger emotional delivery than the others. Again, it’s enough to get you by without feeling like people are phoning it in or cheaping out, but it’s not so strong that it becomes a stand out role.
The action is where the movie is it’s strongest. Is it the most mind blowing action I’ve seen - no. It is pretty darn good though. A few gun fights peppered amongst the predominant slash-fest brawler of a movie. We do get a wide variety of locations - in buildings, out of buildings, on top of motorcycles and car-haulers, in a closed man to man ring, on a few versus many field, we got it all. They don’t cut too heavy either, although they certainly aren’t oners either. Honestly, that doesn’t bother me too much, although I do kind of wish to have seen more of some of the fights. It does run into the Power Rangers too-many-villians issue to some level, but it’s never as bad as some of the other instances (like in a few of the newer Star Wars movies) where you can noticeable see someone in the background doing absolutely nothing but trying to look busy. Part of that might be for the larger scale fights not being super lengthy - but hey, it does happen sometimes so I’ll point it out. Still, hands down this is probably the reason you want to watch the movie.
The sound does good. First off - it’s balance well. You might not understand a line because it’s in a different language, but the big hard-baked subtitles will let you know what they be saying. The sound effects do a great job of sounding sharp and impactful. The music is a good mix as well, with the heavy chords of the final battle really making me excited for something that could be really cool - but I won’t spoil if it is or not because it’s the final battle! Other effects, in the visual variety, also come off being very well done.
Hey, I know that guy!
If you came across it on TV, I’d say it’d be worth a watch. If you wanted to see it in theaters, I could see an argument made for the action scenes being nice on that high-quality screen with the good audio. If you wanted to rent if for 30 bucks I’d say you’d be a little crazy, although the 20 bucks I payed for the entire digital package is an alright price if you like action flicks.