 For six hundred years Our ninja have brought peace to the world Hello, everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. I'm a little late to the party for a snake eyes movie review It's been out of theaters for quite a while now and everybody's already formed their opinions about it Nonetheless, I will belatedly weigh in on the snake eyes movie and what I think it means for the future of GI Joe Snake eyes GI Joe Origins directed by Robert Schwenke and starring Henry Golding was released on July 23rd 2021 it was the first major GI Joe movie released since GI Joe retaliation in 2013 Henry Golding was enjoying the spotlight after the critically acclaimed movie crazy rich Asians from 2018 which was directed by a GI Joe film veteran John shoe there will be spoilers ahead So please watch the movie before watching this review We meet snake eyes as a child with his father in the woods of Washington State They're hiding in a safe house for a reason that's not revealed until later Unfortunately, some bad guys find them. Mr. Augustine played by Samuel Finsey Forces snake eyes his father to roll a pair of dice to decide if he lives or dies Of course, he rolls snake eyes years later We catch up with snake eyes played by Henry Golding as an underground fighter He is approached by kenta played by Takahiro Hira Who promises to find the man who killed snake eyes his father if snake eyes will work for kenta's criminal organization Snake eyes finds himself stuffing dead fish with firearms for kentas gun smuggling operation to prove his loyalty He's given the task of killing Tommy played by Andrew Koji who is a spy for the Arashikage ninja clan Instead of killing Tommy snake eyes helps him escape to repay the favor Tommy introduces snake eyes to the Arashikage clan The leader of the clan Sen played by Ari Ishida is persuaded to accept snake eyes But Akiko played by Haruka Abe Opposes his presence Akiko is right to be suspicious because snake eyes is secretly working for kentas yakuza gang The rescue of Tommy is staged to gain Tommy's trust Kenta wants to gain access to a secret mystical item called the jewel of the Sun Kenta is not the only person interested in the jewel Cobra represented by the Baroness also wants to possess the magical weapon Cobra has the killer of snake eyes His father locked up since snake eyes is still obsessed with revenge He chooses to betray the Arashikage and steal the jewel We are introduced to the GI Joe team through Scarlet who connects with the Arashikage to fight the yakuza and Cobra threat Snake eyes finally decides to do the honorable thing and fight against kenta after kenta betrays Cobra All factions team up to defeat him Tommy uses the jewel of the Sun to defend the clan because of the clan's rule that they must never use the jewel Tommy is denied his opportunity to lead the clan Angry at this denial. He leaves the Arashikage and vows vengeance Despite his betrayal snake eyes is welcomed to the Arashikage in a mid-credits scene. Tommy is recruited by Cobra He also takes on his codename of storm shadow The movie tried to hit some of the same beats as the comic book But there are some significant differences in the GI Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics and written by Larry Hama snake eyes served in the Vietnam War with his friend Tommy Arashikage After the war snake eyes joined the Arashikage clan and began his ninja training The Arashikage clan was led by the hardmaster Tommy's uncle The hardmaster was assassinated by a secret Cobra agent After the assassination snake eyes left the clan and eventually returned to military service Tommy joined Cobra to learn the identity of the assassin Arashikage is a combination of two Japanese words Arashi meaning storm and Kage meaning shadow Tommy used this as his codename when working for Cobra during an early mission with GI Joe Snake eyes was in a helicopter crash which left his face disfigured and his vocal cords destroyed From that point on he was silent and masked snake eyes is a tragic figure He loses everyone who is close to him. His life is full of suffering because he doesn't speak for himself We project our own emotions onto him as he experiences overwhelming loss at every turn There were some things I quite liked about the snake eyes movie Henry Golding's performance as snake eyes was fine Andrew Koji's performance as Tommy was excellent I believed his motivation and energy and he was able to dial up the emotion when needed The updated story takes away the Vietnam War background and replaces it with a high tech Ultra modern setting. It is colorful and fun Generally speaking, I enjoyed the tone of the movie. There were some new characters introduced that worked pretty well Sen and Akiko were both good Other characters were reimagined the hard master and the blind master were both updated a bit from their comic book origins The introduction of GI Joe and Cobra wasn't perfect, but it provided potential for future stories The two factions were introduced on a small scale through Scarlett and the Baroness So it wouldn't overshadow snake eyes's story I don't usually criticize a movie for straying from the source material A comic book is a totally different medium from a movie. A good adaptation should take the elements from the source material That translates to the other medium and fill in the rest with new elements that make the characters feel real Comic book adaptation to movies has been done successfully many times In this case, there were some choices that made the movie less appealing than the comic book story Snake Eyes is still much better than GI Joe Rise of Cobra from 2009 In the comic book series, we explore how two close friends came to fight on opposite sides of a war That's an interesting dynamic In Rise of Cobra, we explore how two people who always hated each other and fought against each other continued to hate each other and fight against each other That's a much less interesting dynamic than the comic book In Snake Eyes GI Joe Origins, we can see why Tommy would trust Snake Eyes We see a friendship forming We feel the betrayal and we sympathize with Tommy. That is an interesting dynamic It's different from the comic book, but still good. Unfortunately, the movie makes Snake Eyes into a villain He betrays our heroes multiple times, which directly leads to the death of Arashikage Ninjas Snake Eyes allows the clan to nearly be destroyed before he has a change of heart He's no longer a tragic figure that earns our sympathy He's a traitor who earns our scorn. The movie leans heavily on the revenge cliche It's such an overused cliche I wish movies would remove it from their toolkit entirely or at least use it Very sparingly and it probably should not be the focus of the story Although revenge can add conflict to the story for most people. It's not especially relatable Henry Golding is from Malaysia and his natural accent is similar to received pronunciation British English Here he is playing an American and his accent slips from time to time and to compensate for this A lot of the dialogue is often mumbled or whispered The muted dialogue makes the character less charismatic. Much of the dialogue in this movie is spoken under the breath Is this Snake Eyes or is this Batman? In the end Snake Eyes is welcomed to the clan despite Multiple betrayals that led to death. I know he passed the magic snake test But he's also demonstrated a willingness to stab others in the back for his own gain There's no way you can trust him. Tommy is demoted for using the jewel of the sun to protect the clan The audience has very little reason to like Snake Eyes and every reason to sympathize with Tommy Who would rather work for a terrorist organization than stay with the Orashikage? Sympathy for Tommy could lead to a compelling dynamic in future stories But why are we cheering for Snake Eyes? His late turnaround doesn't make up for his earlier deception and the damage it caused The Orashikage clan is insane for trusting him after that Snake Eyes Betray our trust again I'll kill you myself Snake Eyes if you betray us three or four more times We are really going to have a problem with it. There are some unfortunate choices in this movie that are directing decisions There's a lot of handheld camera in this movie A lot the fight scenes use handheld camera Extensively now while that can work in some action scenes The shaky cam and quick cuts in Snake Eyes make some of the action difficult to follow in recent movies The quick cut music video style fight scenes have given way to Longer take or single take action scenes. I much prefer the modern trend Those longer take action scenes are more impressive to look at And a more impressive flex for the director who dares to stage them the direction and editing of Snake Eyes Feels a bit old fashioned and maybe a mask for a lower budget and less impressive settings There's also a weird mix of handheld camera and stationary camera such as in the scene with Snake Eyes and Tommy on the airplane It switches for no apparent reason from handheld camera to a tripod mounted camera In my opinion if you're going to mix techniques like that It needs to be for a good reason when you're doing it in a scene like this where it's just two characters Talking and nothing else. I find it confusing and distracting. I don't mind the modernization of Snake Eyes I think it's fine for snake eyes to be played by an Asian actor We knew Snake Eyes would be unmasked and speaking in this movie But if you take away his silence and his mystery you make him a more Conventional and less compelling character. Maybe it's difficult to write for a silent character But in my view that means you need better writers There are plenty of silent or mostly silent characters in film that are memorable and compelling There are many masked characters in film that are powerful and relatable You want to take those elements away? Fine, but then you need to add something that works in the medium And makes the character equally compelling. I don't think Snake Eyes did that It replaced those elements with a cliched revenge motive selfishness and betrayal If taken on its own merits, I would say Snake Eyes is a good but not great movie Sadly Snake Eyes suffers from the timing of its release Snake Eyes was released in July of 2021 In September of 2021 Marvel released its movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings In many ways Shang-Chi is a mirror of Snake Eyes Both movies integrate elements of an Asian culture and language Chinese for Shang-Chi and Japanese for Snake Eyes Both movies are a mix of ultra modern and traditional Both movies integrate stylized martial arts choreography And both movies are part of a larger story and mythos Shang-Chi does everything Snake Eyes tries to do but does it much better The characters are more diverse and the relationships are more compelling The special effects are several orders of magnitude better than Snake Eyes Shang-Chi has a bigger budget than Snake Eyes and it shows The set pieces are more impressive The settings are more grandiose The story is more expansive and the acting is better Snake Eyes feels like a low budget Shang-Chi It isn't fair to compare Snake Eyes to a movie that came out a couple months later But it's hard not to compare them Both movies are trying to do the same thing But Shang-Chi is much more successful Snake Eyes had an estimated budget of about $88 million But only made about $28 million in the US and Canada And about $40 million worldwide That is a bomb This was supposed to lead to a larger G.I. Joe movie I think it was a good way to lead up to G.I. Joe It told a smaller story that would lead in to the more expansive epic of G.I. Joe I don't fault them for trying that Since Snake Eyes bombed, the future of G.I. Joe is in doubt Hasbro has been trying to do something with the G.I. Joe franchise for the last couple years They introduced the classified and retro toy lines They recently announced a Skystriker Haslab project They launched G.I. Joe phone and console video games They made this movie These are all efforts to make G.I. Joe into a modern profitable property For G.I. Joe to have a future It has to be more than a nostalgia property for 40-somethings It must appeal to a general audience to bring in new fans I applaud their effort to do that Unlike many G.I. Joe fans, I don't think some of the proposed alternatives Would bring G.I. Joe out of the shadows An animated series or a movie set in the 80s Would appeal to existing fans But probably would not bring in many new ones These are appeals to nostalgia They are not forward-looking Modern technology and modern storytelling techniques Provide many ways to make old properties appeal to new audiences G.I. Joe could benefit from this if it was handled right Hasbro will continue to give us new toys that appeal to existing fans But will Hasbro continue to invest in G.I. Joe as a marquee brand? I could see Hasbro taking the risk to produce a G.I. Joe movie Previous G.I. Joe movies were modest successes But with what budget? Will it be G.I. Joe on a shoestring? Can you even make an ensemble movie like G.I. Joe on a shoestring? I have maintained that G.I. Joe can be and should be relevant to modern times My generation got a G.I. Joe that was made to appeal to us This generation should get a G.I. Joe that's made to appeal to them I don't mind changes to G.I. Joe as long as it brings in new fans We will always have our G.I. Joe nothing can take that away from us But modern times should have a modern G.I. Joe Although that's what I'd like to see I'm starting to doubt that I ever will The failure of Snake Eyes makes the next generation of G.I. Joe less likely I wanted to like Snake Eyes and I maintained a cautious optimism before its release I watched it several times before passing judgment In the end I thought it was a good movie but not a great movie I did enjoy the movie on its own merits without context I would have thought Snake Eyes was a perfectly adequate movie that I would watch once And probably not watch again Snake Eyes had the burden of the future of G.I. Joe on its shoulders It wasn't enough to be good it needed to be great It needed to generate a buzz And the flaws in the movie ensured it would not do that Snake Eyes also had competition that hit mostly the same notes And attempted the same tasks but did it much, much better I'm sorry I was not around the G.I. Joe fan community when the movie came out I would have enjoyed discussing it with you I'm interested in knowing what you thought about Snake Eyes What did you like about it? What did you not like about it? What do you think it means for G.I. Joe? Leave your thoughtful and respectful comments in the comment section of this video And let's start a discussion about it Thank you for watching I'll see you next time And until then remember only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe I missed saying that Do I wing you for some time? Do I know you? I know you Snake Eyes