{"id":9699,"date":"2024-12-01T09:55:59","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T14:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9699"},"modified":"2024-12-01T09:55:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T14:55:59","slug":"snake-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/01\/snake-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Snake Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Snake Eyes<\/strong> (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Adventure-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 121 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sequences of strong violence and brief strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Schwentke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Evan Spiliotopoulos, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Martin Todsharow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bojan Bazelli\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 23, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Henry Golding, Andrew Koji, Haruka Abe, Takehiro Hira, Samara Weaving, Ursula Corbero, Iko Uwais, Peter Mensah, Eri Ishida, Steven Allerick, Samuel Finzi.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $28.3M (US)\/$40.1M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although the movie Snake Eyes<\/strong> deals thematically with honor, betrayal and revenge, the character Snake Eyes is to Hamlet what Ronald McDonald is to Pagliacci. Good thing I didn\u2019t go in expecting a Shakespearean tragedy. I doubt anybody with even half a brain will mistake it for the work of the Bard which is good since it\u2019s clearly aimed at viewers with half a brain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Snake Eyes<\/strong> (on-screen title, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins) is a silly action movie tailor-made for mid-summer viewing by preteen boys of all ages and IQs not exceeding 90. Based on the line of toys from Hasbro that inspired a popular cartoon series in the 80s, it\u2019s a reboot of the franchise started in 2009 with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and continued with 2013\u2019s G.I. Joe: Retaliation. I didn\u2019t care for either movie. I thought they were loud, stupid and incoherent. Snake Eyes<\/strong> isn\u2019t much better. The good news is it isn\u2019t any worse either.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Does it really make a difference what Snake Eyes<\/strong> is about? The plot leans heavily on the ninja movies of the 80s. I half-expected to hear the theme from Cannon\u2019s Ninja Trilogy play over the soundtrack. If I had to guess the writers\u2019 main source of inspiration, I\u2019d have to go with the little-seen 1982 film The Challenge in which an American mercenary-for-hire infiltrates a samurai clan in order to steal a valuable sword. Swap the samurai for ninja and the sword for a magic gemstone and you\u2019ve got Snake Eyes<\/strong> (more or less).<\/p>\n

\u00a0As per the title, Snake Eyes<\/strong> is an origin story of the title character, a popular member of the G.I. Joe Team. A prologue informs us that young Snake Eyes witnessed his father\u2019s murder at the hands of a Russian baddie who makes all his targets roll a pair of dice to determine whether they live or die. Adapting the moniker Snake Eyes, the boys grows into an angry young man (Golding, Crazy Rich Asians) with vengeance on his mind all the time. He\u2019s approached by Kenta (Hira, Lost Girls and Love Hotels) who offers to deliver his father\u2019s killer if he infiltrates a Japanese ninja clan in order to steal a magic gemstone with unlimited powers that\u2019s in their care. He gets his in after saving the life of Tommy (Koji, HBO Max\u2019s Warrior), next in line to lead the clan. In order to gain their trust, he has to pass three tests, all of which could prove fatal if he fails. Naturally, the criminal organization Cobra is mixed up in it all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For purposes of completion, I\u2019ll quickly mention the other characters involved in the story. There\u2019s Akiko (Abe, Cruella), head of security at the fortress-like mansion of Clan Arashikage. Although she doesn\u2019t trust Snake Eyes, there\u2019s something of an attraction between the two. The clan is headed by Tommy\u2019s grandmother Sen (Ishida, Lost Girls and Love Hotels). Snake Eyes trains under two masters, Hard Master (Uwais, The Raid 1 & 2) and Blind Master (Mensah, Jason X). Also joining the fun are fighters from opposite sides, Cobra operative Baroness (Corbero, Money Heist) and Joe agent Scarlett (Weaving, Ready or Not). I think that about covers it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By now, you all know I\u2019m not shy about breaking out my poison pen when the occasion calls for it. I really thought Snake Eyes<\/strong> would be one of those times. To me, it looked like just another noisy summer blockbuster wannabe which it definitely is. Therein lies its biggest problem. It\u2019s just another title on a growing list of movies that exist solely to sell toys and deafen audiences with loud, CGI-rendered fights and chases. It\u2019s clearly the work of a hack director, in this case Robert Schwentke whose filmography includes such titles as RED, R.I.P.D and the last two Divergent films. He directs Snake Eyes<\/strong> with a state of indifference that comes through loud and clear. It\u2019s surprisingly flat despite all the sound and fury (yes, signifying nothing).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Watching it, it dawned on me I was actively trying to hate Snake Eyes<\/strong> only to find I didn\u2019t even care about it one way or the other. In all fairness, it\u2019s not as bad as I thought it would be. Make no mistake, it\u2019s bad alright. The camerawork is horrendous. The fight scenes are edited beyond comprehension. The CGI is awful, especially in the scenes involving giant snakes. Trust me, they have nothing on the giant snake in the original Conan the Barbarian. The story makes little sense. It\u2019s also predictable. Surprisingly, the acting isn\u2019t all terrible. Golding makes a pretty good leading man. Koji, on the other hand, looks like he\u2019s sleepwalking most of the time. The rest of the performances range from campy to collecting a paycheck.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the movie\u2019s biggest missteps is that it doesn\u2019t embrace its own silliness. Nobody looks like they\u2019re having any fun with the material. That shouldn\u2019t be the case. Everybody involved knows you can only do so much with a movie like Snake Eyes<\/strong>. The main character is based on an action figure, for Heaven\u2019s sake! The tone should be playful not somber as it is here. It occasionally enjoys itself like in an early scene where a bunch of yakuza goons stick about a dozen swords into a truck driven by the title character. It also has some nice locations- e.g. neon-lit streets and alleys in urban Tokyo, cherry blossom-filled courtyards at the fortress. Other than that, I can\u2019t think of a single thing to recommend about Snake Eyes<\/strong>. I can\u2019t think of a reason to condemn it either. Perhaps it\u2019s best to fall back on a clich\u00e9 and you know how much I hate those. It is what it is.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snake Eyes (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Adventure-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 121 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sequences of strong violence and brief strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Schwentke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Evan Spiliotopoulos, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Martin Todsharow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bojan Bazelli\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 23, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Henry Golding, Andrew Koji, Haruka Abe, Takehiro Hira, Samara Weaving, Ursula Corbero, Iko Uwais, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Snake-Eyes-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9699"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9753,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699\/revisions\/9753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}