This will be a mini non-spoilery review.
I watched Snake Eyes this past weekend since the movie came to digital streaming. I’m going to jump right into it, I think the movie was just ok. As an action flick, it’s ok. As an overall movie, it’s just ok. There are some pretty great fight sequences in this movie, and some good performances, but the movie just left me wanting more. I feel like if the main title character is a ninja, we should’ve felt more been blown away by the fight sequences but to be honest, they were mostly average. Also, I’m not going to say I’m the biggest GI Joe fan because I’m not, and I barely know the source material so I don’t know how true this movie is for the hardcore fans. My review is solely based on what was presented in the movie. The most I’ve gotten out of the GI Joe series is this film and the one released in 2009, GI Joe The Rise of Cobra. While the latter is definitely better in my opinion than its counterpart from 2009, it’s still quite average in todays action movie genre.
Storytelling wise, I feel like the movie was too inconsistent. They want you to see the realistic grittiness in the training scenes, which for the most part is grounded in reality, but then you have other scenes where there are magical elements that come into play and it left me scratching my head. So are you trying to go for realism or not? I think, with better direction, this movie could’ve been solid. They have a great lead in Henry Golding, who I think does his best, although the script itself wasn’t really serving him. The real standout was Andrew Koji, who plays Tommy. The ending of the film looks to set Tommy up in a big way for future installments(if those get the greenlight).
If you like action movies and are looking for a decently fun time, then Snake Eyes definitely fits the bill. The story isn’t ground breaking, but its serviceable. We do get some cool shots, and some fight scenes ranging from ok to pretty great. Expect good performances undercut by bad character writing. I would’ve loved to have seen this story more fleshed out and under better direction. It’s a 5/10 for me.
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