Pointless Fun, At a Cost
SCORE: 59/100
****BEWARE SPOILERS AHEAD****
REVIEW:
I walked into Snake Eyes with no expectations. The trailer looked good, but the reviews were mixed. I can safely say that Snake Eyes is a fun yet flawed time, but is only really worth a trip to the movies if you're a fan of the G.I. Joe property.
Starting with some positives, this movie has great set design and beautiful costumes. The set at the ninja castle is gorgeous, combining modern aesthetics with the ancient Japanese style. The locations used in Tokyo are also gorgeous, injecting the film with color. The costume department must have had a lot of fun making the costumes for this film, because like the sets, they exude modern and ancient stylings. Unfortunately, we don't see much of Snake Eyes' actual outfit until the last five minutes or so, but it's incredibly faithful to the source material.
Another positive for this movie is the casting. Henry Golding is great in this film, bringing a charismatic yet layered performance to the title role. Also great is Andrew Koji as Storm Shadow, who brings another layered and surprisingly deep performance to his character. The two work great off of each other, and had a great chemistry as allies, and enemies. If this film does end up creating a rebooted G.I. Joe cinematic universe, I can't wait to see where these two end up. The rest of the cast is good too, with other standouts being Haruka Abe as Akiko and Ursula Corbero as Baroness.
It's because of these performances and the idea that this is set in the G.I. Joe world that makes it so much more fun than I expected. It takes a few steps in a fantastical direction regarding Snake Eyes' training, and the grounded nature of the rest of the film helps make it seem more plausible. Because of that the world seems more alive, and the threat Cobra poses and the existence of the Joes has more weight than I originally thought.
As far as the rest of the story goes, it feels hit or miss. It flows nicely, and doesn't overstay its welcome, but it takes turns that I didn't necessarily enjoy. The main twist (if you want to call it that) is that Snake Eyes is initially working for the villains until he realizes that they are actually Cobra. It doesn't really work for me, and made the character of Snake Eyes a slight bit unlikeable, knowing full well that he intends to betray this new family in search of revenge. It felt like a cheap way to introduce conflict into the story. What I did like however, is how Storm Shadow is essentially a good guy until the very end, and how he was acting in the best interest of his clan.
This is where my positives start and the negatives begin. Snake Eyes feels like the kind of film that only got its director because so many others had passed on it. While I do feel that there is passion in front of the camera, and some behind the scenes, I feel that there's none from behind it. The directing here is inconsistent at best, with Robert Schwentke doing better during his dialogue sequences than during his action scenes. Which brings me to the largest problem here, the action.
The action in Snake Eyes, while fun, is filmed HORRIBLY. This film is guilty of overusing the Shaky Cam style of filming that has become the bane of action film fans' existence. While I can tell that there is massive talent on the fight and stunt team, it makes no difference since you can't tell what's going on. It's so unintelligible that most of the fight sequences, while well-choreographed, don't feel like they have any weight or power behind them. It's kind of the point in a film about ninjas to make the action the focal point, and it betrays the film here. It should've been handled by a better director or editor, perhaps Chad Stahelski or David Leitch?
My other biggest problem here is that the film is attempting to set up a larger world. With the inclusion of other characters like Scarlett and Baroness, they hint at larger things to come. However, due to the performance of Snake Eyes at the box office so far, I doubt this will come to fruition. It has the similar problem as the Snyder Cut of Justice League, where it feels like pointless set up for things that we won't be getting. I could always be wrong, and I enjoy being wrong, but this doesn't bode well for the future of the G.I. Joe franchise.
That's about it for Snake Eyes. Good performances, sets, and costumes make not the movie, as we can clearly see here. While I'm still glad to have seen it, It's not something that I would put into my film collection. I think it could've used a better director, cinematographer, and editor, which would've helped me to justify a rebooted G.I. Joe cinematic world. It's a harmless, fun movie that provides some fun story in the universe, but not much else. If you can put up with shaky cam, and are interested in the G.I. Joe property, than you might enjoy the film more than I did.
Conclusion: Snake Eyes is a fun film with great performances that is truly let down by horribly filmed action sequences and a lack of truly creative vision behind the camera.
Score: 59/100
Comments
Post a Comment