‘Snake Eyes’ is a losing roll for the start of a new ‘G.I. Joe’ franchise

Posted on July 30, 2021

By MARK VIOLA

Back in the 1980s when I was growing up, Saturday morning cartoons were a staple of my weekends. I watched quite a few shows as a kid, but one of the series I remember the most is “G.I. Joe.”

The 2009 live-action adaptation, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” was a mess of a movie, but I actually enjoyed it, more so than the half-hearted reboot that hit theaters four years later, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” However, the lukewarm reception earned by the first movie resulted in the sequel underperforming at the box office, and the franchise was left for dead.

Until now, that is, with the arrival of “Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins,” the first salvo in a new cinematic universe based on the various toy lines of Hasbro. It seems every studio wants to create its own cinematic universe, and at least this time they’re trying to following the blueprint of the Marvel franchise by starting things off with a single character rather than everybody at once.

Of all the “G.I. Joe” characters, Snake Eyes (played in the new film by Henry Golding, “Crazy Rich Asians”) probably has the most compelling and fleshed-out backstory, at least enough to support his own movie. Unfortunately, “Snake Eyes” is a fundamentally flawed film that does not get the franchise started on the right foot. From a production standpoint, the film has some creative cinematography during the action sequences that occasionally produces some interesting angles and shots, but more often reduces the action to incomprehensible motion thanks to way too much shaky-cam.

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