Origin stories are tricky even with the straightforward narrative of becoming. In the wrong hands they devolve into explainers for how iconic accoutrement are obtained and create the title persona and not emotional narratives that explain character. Some films are efficient about this like in Batman Begins. Other movies decide that we need to know how Han Solo got his last name. Snake Eyes at first appears to veer in the latter direction when it is revealed that after being orphaned Henry Golding’s character choose the nom de guerre “Snake Eyes” because of the dice combination his father rolled as part of a rigged game of life and death. Thankfully everything afterwards isn’t as groan inducing, or dark as the film is functionally aimed at younger kids. Snake Eyes surprisingly tells a strong character drama between the men who would go from brothers to bitter enemies, a first for G.I. Joe on film.
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins lives up to the ‘origins’ part of its name and understandably so considering what eventually occurs for the titular character to “become” the Snake Eyes fans know him as. The character of Snake Eyes is, eventually, mute, and various levels of disfigured and never shown outside of his all-black outfit. That transformational aspect is why the casting of Henry Golding at once made perfect sense and was very puzzling. He is to be blunt a dreamboat and one of the most well-known young actors of Asian descent in Hollywood after a breakout in Crazy Rich Asians. To play the character eventually you’d have to remove all the things that make Henry Goldings star image. This isn’t a situation where the film can just cut to a digital image of Robert Downey Jr. saying something snarky. All of that is why the film defers those elements of the origin to Snake Eyes for a future movie and is better for it.
It is for these reasons that the casting of Henry Golding makes sense within the narrative of the film. Snake Eyes is mixture of espionage and yakuza genres as the loyalties of Snake Eyes is tested. Is he loyal to his vow of avenging his father or to this newfound family before him? Which family does he betray? The screenplay doesn’t give any of its characters a lot to chew on but the performances of Golding and Andrew Koji more than carry the film into an effective character piece that verges on Shakespearian tragedy between the future Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Golding’s facial acting is underrated and his ever-present charm should add him to the list of James Bond contenders. I would not have thought I’d come away from this movie recommending it for its character work, but that is the strongest element of the film.
Another underrated and surprising aspect of the film is a lack of a compulsory heterosexual romance! The most prominent female character in the film is Haruka Abe as Akiko, the Arashikage head of security. They don’t try to force a flirty relationship between her and Golding. They have a witty repartee, but Akiko’s interests and relationship to Snake reads more as sibling than romantically tense.
The shock of coming away from a movie about Snake Eyes and the quality character work is magnified by how poor the action is in this film. It’s a movie about ninjas! If there is one reason to watch G.I. Joe: Retaliation, it’s for the subplot involving Snake Eyes and Jinx, played by Ray Park and Elodie Yung respectively, hunt for Storm Shadow(Byung-hun Lee). Their trek leads them to an Arashikage building on the side of a mountain. Our two heroes proceed to infiltrate and kidnap Storm Shadow and our chased by Arashikage ninja in a A Touch of Zen inspired sequence.
Nothing in Snake Eyes even approaches the level of craft or pure enjoyability as the above 8 minutes. Which is a shame. The cast includes Iko Uwais(The Raid) as the Hard Master among other action figures. The challenge of the Hard Master echoes a similar duel from The Grandmaster and lacks the fluidity and grace it is supposed to create. Andrew Koji is a proven commodity with his turn as Ah Sahm on Warrior, he portrays Tommy with commitment and fire and outside of his cool two sword pose looks nothing like the burgeoning action icon he is. Director Robert Schwentke, cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, and editor Stuart Levy fail to capture the cast, stunt doubles, and stuntmen, in anything resembling a coherent fashion. The only times action is relatively comprehensible is when the physicality of a set denies the ability for the camera to move. Either Bazelli’s handheld camera work was not practiced enough to follow the action or Levy is massive fan of Taken 3. When fights break out if it wasn’t for the sound design it would be hard to follow anything. Action is clearly happening within the frame, but it is neither comprehensible nor engaging. The handheld camera work outside of the fighting is subtle and gives the well-designed sets a sense of reality.
That lived in quality created by Bazelli and production designer Alec Hammond makes the screenplays reboot qualities largely inoffensive and effective. The Joe’s and COBRA organization already exist, if in the shadows, and it is Snake Eyes who is slowly drawn into their battle. The film rightly uses their presence reinforce the core drama on the Arashikage compound. Where things falter somewhat is the specifics for Scarlett(Samara Weaving) and Baroness(Úrsula Corberó). Louise Mingenbach’s costume design for both characters read as out of step with the overall design of the movie, Scarlett’s outfit is bland and artificial compared to the heightened qualities of around her. Samara Weaving also seems strangely aloof and in their own movie. Úrsula Corberó brings a femme fatale energy to the role that largely works. Unlike other attempts at franchise building Snake Eyes amazingly doesn’t get preoccupied with setting up a larger JoeCU. All of that could happen now, but the movie is true to the core characters first.
In the decade plus of dominance by Marvel Studios plenty of other companies have tried to copy what they have done with the MCU. The attempts at creating a G.I. Joe franchise have followed that trend. Despite never turning into something great Snake Eyes gets the one thing that for all their faults Marvel Studio films always do: make me at least feel engaged with the character. Audiences are willing to put up with less than stellar films if they like the character-actor at their center. With Henry Golding, Andrew Koji, and Haruka Abe, there is the germ of a likeable, engaging, trio of characters that I would like to see more of. Snake Eyes might never reach the level of tragedy it aspires to, but it more than lands the character work. If the action had even just been competent Snake Eyes would go from flawed but enjoyable to good.
