Snake Eyes (2021) User Reviews

Am I supposed to root for Snake Eyes?

[pablo_velasan · 4/10 · 4 August 2021]

The film is a very forgettable one, first of all the cinematography is terrible, the decision of using a shaky cam in the fight scenes is beyond me, as well as putting the camera so close to the fight which doesn't allow to appreciate the fighting sequences.

Second, the supernatural essence of a magical rock and supernatural anacondas shown in the movie, as well as the superpowers of jumping to the point of flying even just seem ridiculous and out completely out of context with the rest of the film.

And last but not least, the script. It amazes me that snake eyes, the least charismatic character on display is the main one and the one we supposedly have to root for, his redemption arc is disastrous and doesn't feel deserved at all. On the other hand, Storm Shadow, the character that becomes evil just feels stabbed in the back by the writers forcefully establishing him as a villain when he wasn't near of becoming one.

In the end it just feels as a hollow film that had potential and could've been much better but it just crashed and burned before establishing a reboot to the franchise.

Obnoxiously bad and shallow

[rendulic-nenad · 4/10 · 22 July 2021]

Characters try hard to be cool but end up being boring and weak.

Plot is all over the place, Snake Eyes is the weakest character in the movie but somehow he is the only one that triumphs.

Action is short and choppy, a massive fight is about to begin and then it last 3 seconds and cuts to some other scene and after that scene is over we go back to the fight scene which is also over, and that happens all the time.

When you have an actor like Iko and don't use him in a movie like this you are wasting potentialy excellent fight scenes.

Don't waste time and money on this DOA movie.

Mediocre and badly written - one great film saving performance....

[homodeuslee · 6/10 · 26 July 2021]

So this is now essentially the third attempt to bring GI Joe to the big screen. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura returns at the helm and proves once again - he does not really care... Honestly - how this film actually came to be is beyond me - a group of professional people working in the industry collectively decided that firstly : this film should be made - then that Evan Spiliotopoulos (who has hardly written a single great film to date) should write the damn thing - then add a director, Schwentke (who has a track record of terrible blockbuster films) - and let's top it off with TV travel host/Rom-com break out - Henry Golding to play Snake eyes himself. Shocking....

SO - It definitely is not the Snake eyes that people know and love. He does bad things in this film and unfortunately, Henry isn't a skilled enough actor to make you like him. I disagree that it was purely in the writing - a great actor can make you care for the most despicable characters but Golding proves here he should stick to Rom-coms...and his own accent. His physical skills and acting feel forced and awkward and in my opinion needs a lot of work if I would ever buy him as a legitimate action star. He does have some charisma and good looks though.

It seems like the majority of the articles and social media agree that the film's saving grace is Andrew Koji's Storm Shadow. He adds nuance and depth to Tommy (even though he is dealt the rough hand with having to deliver the majority of the exposition) He commands the screen whenever he is on and delivers us the most layered Storm Shadow in almost any medium to date - just too bad he is let down by an awful script. Koji steals the show with his performance and to top it off you can tell he knows how to move - his action moments were by far the most fun to watch - although he was let down by a terrible filming style there too. I definitely want to see more of Koji. Jin Sakai for Ghost of Tsushima!

The rest of the cast are great in their limited roles - Samara, Ursula, Iko and Peter Mensah - all do great. They are well cast but under utilised. Hollywood SERIOUSLY needs to stop thinking they know best with martial arts action sequences - Iko and Kenji Tanigaki's team is absolutely wasted here.

There was a lot of potential with a GI Joe reboot. There was some potential for a good Snake eyes film - but these people clearly are not the right people to do it. Paramount needs to learn. You would have thought Lorenzo etc would have learnt something since the last films 10 years ago - but clearly not. They have not only destroyed many people's favourite character - they have simple made a bad film and wasted a lot of money and talent....

5.5/10.

Horribly filmed action ruined this movie

[darkreignn · 3/10 · 25 July 2021]

I'm a big fan of Yakuza films, so when I saw the trailer for "Snake Eyes," I was ecstatic - a gritty, grounded origin of one of G. I. Joe's most beloved characters, in the form of a Japanese mobster movie, seemed too good to be true. And lo and behold, it was! "Snake Eyes" seems to suffer from an identity crisis; there is not enough gangster politics to be a successful gangster movie - there is not enough character development to be a satisfying drama - and perhaps the worst offense: there is not enough well-filmed action for this to be a great action film.

Let's jump right into why "Snake Eyes" isn't a good film - the action. When you hire master choreographers to create beautiful action sequences, why would you then destroy them by choosing to film your action with close-up, handheld, shaky cam? This stylistic decision is infuriating and unforgivable. There was only one sequence in this movie that was well shot; other than that, literally every other single action scene was made incomprehensible due to the filmmaking.

There were so many set pieces that could've been memorable and exciting if only the cameraman would've put the camera on a tripod, prepared a wide shot, and stepped away. You have scenes of small armies engaged in katana-on-katana action, and you won't be able to see any of it because the cameraman is standing two feet away and shaking the camera like it owes him money. This filmmaking decision literally ruined the action in this film, and as a consequence, ruined the film itself - because when the action in your action movie sucks, your movie sucks.

That said, perhaps the storyline and the engaging characters can add some sort of entertainment value? You'd be half right. The story itself is pretty interesting, if not very engaging. There's enough to keep you slightly invested in what's happening and why, but again, everything is framed around terribly filmed action sequences that damper the fun. The acting was serviceable, but nothing too breathtaking. Henry Golding as Snake Eyes had a certain tenacity about him that was fun to watch, but the script seemed to try a little too hard to make him "cool." Samara Weaving was gorgeous, as always, and pretty good here - however, she barely has any screen time, and isn't introduced until about half way through the film. That said, she is a show stealer when she's on screen.

"Snake Eyes" did have some cool cinematography to bask at - if you enjoy Asian cinema, you'll certainly enjoy the look of the film. That said, if you enjoy good action, you're going to despise this movie. I'd recommend only checking this out if you're a big G. I. Joe fan - if you're not? There's a million other Yakuza action films at your disposal; don't waste your time with this.

Except for a pair of dice and a random "G.I. Joe" label, this is an assembly of every cliche, sloppily presented.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 6/10 · 23 August 2021]

Three seasoned screenwriters came up with this sloppy and convoluted mess of a story? The two hours felt dragged out with the most cliched action/martial-arts forgettable story, that was riddled with plot and technical issues. I can't remember the last time I saw such a predictable film.

Don't get me started on the cheesy dialogue and lame attempts at humor. Director Robert Schwentke also failed to give much cohesion to the all-over-the-place script with his annoying shaky-cam and sword-cut editing, as well as his (mostly) migraine-inducing action scenes. He tried too hard - and failed to make this a blockbuster, instead of the B grade action film it was.

Henry Golding as Snake-Eyes lacked the action-hero presence and was about as convincing as Clint Eastwood as a stand-up comedian. The rest of the casting and performances were decent, but the only redeeming quality of this film was the amazing production sets and costumes. It's a generous 6/10 from me.

G.I. No

[garciarichard · 2/10 · 9 August 2021]

Just another reboot/remake/rehash/whatever of an old intellectual property that tries to capitalize on the diversity of it's actors, much like the Mortal Kombat reboot released earlier this year.

We get nothing about the origins of G. I. Joe, Snake Eyes' induction into the team, or Cobra's origins. Just a generic, "gritty", MCU-styled action film that doesn't respect the source material and features characters who only look good and are charisma vacuums.

The Stephen Sommers films (which were terrible) did a better job depicting Snake Eyes as the lethal, stealthy, and charismatic mute he truly is.

Why so many bad reviews?

[m_roberts_07 · 7/10 · 14 July 2022]

We don't often get good budget ninja movies these days. I finally got around to watching Snake Eyes today, and actually enjoyed it.

It's definitely a movie not to be taken seriously. If you are a martial arts Action buff like I am - give Snake Eyes a chance.

The Action/martial arts scenes are more than adequate.

A fantastic cast completely wasted on a stupid story

[siderite · 3/10 · 12 September 2021]

First of all, this has *nothing* to do with G. I. Joe, as it is a medieval story about two Japanese clans and the protagonist is caught somewhat in between. Yes, it happens today, but 90% of all fights are using swords and the prize of the war is a magical stone. It's like someone took an existing Japanese samurai and ninjas script, added an extraneous character and made him the protagonist, then plastered on a Joe/Cobra connection and brought it into the present. And the way they added this stuff is like fixing a broken mirror with industrial sticky tape on the visible side.

And what a cast this had: Andrew Koji from Warrior (I still crave for a new season), Iko Uwais from Raid, Peter Mensah from Spartacus, Takehiro Hira (who in my mind did the best job in the film, even if he was the villain and had a really dumb role), Samara Weaving from Guns Akimbo. Not to mention Eri Ishida, who did more in a few scenes than "Snake Eyes" in the entire film. They did nothing with all of this. The fights were fractured and made little sense, focused on form and ignoring substance. Two people fighting 50 and succeeding because they all used swords and the heroes had unlimited stamina, the usual running (slowly and awkwardly) from bullets scene, people running in the sword range to fire a gun, ugh! It was incredibly ugly. Even the motorcycle and car scenes were ridiculously bad. A team of 5 snipers could have finished *everybody* without loses.

Worst of all, it's called G. I. Joe Origins and it features a character who has never heard of the Joes in a time when both Cobra and Joes have been established for a long time. There is no origin story at all! There is no story, really!

Bottom line: this film is something that whole teams of people should be fired because of. A 100 million dollar film that manages to waste every resource it bought. Avoid it like it's the plague.

Andrew Koji Steals the Show

[nightringer-76840 · 6/10 · 24 August 2021]

Andrew. Koji steals the attention with his emotional expression, too bad his lines were not so good. I think he should be snake eyes.

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[jaiduhra · 1/10 · 23 July 2021]

In short, they butchered a pretty cool character for absolutely no reason.

The overall movie was painfully predictable, but in a slightly different way to the typical bad film. To elaborate, each scene makes you hope the stupid things you think will happen, won't happen. Tragically, they happen so abundantly that the plot literally twists itself out of existence and the main character's only accolade by the end of the film is that he's successfully ruined another supporting characters life.

Brief Breakdown:

1) There's barely any character development, Snake Eyes is unjustifiably proficient with a katana when he's never been trained to use one.

2) It's clear that the script was poorly written, there was no depth and a lot of cringe dialogue.

3) Impactful scenes had zero build up, hence they weren't impactful.

4) As a testament to how poorly produced the movie was, they somehow left in a scene where the main character spoke in a British accent (accidentally - there was no reason for the British accent in the scene, it literally doesn't fit and must've been a mistake).

5) Every scene featuring the magical stone that can make anything spontaneously combust makes no sense other than to drag the story on (countless times where the villain doesn't just kill everyone for literally no reason - someone's grandma literally vaults 20ft over the villains head and he just watches the whole thing).

6) The main character achieves nothing but ruining a friendly characters life and ultimately turning them against him.

Forget everything you know about Snake Eyes.

[jessekind · 8/10 · 23 July 2021]

So, I've been a fan of G. I. Joe since I got my first Joes in 1983. Now when this movie was first talked about I said it would suck and be absolute trash. I went to see it anyway and I went with an open mind. Now there was a few times I muttered some curse words under my breathed but I still keep an open mind. I really liked this movie.

To enjoy it you must forget everything you know about G. I. Joe. There was a good storyline, great action scenes, and the characters, especially Storm Shadow, were well written. It was a great movie. There is a few spots that take away which I'm not going to mention, but even with those it doesn't kill the movie. The best thing is it definitely leads into a new Joe Universe.

Give this movie a chance, just go into it with an open mind.

Pretty decent.

[mohammedsalehali99 · 7/10 · 22 July 2021]

I don't know much about G. I. Joe, but I've watched the movies. I've always wanted to see a solo Snake Eyes film because I was intrigued by the character. This movie does a pretty good job showing us the origin story of this character and his history. It's not perfect but it's pretty decent in my opinion.

Shoddy Film - Bad Casting - Disrespects Source Material

[jvg37 · 3/10 · 23 July 2021]

Saw the movie last night and was not impressed with anything I saw. The makers of this film have either no idea of the origins of Snake-Eyes or they intentionally destroyed the character. Aside from the fact that Snake-Eyes was always a Gaijin (white guy) he was also honorable in all that he did. This version has him as a two-faced, lying, thief. The feeble redemption arc in the final act was too little - too late, and unbelievable. The casting choices also left me a bit confused. Golding was never a good choice for Snake-Eyes and as much as I love Samara Weaving, she was a horrible Scarlet. The actress who ineptly portrayed the Baroness was too young for the character and was not even close to being believable. Iko Uwais was great as usual but would have been a much better Storm Shadow or even Snake-Eyes! Andrew Koji did do a good job as Storm Shadow and his was the best performance in the whole film by far.

The story was subpar, even for a genre piece, and the script could have been written by a middle-schooler. The action was decently choreographed and wasn't too over the top. It seemed like it couldn't decide whether to be gritty or cartoonish in its approach to the action, which was a letdown. There are several continuity issues as well; a brawler raised on the street with no formal training can automatically hold his own against highly trained ninjas (can you say Rey Palpatine?) or a girl who had been a devoted part of the clan for over a decade breaking sacred rules to save someone she just met?

All in all, this movie sucked!

Why??

[magnum-ajt · 2/10 · 7 September 2021]

Why is it so hard for them to make a good GI Joe movie? Just stick with the source material for starters. Not only did they want to tell some other story, the movie came across like a low budget film. Acting was atrocious on top of it. I'll give 1 bonus point for Peter Mensah as the only quality actor.

Don't have high expectations on the story. Everything else is good.

[herblo-568-194198 · 6/10 · 23 July 2021]

Henry Golding did a good job. Andrew Koji acted well and has a believable Japanese accent (he has a British accent in real life). This movie is 70 to 89% fighting. The story is not so believable as there is not much character development. Fighting is not as good Bruce Lee's Warrior where Andrew Koji played the main character. Warrior has the best fight scenes that Hollywood has produced. And the story is great too. Don't expect that standard in this movie.

Watch it to see Henry Golding and Andrew Koji fight. Don't take the story too seriously and you will enjoy it.

Throwing things at a wall bad

[kangarooconnor · 1/10 · 26 July 2021]

Snake eyes was a movie I was extremely excited to see, movies have been lacking lately and after watching the bloated and awful "Black Widow" I wanted a gritty and enjoyable action movie. I went in fully expecting it to be bad, I hoped it would be better than the previous Joe movies but was only really there to watch action people do action things. But my disappointment was immeasurable and as I walked out of the theater with my friends all I could think was "that was garbage."

Let's look at the bad things from the beginning,

The first 20-30 minutes were way too rushed, first he's seeing his father killed by some dude with a big coat, then he's getting beat up in an underground fight ring (which had shaky cam so bad it could rival the Bourne movies), then he's approached by a Yakuza member and then he's working at a fish market putting Guns in fish. It was one thing after another like a check list being ticked off, no real weight to what was happening and they just kind of happened. Now it wasn't horrible but based on the beginning I could tell this movie was just going to gloss over things as fast as possible to get to other events.

After the initial few scenes we meet Tommy and the ensuing fight begins where Tommy and snake eyes escape the yakuza. It wasn't horrible but the action felt sub-par, camera was moving all over, dozens and dozens of stunt men with swords were running into frame causing such clutter that if there were mistakes it made it be too hard to tell. The sword fighting also felt way too pre 1990s with the backwards flips and the duel sword swinging, it was just too campy for a movie that was selling gritty action. They escape and snake eyes wakes up on a plane and the first of 3 Major long exposition monologues from storm shadow begin. The actor for storm shadow (no offense to him) felt like he was trying to put emphasis of every word he said without putting emphasis on the actual point trying to be portrayed.

Now snake eyes is in Tokyo at the clans temple, and not only does Storm shadow pretty much say "you will be ninja and you will like it" but he then expects snake eyes to be thankful for this man (who he saved) pretty much making him become a soldier for this clan. And the middle section of this movie was the most horrendous jump from plot to sub plot to plot to subplot I've ever seen.

A: Iko Uwais the legend himself is paid to be the hard master, yet he never does anything, his fights near the end begin then jump to another character and by the time we return to the Hard Master, his initial fight is over.

B: There was absolutely no training what so ever, no fighting, no practice, no days upon days of brutal running or combat mastery. Nothing, just a simple exchange water cups, heres an LSD trip that was not explained in any way (there was no explanation as to how Snake eyes was able to see the vision nor how the clan was able to give him one) and finally and the most bizarre of all, three giant snakes that can "sense your true feelings." By that point I had mentally tapped out of the movie, I thought it was supposed to be a hyper action movie with ninjas and swords but now they have thrown in giant snakes with emotional feeling powers.

C: the relationships in this movie we're also atrocious, Snake eyes and Storm shadow were supposed to be friends but never felt like they actually liked being around each other. The girl and snake eyes had a "I'm suspicious of him until he lies to my face and then all of a sudden I'm happy and have some feelings for him. Snake eyes as all of a sudden just feels like betraying Tommy? Not only has Tommy given him everything, a home, food, clothes, a purpose and a fancy sword he feels like he needs to betray Tommy to steal some rock so he can get the dude who killed his father? Here's an idea, get the super secret, super rich fancy spy clan you work for to help you find your fathers killer? And what is his justification to Cobra for why he's mad at them "I didn't sign up to work for terrorists." After actively signing up to work for the Yakuza shipping weapons illegally acronym borders.

But I'd have to say the biggest and most dumbfounding thing in this movie, was the magic glowing boom rock. So apparently this ninja clan is protecting an ancient rock that, based on whoever is holding it, can telepathically blow up anything. People, buildings and even bullets out of thin air, and the guy who is using it, never takes the initiative to just immediately kill everyone in his path. Literally all he has to do is squeeze and think and the people go boom, but whenever a major character is in range the main bad guy just fumbles around and allows them to get away.

Bad guy is defeated by being lured into the snake pit by snake eyes, the fight ends and the temple even though being set on fire numerous times is in no way damaged, Storm shadow is ousted by the clan because he used the rock one single time against the bad guy. Storm shadow now hates Snake eyes for betraying the clan by giving the rock to the bad guys, gets some fancy tech, learns his dad was a G. I. Joe, joins the Joe's and then leaves the clan.

The Joe lady wasn't good or memorable, the Baroness was neither attractive nor clever, the main villain was boring and unoriginal and Storm shadow suddenly joining the Cobra's was so out of character for this version of the characters background that it felt like a forced cliffhanger for an either unfortunately terrible or nonexistent sequel.

Now for the extremely short list of things I liked: The visual camera work for the movie (excluding the action scenes) was nice, Japan is a pretty country and the colorful pallets of Tokyo went over quite well. I think Iko Uwais as the Hard Master was a good choice even though he was wasted completely. And the cgi was mostly up to par. Other than that it was a garbage movie with little to no redeemable factors.

Do not watch this unless you really really want to, and or it's free.

I thought it was entertaining

[Gordon-11 · 23 July 2021]

There's a lot of action in the film, from guns to sword fights. There are times when the plot is not so convincing, such as when Akiko trusts snake eyes all of a sudden, or when snake eyes can fight with a sword skillfully on a motorcycle. It is nonetheless entertaining.

Don't let those negative reviews to fool you.

[rupokrp · 7/10 · 23 July 2021]

I don't understand why some people talking as like this movie has nothing for audience..!? They are giving it 1 or 2 star..!! Really? At least be reasonable. I get it, it's not a kids movie nor a fully dark adult movie. But what's wrong with that? Those who didn't see it, Give it a chance and it's a fun movie. Fun is enough for me. Don't listen to those toxic fan base..

If that's an origins film, then the origin is missing.

[ThomDerd · 3/10 · 9 October 2021]

Bad writing, which killed the character development and eventually the character itself.

Regarding the origins film, the actual origin's story is almost missing here! Why is snake eyes already so skilled? Since it's his origin story, then why don't you develop it?

Average film. Only thing worth it is Iko Uwais.

3,5 / 10.

Good Addition

[JoelChamp85 · 7/10 · 23 July 2021]

Pretty solid film for the G. I. Joe franchise. The story was well written and good action. The actors did a good job and I liked Snake Eye's tough choices he had to make, creating conflict. I kept thinking "if only the new Mortal Kombat was made this well". The thing lacking in this movie was blood. This film has setup more films to follow, and I'll go to the cinema to see them.

Is it just me?

[ryanjsaber · 5/10 · 25 July 2021]

Is it just me, or is Snake Eyes the bad guy and Storm Shadow is the good guy. I know a lot of movies try to make the villain sympathetic but SS totally got screwed over and at one point I was rooting for Snake to get caught. This was absolutely not what I expected and I found myself rooting against the titular character rather than for him. What the _ were they thinking having the main character actively working for the ****** (major spoiler) throughout the entire movie?

Yeah it was entertaining and yeah I had a good time. But it just felt uncomfortable.

Action Packed Movie !

[shaikshafaaq · 9/10 · 22 July 2021]

The movie has a average plot, but the Fights and Action scene were well choreographed, I like the whole Japanese Aesthetics. Also this movie gives a good backstory for Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. The Character development of Snake Eyes was good. Overall I loved the movie. Hopefully we get a Sequel.

Never mind the plot holes, enjoy the action

[Pairic · 6/10 · 30 August 2021]

Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins: A good adventure story, MMA, sword fighting, gunplay, Ninjas, international conspiracies, motorbike chases and a lust for vengeance. Don't worry about plot holes and non sequiturs, let the action carry you along. A feel of Akira and Blade Runner in the production design helps. Directed by Robert Schwentke, written by Evan Spillotopoulos. 6/10.

Lost the plot.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 3/10 · 19 August 2021]

I was genuinely so excited to see this, the trailers looked amazing. High octane for sure, but the total absence of a plot made this really tough to engage with.

If you like random fight scenes, you'll probably enjoy this, they move from one to another, to another, but at times you'll find yourself wanting to check your phone for a distraction. It was as if nobody bothered to read through a first draft of the screenplay, and just thought, it'll do.

How on Earth could such a movie be boring, but that's the story I'm afraid. The best element here for me was Andrew Koji.

I was glad to see the credits roll, and walked out of the cinema, wondering what on Earth I had just sat through.

Atrocious editing ruined the action sequences. The locations are top notch though.

[Fella_shibby · 4/10 · 29 August 2021]

I saw this mainly cos of Iko Uwais n got terribly disappointed cos his footage is less n he doesnt get to kick ass.

Then i thot lets just enjoy the action but then again none of the fight scenes are noteworthy.

Recently i saw Lee's Fist of Fury n i loved the Japanese garden. This movie too has some some beautiful gardens, lakes, hill tops houses, etc.

The editing ruined everything.

Cos of the shaky cam n fast cut editing, one cannot make out what is going on during the fight scenes.

The character of Snake Eyes is more spiteful n the character of Shadow Storm more sympathetic.

How conveniently the clan n the Major Scarlett work together with Baroness, a Cobra member.

Also how easily Snake Eyes forgives his dad's murderer n after that fight alongside Baroness inspite of knowing that Cobra gang gave the orders to eliminate his dad.

I miss those old ninja movies man.