Review of Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021) by Nateed — 23 Jul 2021

Snake Eyes is such a bland film with nothing special about it. There is so much potential in this film, but it never tries to do anything out of the box. The big problem with the movie is that everything is so muddled in the story department.

The screenwriters did such a bad job setting up all the characters which didn’t allow good connections to them. The whole story is set up poorly and becomes worse and worse as the film moves on. The third act suffers from this problem the most as so many components of the film feel so unsupported by the first two acts.

The filmmakers had 2 hours to tell a good story and they used it poorly. The cinematography is also really bad with such bad camera work that makes all the action scenes feel so messy and hard to follow.

The use of hand-held cameras was a really bad choice as all the stunt work felt lost in blurry, fast-moving shots. Almost all the action scenes are so shaky and make for a sloppy feel. The direction also feels very lazy and uninspired.

Robert Schwentke does absolutely nothing new or unique making for such a boring film. There weren’t any scenes that made me gasp or put me in awe. Everything was so basic. I think the cast does a decent job.

This was my first taste of Henry Golding and I wasn’t disappointed. Golding does a great job showing his character’s emotions and had a great connection with every character. Andrew Koji does a nice job even if his character was poorly written.

Úrsula Corberó and Samara Weaving really make this movie entertaining and I really wanted to see more of them. Their characters each feel so underdeveloped which sucks because both actresses do such a fantastic job with what’s given to them.

The worldbuilding in Snake Eyes is also quite nice. The forest and the place where the clan resides were really stunning. I think a lot of the production design is decent here. Yes, it isn’t quite visually stunning, but it’s good for what it is.

A better score from composer Martin Todsharow would have made the visuals better. The basic, almost non-existent score does absolutely nothing to elevate the film and makes a lot of the scenes feel uneventful and not exciting.

Overall, Snake Eyes is an uninspired film with the lack of anything unique. The terrible cinematography and boring direction bring down this film so much leaving only the cast to make this film slightly entertaining.

If the Snake Eyes sequel goes through, it really needs an overhaul in almost all the departments. Read more reviews like this at postcreditreviews.