The origin story of G.I. Joe’s Snake Eyes gives us insight into how he became mortal enemies with Storm Shadow and how he came to know of the battle between the evil Cobra and the heroic Joe’s. 

Opening twenty years ago we see a young boy witness the assassination of his father by a man who asks him to roll dice for his life. In the present day the boy, now a man is approached by a shadowy yakuza leader and offered a chance to work for him and in return he will be given the location of his father’s murderer. However when asked to kill, he rebels and saves his would be victim who then asks him to follow a different path. The man who lost his father now has to decide which of his two surrogate fathers he should follow. 

Snake Eyes features a lot of things to like whilst still being largely generic. Given the mostly forgotten previous G.I. Joe films are now twelve and eight years old respectively this could be considered a reboot with the task of world building a new franchise firmly on its shoulders. A job that it does pretty decently at the expense of layering in quite a lot of lore and some extraneous characters as far as the plot of this film strictly goes. The main thrust of the plot is quite interesting, who does Snake Eyes trust and who should trust him? Henry Golding does a good job purely on the basis of his charisma whilst all those around him are solid with perhaps the exception of those extra characters that set up Cobra versus the Joes. Both Ursula Corbero as the Baroness and Samara Weaving as Scarlet go hugely over the top camp in an otherwise straight action movie that their characters have little need to be in. 

Aside from the generic plot the other major weakness is the shaky cam and editing in the fight sequences. I often wonder who actually likes those sorts of action scenes? Is there anyone revelling in not being able to fully understand what is happening and enjoying the possibility of seasickness whilst watching? I appreciate that this film has to be a 12A to ensure a family audience which means that there is no blood and no visible killing strikes, but that does not mean we have to be unable to see anything. The actual set ups and intent of the scenes is fine, the execution however is lacking. 

But despite that this is still a lot of fun. There is a real sense that this time they have a good plan of what direction they want G.I. Joe to go in. The lore is slotting into place and the scene is set. Perhaps next time we can see more of the Baroness and Scarlet in a story they fit into, whilst Golding can continue to look good whilst holding a sword.