It’s a shame that Snake Eyes, which tells the origins of the iconic silent assassin from the G.I. Joe series, doesn’t lean into the most iconic aspect of its titular assassin: that he’s a silent character. When the film was first previewed, Henry Golding, the actor who plays Snake Eyes, talked about Larry Hama’s comic Silent Interlude, where there are no speech bubbles, and the story is told simply through action. I don’t know about you, but that sounds amazing and something that truly captures the Snake Eyes character in a solo outing. However, the finished produce, unfortunately, lacks the ambition and vision to be anything more than a generic action flick with basic origin story beats.
At every turn of Snake Eyes’ journey, from being a loner seeking vengeance for his father’s death to becoming involved in a conflict between two warring Tokyo-based factions, it’s hard not to feel like there’s a major aspect missing in the storytelling. Each time the film tries to take a moment to flesh out the character’s passion for vengeance or his relationships within these two factions, the stakes never create a sense of consequence or impact because the film moves too quickly through its story. Any time Snake Eyes faces an obstacle or reaches a point of conflict, he easily moves past it. It never feels like he goes changes during his arc, outside of how Snake Eyes decides to handle his father’s killer when they come face to face. THIS is where having him take a vow of silence could’ve made these moments more personally impactful.
Having Snake Eyes take a vow of silence until he killed his father’s killer could’ve been a perfect opportunity to not only pay respect to a vital aspect of the character, but make that moment really mean something. Even crazier is that there are honestly a couple different points throughout the story where Snake Eyes’ silence could’ve been established and it’s baffling as to why this film doesn’t take that opportunity. Why not have it be something he learns during his training with the Arashikage clan or reflect his distaste for his actions while he’s a double agent? Hell, even the ending feels like a perfect opportunity to establish his silence, with him determined to get Tommy (Andrew Koji) back after he turns to COBRA and becomes Storm Shadow.
Snake Eyes really needs something, anything really, to make itself stand out. The performances across the board are fine, but the dialogue is super generic and detracts from the iconic Snake Eyes persona. It’s the usual origin story mix of the character trying to prove their worth while dealing with their unbridled vengeance peppered with some half-baked humor. Most of it would probably fall completely flat if the cast’s chemistry weren’t so solid.
Not even the action can overcome the generic story and dialogue. The scenes we see at the start of the film are actually a lot of fun, since it’s basically Snake Eyes continually fighting for his life against insurmountable odds. Him working with Tommy against an entire group of Yakuza is undeniably epic and the visual of them trying to start an escape vehicle while not getting sliced with swords is very unique. Unfortunately, the action only gets more and more basic as Snake Eyes trains, and it just isn’t as surprising or unpredictable compared to what we see at the start. Not to mention, once more guns come into the picture, as well as this mystical gem that feels out of place in the military world of G.I. Joe, the action gets watered down.
Worst of all, as a reboot for the G.I. Joe film franchise, Snake Eyes totally misses the mark because it fails to re-establish the franchise’s identity and main players. The appearance of Scarlett (Samara Weaving) and Baroness (Ursula Corbero) is absolutely disappointing since they barely do anything in the movie aside from reminding us about the two warring factions in this world and establish where Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow diverge at the end of this story. Because they’re played by new actresses and they don’t get a chance to make their own impressions as these characters, Scarlett and Baroness’s presence feels forced. Even when you take away the names of the characters or the whole end sequence of Snake Eyes getting his iconic suit, nothing about the film really evokes the identity of this character and it really stems back to omitting his silence.
Yes, I’m nitpicking this one omission real hard, but it’s a critical reason why Snake Eyes misses the mark in not only delivering a great representation of who this character really is, but also telling a unique story in an ambitious way. If the G.I. Joe franchise is going to make another attempt at bringing its characters back to the big screen, then it really needs to come with the vision, ambition, and creativity that are sorely lacking from Snake Eyes.
