Hey, Joe

I was actually kind of psyched to see Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021). I honestly didn't hate the first G.I. Joe movie - saw it on a plane, kind of enjoyed the action. So, the same with a focus on Asian action? With a half-decent cast? I'm in.

It starts with the traditional hero's parent killed when he's a kid scene. In this case, his dad gets his remote cabin invaded by ninjas, and is forced to roll dice to see if he will live. The kid sees him roll snake eyes and die. But the kid gets away.

Years later, that kid has grown up to become Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) - Snake Eyes, champion of the underground cage fighting scene. Takehiro Hira as Kenta recruits him to join his yakuza gang. But when Hira wants Snake Eyes to kill traitor Andrew Koji, he doesn't do it, and instead fights his way out with Koji.

Now Koji owes Snake Eyes his life. He takes him to his ninja family compound and offers him membership in the Arashikage clan. This will involve three tests, administered by Iko Uwais as Hard Master - a real standout in the fight scenes, showing incredible solidity and immovability.

But as he's on his way to acceptance, we find out (as if we didn't guess) that the whole thing was a putup job - Hira planned it so that Snake Eyes could infiltrate the Arashikage. He and Koji are brothers, and when Koji was chosen to lead the clan, Hira went rogue. Now he wants the magic McGuffin that the clan guards, and plans to use Snake Eyes to get it.

About the only surprising thing in this plot is that Snake Eyes actually goes through with the betrayal - then once the damage is done, defects to Arashikage. Maybe that's not the surprising thing, but it is surprising that they have him. In the final fights, we find out that Hira is Cobra related, Arashikage is Joe related, how Snake Eyes' dad got killed etc. you probably don't care, except that Scarlett (Samara Weaving) shows up on the Joe side, and the Baroness (Ursula Corbero) is a very stylish Cobra op. 

All in all, the action was about par for modern action movies. A lot was swiped, although I couldn't always tell from where. Who started the tradition that all heroes start out doing illegal cage fights? Batman Begins, Angel in one of the X-Man movies, I think Charlie's Angels even pulled this. The plot was silly, although maybe for a G.I. Joe movie it was actually sophisticated. The face-heel turns were so undermotivated, though - it kind of made us mad. 

Still, there were a lot of no-worse than average action scenes, and Iko Uwais had a role, so it wasn't a total loss.