Snake Eyes: Golding Strikes!

Overview

Snake Eyes, directed by Robert Schwentke, brings forth a new aspect that usually isn’t included in modern american made films dealing with martial art oriented stories. This movie bring an balanced mix by having the superhero structure, like a DC or Marvel movie would have, but doesn’t just go with brute strength in the action. Being a film that has Kenji Tanigaki, Bryan Sloyer, Kimani Ray Smith, and Travis Wong as stunt choreographers, it’s an platter to fill a fight choreography enthusiast’s stomach, not to mention having Henry Golding showing his fighting abilities. In addition, having people like Iko Uwais and Andrew Koji in the cast, who are known for being from the martial arts world and bringing that into the industry adds bonus points to go watch this film. Now this movie isn’t perfection, not that anything could reach such a level if you want to reach all types of audiences, but if you are looking for a movie that will have action, is enjoyable to watch and you can go to see with friends or family, Snake Eyes: G.I Origins is a great watch.

Review

Henry Golding has been growing since appearing in as a lead role in the feature film Crazy Rich Asians, which was a major box office success. Since then gaining role after role he’s caught the attention of many viewers, although majority of them have been dramas, up until now he hasn’t gotten a role in the action genre.

For this film he had to learn to adapt to taking some hits, while also given some, as he’s mentioned;

“You have to DRILL those fight scenes until you both can do it with your eyes closed.”

-Henry Golding, ET Canada Interview

Like I’ve mentioned, Golding’s majority of filmography stem from the drama genre, sometimes mixed in with some comedy. Switching from these two very distinct areas to action might be shown in an actor’s choice of performance, yet Golding transitions his skills smoothly, having his top game be shown in dialogue while also having any intense dialogue in a scene that has to have a lot of movement. Although, sometimes learning new skills can be hard when trying them alone, thankfully he had great people having his back in learning his new skills, such as his co-star Andrew Koji.

Koji comes from a background of martial arts, as well as in the film industry. He’s currently starring in a cinemax show called Warrior, which if not familiar was thought up by nun other than Bruce Lee himself. Sadly Lee could not take it into production but it’s safe to say his idea is in the right hands, not only having incredible people working on it but passionate martial artists.

Of course not only talking about the actors who do the steps we also have to talk about the person behind the steps, the one who created it, Kenji Tanigaki. If your not familiar with Mr. Tanigaki, hes Donnie Yen’s “right hand man” as Golding described it, as well as having worked with Jackie Chan, just to place two names to his level in stunt choreography. The cast described working with Mr. Tanigaki as a nice experience yet pushing one’s limits, not only learning from the very best but being taught proper forms in real life martial arts. I describe this movie as an American made film structure while having proper and more realistic fights than what we would see in other items such as DC or Marvel movies. Not to discredit their work in stunts, but their use of it to show fights is a little downgrade when comparing it to this film. Normally a hero would use their superhuman powers, or brute strength and so on but with this hero film we get the technique that is true to what the real world has used.

Now I could go on about that particular area in this film but I also want to share my thoughts on the other actors, specifically the actresses. Snake Eyes doesn’t fall short to show the lethality of women, as we can see how badass they can be having Akiko, Sen, Baroness, and Scarlett all on screen. Akiko, played by Haruka Abe, is the head of security for the Arashikage clan and is a big face for this film. She is a major character that helps Snake Eyes figure himself out, as well as being there for Tommy(Koji’s character) helping him on their missions. She wields a staff that doubles as kendo sticks, using them as her primary choice. She brings forth the character’s emotional ties towards Snake Eyes and Tommy throughout the movie from the caution with Snake Eyes in the beginning and Tommy’s leaving in the end. Although the film isn’t oriented around her I would say she is on equal footing with Golding and Koji. Now we have 3 characters that have smaller scenes that still show their power, Sen (played by Eri Ishida) who is the Arashikage clan leader and grandmother of Tommy, she has fewer scenes where she shows her abilities taking out enemies with only a sensu which is a foldable paper fan. If that isn’t what we call badass I don’t know what is. Next we have both Baroness, played by Úrsula Corberó, and Scarlett, played by Samara Weaving, who are major characters from the original material of G.I Joe. Although they have minimal appearances in the overall film their presence is made very clear and their fighting scenes are good nonetheless. And to mention, although it isn’t Weaving’s first rodeo in a major film coming from her award winning Ready or Not feature film, it is Corberó’s first feature film. It was surprising to know, especially after seeing her performance as Baroness in this movie. Her character, while only showing up a good amount of times, was sold to me and the want to see more of the her story and her appearance grows.

The Problems

Now although I love my sweets first, coming from a filmmaker’s background I must bring some critiques into the this. While the choreography was amazing, the camera work lacked not that it failed but more so that certain shot choices took away from scenes. During a majority of the action scenes I believe Robert Schwentke, who directed this film, chose some shots that caused the scene to lose some of its traction, specifically talking about the shaking and what I imagine to be hand held camera shots during the fights. I’m not against using “shaky cam” for shots but when it’s longer than a few seconds in an already high movement frame its a cause for motion sickness, whether you are prone easily to it or not. It was included in what I would call dancing the line of abusing it, it’s not abusing it but it is very close. Aside from that particular camera critique, some dialogue was lose ended, I don’t blame the actors and actresses for how they delivered the line, they did the best they could with what they had. Yet some lines were at the point of not making sense or just unnecessary. Of course some are a thing of context, others I would say were written in a first pass and never looked at again.

Of course these are of my own personal experiences and could be completely fine for other viewers so I would advise to take it with a grain of salt if you haven’t already viewed the movie. Overall it is these two simple things that caused little problems for me.

Nun the less I enjoyed Snake Eyes: G.I Joe Origins and do recommend you go watch the film. It not only is a step forward for Asian representation in superhero films, not to mention the upcoming of Shang Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings but overall a great way of introducing old characters to a new generation. I will definitely be watching this movie once it arrives on VOD. But don’t take my word for it go watch it, let me know what you think, till next time, peace.