Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (also known simply as Snake Eyes) is a 2021 American superhero film directed by Robert Schwentke from a screenplay by Evan Spiliotopoulos, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse. Based on Hasbro's G.I. Joe media franchise, the film serves as an origin story for the title character, in addition to being a reboot of the G.I. Joe film series. It stars Henry Golding as Snake Eyes, with Andrew Koji, Úrsula Corberó, Samara Weaving, and Iko Uwais in supporting roles.
The project was first announced in May 2018, with Golding being cast in the titular role in August 2019 and the rest of the cast joining in subsequent months. After initial filming took place in Vancouver and Japan from October 2019 to February 2020, reshoots took place in March 2021.
Snake Eyes was theatrically released in the United States on July 23, 2021, by Paramount Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the editing, writing and direction of the action scenes, but praised the performances and production values. The film was a Box Office Flop, grossing $36.9 million against the budget is $88 million and was lost to $197 million approximately with $160-170 million break even point.
== Plot ==
A young boy is orphaned when his father is murdered. Years later, the boy has grown into a talented and deadly martial arts fighter, driven by a desire to avenge his father. To conceal his true identity, he calls himself "Snake Eyes", a name inspired by watching his father's murderer force him to roll a pair of dice to determine his fate; his father was killed when he rolled double ones.
Shortly after winning a fight, Snake Eyes is approached by a wealthy Yakuza boss, Kenta, who offers to find his father's killer if Snake Eyes works for him. When Snake Eyes is asked to prove his loyalty by shooting a man who betrayed Kenta's trust, Snake Eyes deliberately misses the shot and helps the traitor escape. The traitor is revealed to be Kenta’s cousin, Tommy. Tommy and Kenta were both in line to lead Clan Arashikage, an ancient society devoted to preserving order and fighting evil. Kenta sought to kill his cousin, but failed, and was banished. 
Grateful to Snake Eyes for helping him escape, Tommy takes Snake Eyes to his clan and asks that he be initiated as a member. The current clan leader, Tommy’s grandmother Sen, agrees to let Snake Eyes undergo three trials to determine whether he is worthy of membership. The clan's head of security, Akiko, doesn’t trust Snake Eyes, but he wins her trust by revealing his father's murder and explains that is why there is no recorded history of him. Unbeknownst to anyone, Snake Eyes plans to betray his new allies. Tommy’s attempted murder and escape is shown to have been staged by Kenta in order to get Snake Eyes close enough to steal the clan's most sacred treasure, the "Jewel of the Sun".
Snake Eyes finds himself increasingly torn between his guilt over betraying Tommy and his clan, and his overwhelming desire for revenge. He passes the first two trials with his exceptional talents, and learns that the third and final trial requires his spirit to be tested by sacred anacondas, who know whether or not he is truly pure of heart. Due to Snake Eyes’ secrets, the snakes attack him, but Akiko saves him from being killed. Confronted by the clan, Snake Eyes admits that he has been not been honest, but manages to hide the true reason he betrayed the clan. As a consequence, he is expelled. 
Snake Eyes returns in secret and steals the jewel using his knowledge of the clan's temple, delivering it to Kenta. Kenta explains that he is stealing the jewel on behalf of a terrorist organization known as Cobra. Cobra, through their liaison, the Baroness, has been arming Kenta with weapons so that he can seize control of Clan Arashikage. Snake Eyes receives his reward for stealing the jewel: his father’s killer, who turns out to be a Cobra agent. Having realized what his bloodlust has cost him, Snake Eyes spares the man and instead goes back to Clan Arashikage to warn them of Kenta's attack. 
Tommy puts aside his anger and lets Snake Eyes assist him and the clan's warriors, including Scarlett, a member of G.I. Joe, an international peacekeeping organization, in fighting off Kenta's men. After Kenta admits that he has no intention of handing over the jewel, the Baroness forms a temporary alliance with the clan and Scarlett. With his men defeated, Kenta loses the jewel to Tommy, who in his fury tries to use its power to murder his cousin. Kenta manages to escape, but Snake Eyes traps him in the anaconda pit, where the snakes devour Kenta upon sensing his evil spirit. They judge Snake Eyes to be pure of heart for forgoing his revenge and thus he becomes worthy to join the clan.
After the fight, Sen tells Tommy that he is no longer fit to lead the clan as he broke their vow to never use the jewel. Enraged at being denied his birthright, Tommy forsakes the clan and his own family. Snake Eyes meets with Scarlett, who explains that his father was a G.I. Joe agent. She offers Snake Eyes a chance to become a Joe. 
In a mid-credit scene, The Baroness locates Tommy, who now calls himself Storm Shadow, and recruits him into Cobra.
== Cast ==
* Henry Golding as Snake Eyes:A lone fighter with a mysterious past, known only as "Snake Eyes", who is recruited into the secretive Clan Arashikage. The events of the film portray the character prior to becoming the heroic masked agent of the G.I. Joe organization. Max Archibald plays the young Snake Eyes.
* Andrew Koji as Thomas "Tommy" Arashikage / Storm Shadow:A skilled member and the heir of Clan Arashikage, and Snake Eyes' friend and brother in arms, who will eventually become his archenemy.
* Úrsula Corberó as Baroness:An elite operative at Cobra, a terrorist organization, who is second only to Cobra Commander.
* Samara Weaving as Scarlett:An agent of both G.I. Joe and Clan Arashikage.
* Iko Uwais as Hard Master:A formidable member of Clan Arashikage, and the uncle of Tommy.
* Haruka Abe as Akiko:The Arashikage's head of security, who has deep ties to both Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.
* Takehiro Hira as Kenta:Tommy's cousin, a member of Cobra, who seeks control of Clan Arashikage.
* Peter Mensah as Blind Master:A blind member of Clan Arashikage.
* Steven Allerick as Snake Eyes’ father
* Samuel Finzi as Mr. Augustine
* Eri Ishida as Sen
* Mojo Rawley as Bruiser Streetfighter
== Production ==
In May 2018, it was announced the next installment of the G.I. Joe franchise was to be a spin-off film chronicling the origins of the character Snake Eyes. In December, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated that Ray Park, who had played the character in the previous films, would not reprise his role for this film. Robert Schwentke was set as director that same month.
In August 2019, Henry Golding was cast to star in the title role. Andrew Koji was then cast as Storm Shadow, taking over the role from Lee Byung-hun, who played the character in the previous films. In September, Iko Uwais entered negotiations to join the film as Hard Master, and Úrsula Corberó was cast as Baroness. Uwais was confirmed in October, with Haruka Abe, Samara Weaving and Takehiro Hira added to the cast. Steven Allerick was announced as part of the cast in December. On Golding's Instagram post, it shows that Peter Mensah with the cast as he joined as Blind Master, taking over the role from RZA, who played him in the previous films.
Filming began on October 15, 2019 in Vancouver and was expected to continue until December 9. Filming moved to Japan on January 10, 2020. Filming wrapped on February 26, 2020. Golding announced on March 2021 that reshoots for the film had occurred.
== Release ==
Snake Eyes was released on July 23, 2021 in Dolby Cinema and IMAX. It was originally scheduled for release on March 27, 2020, before being delayed to October 16, and then a week later to October 23, 2020. The film was then removed from the release schedule on July 27, 2020, due to nationwide theater closures in the United States in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paramount later rescheduled the film for October 22, 2021, before it was moved up to July 23, 2021.
The film would be available to stream on Paramount+ 45 days after it releases in theaters.
== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
, Snake Eyes has grossed $28.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $8.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $36.9 million. The film need to gross $160–175 million in order to break-even.
In the United States and Canada, Snake Eyes was released alongside Old and Joe Bell, and was projected to gross around $15 million from 3,521 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $5.5 million on its first day, including $1.4 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $13.4 million, finishing second at the box office behind Old.The opening weekend, while in-line with projections, was deemed disappointing given the film's expensive production and promotional costs, and blamed on the ongoing pandemic, lukewarm critical reviews, and audiences being more selective of what films they were seeing in theaters than in a normal marketplace. The film fell 70% to $4 million in its sophomore weekend, finishing seventh, then made $1.6 million in its third weekend, dropping to eighth.
=== Critical response ===
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 42% based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Far from silent and not particularly deadly, Snake Eyes serves as a step up for the G.I. Joe franchise According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 43 out of 100 based on 30 critics, the film received "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 69% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 46% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club wrote: "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins doesn't reach the giddy, earnest heights of something like Aquaman or a Wachowski project. It methodically sets up sequels—to be recast and released around 2030, judging by the Joess cinematic track record so far. But the dubiousness of its present-day achievement, the sheer ludicrousness of making the best G.I. Joe movie in 2021, is part of the dumbfounding fun." Varietys Owen Gleiberman said the film "looks almost nothing like a G.I. Joe movie" and wrote: "Snake Eyes, as directed by Robert Schwentke... has style and verve, with a diabolical family plot that creates a reasonable quota of actual drama. The movie is also a synthetic but infectiously skillful big-studio hodgepodge of ninja films, wuxia films, yakuza films, and international revenge films."
Writing for /Film, Hoai-Tran Bui said that "[the] fight scenes are almost exclusively shot in close-up and shaky cam, and when they're not, they're edited so much that Snake Eyes might as well have shredded the frames with his sword."
== Future ==
In May 2020, a follow-up film was announced to be in development, with a script co-written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, and Golding reprising his role as Snake Eyes. Lorenzo di Bonaventura will return as producer, while the project will be a joint-venture production between Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Entertainment One, and di Bonaventura Pictures.
== References ==
== External links ==
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== Videos ==
File:Snake Eyes Official Trailer (2021 Movie) – Henry Golding
File:Snake Eyes NEW Trailer - "Behind The Mask" (2021 Movie) - Henry Golding, G.I. Joe
File:Snake Eyes - Final Trailer (2021 Movie) - Henry Golding, G.I. Joe
Category:English-language films
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