Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 21, 2021

The G.I. Joe brand may be held in high nostalgic esteem by the generation that grew up playing with the toys in the 1980s and consuming the accompanying cartoon, but the franchise's fate on the big screen has left a poor taste in the mouth. Notwithstanding the original 1987 animated feature film, which was true to the Saturday morning cartoon roots, the bloated big screen adaptations that released decades later may have made some money at the box office but were not particularly well received by the nostalgia hungry masses. Like every other property, it seems, Hollywood couldn't just make a movie...it had to rebuild the brand, essentially killing off any sense of fan loyalty or connection to it in the process. The first film was a particularly egregious example of the Hollywood-ing of a favorite franchise. The sequel fared a little better but by then the damage was done; Joe just wasn't Joe in the live action arena, at least not as adapted to Hollywood formula. Fast forward to 2021's Snake Eyes, an origins story for the coolest cat in the toy line. The film is passably effective for what it is, a hybrid of original story and familiar elements in place to reel the original Joe audience back into the fold. The movie does not withstand scrutiny in any way, but as mindless entertainment with a few stabs at working in familiar character beats and plot devices it's a decent entertainer though hardly a groundbreaking franchise adaptation.

As a child, the man who goes by the name "Snake Eyes" (Henry Golding) witnessed his father's murder at the hands of a ruthless assassin. Two decades later, he has grow into an expert underground fighter with the singular goal of avenging his father's death, of killing the man responsible for tearing his world down. He is recruited into the Los Angeles Yakuza, playing a part in a gun smuggling operation, but when he is tasked with killing a fellow gang member, Tommy (Andrew Koji), he instead, with Tommy's help, fights his way out of the gang. Snake Eyes and Tommy retreat to the peaceful but powerful Arashikage Clan in Japan where Snake Eyes is trained in the ancient arts. However, desperate to find his father's killer, Snake Eyes is secretly working against the clan in order to steal a priceless jewel imbued with magical powers.

There are two important factors to consider with a movie like Snake Eyes: one, how faithful is it to the original cartoon and comic storylines and, two, does it work as a movie within the G.I. Joe universe? The answer to the first is "not very" and the answer to the second is "somewhat." The cartoon certainly never did any serious deep-diving into its characters; it existed to sell product, was essentially an extended campaign ad for Hasbro's toys, and while fans were occasionally thrown a bone or two to build up the roster's backstories, it was mostly about throwing "cool" characters on the screen and putting them into action scenes. Snake Eyes was always the "coolest" of the "cool" and, for costume and silence alone, was always the character with the greatest opportunity for rich backstory development and study. He got some of that in the comics, but those core background elements have not been translated to this screen adaptation. The film takes plenty of liberty in doing what it will with the character but more often than not it squanders potential with a backstory riddled with genre cliché: he's a character who witnessed his father's murder and grew into a physically tough young man hellbent on avenging him. His story follows wrong turns made right and the training he would receive to sharpen body and mind in preparation for integration into the Joe arena. The movie focuses on him; there's no character sprawl and only minimal integration of familiar names and faces, the bare minimum to establish the place of G.I. Joe and Cobra in Snake Eyes' world.

The action is tight if not uncannily unoriginal in the grand scheme of things. Often watching these scenes unfold is a matter of patience and perseverance rather than adrenaline and excitement. That is not to say that they are poorly constructed and executed -- far from it -- it's just that scenes like these have been done to death. And even when there's a literal stab at something new, when Snake Eyes and Tommy are in a truck cab that gets punctured by a dozen or two swords (leaving only one character injured when both should have been impaled several times by sheer accident alone considering the number of swords and the tight confines), the movie just can't muster up any sense of dread or danger. Jaded? Yes. But deservedly so. The same goes for the acting and characters. Everything is well within spec, but that's the problem. Snake Eyes, for all its external polish and admirable attempts to do something with the characters, is ultimately just the latest turn on the franchise merry-go-round that tries to hide the fact that it has nothing to contribute by contributing everything every other movie of its kind from the last two decades has already contributed.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

This is the shinier, glossier version of Snake Eyes. The film's 2160p/Dolby Vision UHD presentation offers a good boost over the concurrently released Blu-ray, revealing a picture that is firmer, finer, sharper, and a more pleasurable viewing experience. The resolution gain reveals the basic gamut of improvements over the 1080p counterpart, including more intimate detail clarity, enhanced image sharpness, and more refined locations, costumes, graphics, everything the movie has to offer bears the fruit of the pixel density boost. Fans will appreciate the enhanced clarity and stability on display. The Dolby Vision color grading likewise offers a superior output. Tones are deeper, particularly blacks, which are inky smooth and very fine, finding a place of true black without crushing out fine detail on hairs or clothes or shadowy backgrounds. Bright colors -- a barrage of neon hues seen during one of the film's signature action scenes partway through -- burst out of the screen with tremendous vibrancy and brilliance, far surpassing the Blu-ray for light level intensity, clarity, and overall eye-popping goodness. Overall brightness is amplified as well without betraying a mood or time of day (the escape at the 17-minute mark being a great example of how the UHD brings more output intensity to a scene without fundamentally altering the visual tone). Whites are crisper, too, and flesh tones appear more stable and lifelike compared to the Blu-ray. The picture is free from all but the finest noise and there are no encode troubles to report, either. This is a very good looking UHD from Paramount.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Snake Eyes' Dolby Atmos soundtrack delivers everything expected of it. Action scenes are expressively large and fluid. Stage movement is seamless from one speaker to the next while discrete effects are perfectly positioned. Vigorous surround extension is the norm. Atmospherics are likewise full and make use of every speaker in the configuration. Rich rain and thunder effects are heard at the 48-minute mark, full of expressive placement and engagement to bring the scene specifics home. Musical presentation is everything it should be for volume, intensity, engagement, low end extension, and so on: perfection. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized from the front-center location. There's nothing to complain about with this one.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release of Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins includes a handful of featurettes and some deleted scenes. A digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Morning Light: A Weapon with Stories to Tell (1080p, 3:11): A super-quick, all-too-brief look at the history behind Snake Eyes' weapon: Morning Light. The story is told through narrated animation.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 2:07 total runtime): Included are Akiko Trains, Snake Eyes' Sword Play, Blind Master's Kunai Throw, House Attack, and Tommy Unleashed.
• Enter Snake Eyes (1080p, 9:31): A closer look at the Snake Eyes character: his mission, his relationship with Tommy, crafting key action scenes, the Snake Eyes costume, and more.
• A Deadly Ensemble (1080p, 6:22): A look at the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow relationship and several of the new characters designed for the film and returning familiar names and faces.
• Arashikage (1080p, 6:59): A look at the history of the Arashikage clan.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Snake Eyes is best described as "satisfactory." "Proficient." "Competent." These are not bad words, but neither are they good words. And Anything "middle ground" best describes this middle-of-the-road film. It does everything well. It does nothing poorly but it does nothing extraordinarily. It holds serve as an origins story, an action film, a human interest tale, and so on and so forth. Where the character goes from here is anyone's guess, but probably straight into another try-hard that works well enough but doesn't really move the needle. "Next year at the local multiplex!..." At least fans will find this to be a very good UHD, the limited supplemental content notwithstanding. Video and audio are about where they should be for a movie of this style. Recommended to fans.