Alright, this is a quick extra post. During the last discussion for the At Odds with Wrestling homework, we all watched GI Joe: Retaliation. During the discussion the later movie, GI Joe Origins Snake Eyes, was mentioned. Adam said he would watch it for extra and I never saw the movie and there wasn’t anything I wanted to watch Saturday night. So I spent 2 hours with the ninja clan. 

I went into detail in the Retaliation write up, that the live action movies have yet to capture what is beloved about the GI Joe franchise. There are moments, but overall I feel the movies fail. The same applies to Snake Eyes. 

This is not a GI Joe movie. This is a martial arts movie with a heroic journey, that has a brand name attached to it. As a martial arts/revenge/ninja movie – its fun. I signed into an app I’m already subscribed to and watched it while eating dinner. That was worth my time. I got back what I put into it. 

As a GI Joe movie, I want my money back. Especially when the movie is called Snake Eyes. This story didn’t feel true to the cartoon or to Larry Hama. I am all for interpretations of characters as long as it stays true to the core of the character. West, Keaton, Bale, Pattinson – parents were killed in an alley and now dedicate their lives to fighting colorful bad guys in an attempt to save the city. The core stays the same. Snake Eyes was the coolest member of the Joe team as the mysterious covered up mute ninja. Not the main speaking role of the movie. Not getting the costume in the last minute. 

Storm Shadow is meant to have a redemption arc, but fighting against a terrorist organization for 95% of the movie, only to then join same terrorist organization makes no sense. 

The movie felt like a Joe movie thanks to Scarlett and Baroness. These two show up at least half way into the movie and bring so much attitude and excitement that I started to get excited in that 3 and ¾ inch way. In fact, I was doing mental gymnastic head cannon work to fit this non Snake Eyes into a larger GI Joe universe. 

I thought of the shared universe of Kevin Smith. Chasing Amy takes place and not until the third act do Jay and Silent Bob show up to tie it into the other movies. Thus, a movie that can stand on it’s own as it’s own thing now also exists in a shared universe. 

This movie could fit with a ninja clan battle that also happens in the world of GI Joe. Scarlett and Baroness show up to tie it into a larger franchise, and be bad ass, then the movie ends and we see other stand alone movies that are part of a larger world. 

For a movie that is meant to be about the number one bad ass from 1980’s cartoons, it didn’t really feel bad ass until the women showed up. I know I make my grease comments and it might seem I’m going that way again but really, these two looked cooler and added more to the movie than this Arashikage imposter could hope for. 

All movie opinions over the last two weeks aside, I will still watch another GI Joe movie any time in the future in hopes this time they get it right.