Starring Henry Golding, Andre Koji, Ursula Corbero, Samara Weaving, Iko Uwais

Directed by Robert Schwentke

Paramount, out now

When a young boy witnesses his father’s murder, it sets him on a path that will lead towards vengeance or redemption.

I’ll be honest, I went into this one with fairly low expectations. Having re-acquainted myself with 50% of the previous live-action movies based on the popular Hasbro toy line from the 80s and 90s, and having watched the trailer, it seemed odds on that this would be another fairly straightforward action flick based on kids’ toys with little imagination and more emphasis on flashy visuals and marketable toys than actual coherent plot. Safe to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

I was also forcibly reminded of another recent nostalgia-laden reboot when the trailer and the opening made it clear that this would be the story of an apparently washed-up MMA fighter and the birth and development of a legendary rivalry between two masked ninjas. But in fairness, this movie packs more action and well-choreographed fighting scenes into its first twenty minutes than Mortal Kombat got into its entire run time.

It’s basic enough stuff to start with – our titular character’s father gets killed by some obviously very bad news types when our hero is just a boy, he escapes but swears vengeance and then ends up as a drifter who makes a living going from place to place and fighting until the locals cotton on he won’t be beaten and he moves on again. So far, so basic. Offered an opportunity by a Yakuza crime boss to identify his father’s killer and take revenge in return for his services, he takes that chance and the trailer will have given you a fair idea of how that all works out.

And it’s then that the movie gets interesting. Snake Eyes (we never get his real name) gets an honest to goodness chance at redemption, and the complexities that are then thrown in the way of that make up the real meat and potatoes of the movie’s plot. What makes it all doubly compelling is that Andrew Koji’s Tommy Arashikage (a.k.a. Storm Shadow) is genuinely likeable and earnest where Henry Golding’s Snake Eyes is altogether more shadowy. Any person with even a passing familiarity with the franchise from which these characters have been drawn will know which sides these two end up on but the movie does a really good job of confounding expectations on that score, leaving the viewer constantly and genuinely wondering where this all might go.

Where it starts to get a little weaker is when the movie eventually gives in and starts introducing some of the other G.I. Joe franchise characters into the mix. It spends a while avoiding it but eventually in they come. Samara Weaving is fine and competent as Scarlet but aside from one reasonably amusing opening scene we never really get much of a sense of why she’s such a big deal. Ursula Corbero certainly gets her teeth into the role of the Baroness, and is a compelling screen presence, but the problem is that both of them rather feel like they’re intruding on the real story, as Snake Eyes and Tommy’s friendship grows and becomes more complicated, as Snake Eyes faces the challenges of becoming a full member of the Arashikage clan, seeking to pass their tests, and as he navigates other complications brought up by his own lust for vengeance. It’s a shame because this is a movie that really feels like it wants to immerse its characters and audience in the culture of Japan and the institutions, both fictional and real, it introduces as part of that. It’s rare to see a Hollywood action film that not only has so many Asian leads but also manages to put so much Asian culture front and centre without feeling like it’s fetishizing it. The appearance of Scarlet and the Baroness doesn’t exactly cheapen that, but they can’t help but feel like outsiders who could have easily been represented with brief cameos rather than full on screen roles.

That complication also likely explains why the movie feels a little on the long side. It really does seem as if it should be a snappy 90 minute actioner rather than the standard 2 hour fare, and the extra time comes partly from these characters and their involvement and partly from a surprisingly dumb plot point suddenly introduced which recasts the thing rather from blood feud between a clan and the man who feels slighted by them into that same man’s quest for (sigh) world domination using a powerful McGuffin.

If it has another fault it’s also that it can’t quite escape from some of the more basic impulses of the genre, having no-nonsense security chief Akiko (played with as much fierceness as she can extract from the thing by Haruka Abe) forge a deep emotional bond with Snake Eyes for no explicable reason.

But minor plot quibbles and a slightly overlong run time aside, this is a decent movie, far better than it really had any right to be. The cast are captivating, with Golding and Koji lighting up the screen and delivering equally compelling performances as their respective characters, and the fighting is intense and easy to watch, with action scenes that never outstay their welcome. Considering the source material, and how this sort of movie would normally go, this is a hell of a better time than you might expect, and certainly a deeper, more emotionally invested story than you’ll see coming.

Verdict: A slightly split personality, some odd character choices and a third act which undermines what went before somewhat don’t diminish that this is a damned good time if what you want is a nice action movie with a deeper than average plot. 7/10

Greg D. Smith