GI Joe’s Snake Eyes Trailer Makes It A Martial Arts Epic
The Snake Eyes trailer reveals a new take for the GI Joe origins movie.
This article is more than 2 years old
Many believe that Snake Eyes, the newest installment in the G.I. Joe franchise, will either make or break the Paramount Pictures flop from 2009. Indeed, Snake Eyes is the reboot of the G.I. Joe movie series, centering on the origin story of one of the franchise’s most beloved characters – Snake Eyes. However, unlike its predecessors, Snake Eyes won’t be a sci-fi military action movie but a martial arts epic, as the movie’s trailer reveals.
Watch the Snakes Eyes trailer below.
The new Snake Eyes trailer is littered with martial arts fighting scenes in which the titular hero fights on top of moving cars and neon-lit rooftops using his trusty katana sword. The sheer number of katana swords, ninjas, and ninja clans sets the movie’s narrative as a martial arts epic instead of its predecessors’ military action sci-fi storytelling. It also reveals Henry Golding as a ninja action hero, Snake Eyes (instead of previously seen Ray Park) in Golding’s alleged attempt to create a money-spinning franchise of its own. It’s about time the G.I. Joe cinematic universe started earning some money, don’t you think?
After years in developmental limbo caused by the poor earnings of its predecessors, Snake Eyes finished filming in February of last year. Unfortunately, like many others, it delayed its release due to the ongoing pandemic, which gave the cast and crew more time to wrap things up with some last-minute reshoots. The movie is now set to release exclusively to cinemas in July this year after Paramount released a Snake Eyes trailer to kick off the promotional campaign for their upcoming martial arts epic.
As seen in the trailer, at least partially, Snake Eyes centers on the origin story of one of the G.I. Joe Team’s most prominent and most popular members. The younger Snake Eyes we’ve seen in the trailer resembles very little of the silent hero the fandom of G.I. Joe franchise fell in love with, as he’s seen without his iconic mask and speaking clearly – something he doesn’t do in the comics. This sets up the origin story, which we can only presume will lead to the events in which he adorns his iconic mask and falls silent towards everyone but Scarlett, a team member who translates Snake Eyes thoughts to the rest of G.I. Joe Team.
Judging from what we’ve seen in the Snake Eyes trailer and the recent spark of interest in martial arts epics, like Mortal Kombat and the upcoming Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings, Snake Eyes has the potential to make an office box hit. However, despite the fandom’s excitement about the upcoming release, the critics aren’t really convinced that it will perform as well as the fandom expects, given the previous franchise flops.
The original movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, released in 2009, didn’t do well at the box office and had less-than-favorable responses with the audience and critics. The sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, was released in 2013, featuring Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis, whose presence was supposed to boost the movie’s critics’ response and earning, but it suffered the same fate as the original film. After seeing the Snake Eyes trailer, we really hope things go a different way this time around with Snake Eyes. We’ll have to wait for July 23 to find out.
