July 29, 2021 – A mediocre mess of emotions, swords, sorcery and mixed loyalties explodes onto the big screen as an action movie that doesn't make much sense, but it sure is loud.

Arbitrary character motivations, credulity-straining plot points, and fight scenes that look like they came out of a blender, form a hazy impression of a movie that fails to fulfill the more focused promise of its trailer.

Henry Golding (“Crazy Rich Asians”) plays the title character, which was originally played by skilled martial arts actor Ray Park in “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” Those earlier G.I. Joe films, because of the uniforms and face coverings used in these kinds of martial arts sequences, allowed filmmakers to use anonymous stunt men and skilled martial arts performers in fight scenes.

Perhaps the use of maskless fighters, as well as scenes with large numbers of fighters in this film, are two reasons these fight scenes seem to suffer by comparison to the earlier G.I. Joe films and more recent films like “Mulan” (2020) “Triple Threat” (2019) and even streaming series like Netflix's “Daredevil” (2015-2018). Camera work and editing also seem to contribute to the jumbled look of many of the film's fight scenes.

One of the main missions of this movie is to establish the complicated relationship between the film's two main characters, Snake Eyes (Golding) and Tommy Arashikage/Storm Shadow (Andrew Koji). It does this by way of arbitrary character motivations and shifting rules, applied by Sen (Eri Ishida) who is the leader of the Arashikage Ninja Clan (she is also Tommy's grandmother). Snake Eyes is also rescued from certain death by another clan rule-breaker, Akiko (Haruka Abe of “Cruella”).

I found it confusing that the movie spends time setting up a lot of rules relating to the Ninja clan that Snake Eyes was trying to join, but then those same rules, supposedly enforced without exception, are arbitrarily broken later on in the story.

In the earlier G.I. Joe movies, there were liberal science fiction elements, but almost none in this film. Instead, there is a magical jewel that emits destructive rays, and Harry Potter-type supernatural snakes that are part of a clan initiation test.

In sum, this movie is more down to earth for the most part, with virtually no science fiction and few supernatural elements. Instead it is very reliant on standard martial arts action and eastern philosophy. Modern weapons are in evidence, but, for the most part, the action scenes involve swordplay.

The story begins with Snake Eyes as a boy witnessing his father's murder. He vows revenge on those who killed his father, and that is his sole motivation for most of the film. Later on in the film, Snake Eyes learns why his father was killed, and who was behind it. These revelations cause Snake Eyes to reevaluate his loyalties, and they determine his future path in life.

It seems to me that events and motivations that lead Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow to choose separate sides in opposing organizations, could have been manipulated in a more convincing, more emotional way. This movie sets them up as friends, then as enemies, but the setup is not very imaginative, or convincing.

This is not the fault of Henry Golding, Andrew Koji (who is also skilled in the martial arts) and Haruka Abe, who play their parts well. The fault, as usual in cases like this, lies in the screenplay. I liked the first two G.I. Joe films more than I liked this one, and I did find this one disappointing because I thought it would be better. This rates a C.

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