Paramount is surely on their last roll of the dice when it comes to the G.I. Joe brand. When Snake Eyes finally arrives next year having been delayed as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, it’ll mark the third movie in a row to feature an entirely different cast, as the studio continues to hope that one day the franchise will come anywhere close to matching the levels of commercial success enjoyed by the Transformers.
Stephen Sommers’ The Rise of Cobra took itself far too seriously for a $175 million blockbuster with such a ludicrous premise, and the end result came off as a live-action version of Team America without even the slightest hint of irony. It just about scraped past the $300 million mark at the box office, but reviews were mixed at best.
Four years later, Jon M. Chu’s Retaliation arrived, and while it added a much-needed sense of fun into the proceedings and takings were inevitably increased thanks to the presence of self-proclaimed ‘Franchise Viagra’ Dwayne Johnson, $375 million was still on the lower end of the projections. Rising star Henry Golding takes the lead in prequel spinoff Snake Eyes, and in a recent interview, he admitted that he’s already got his sights set on a multi-film series.
“I think the heart of the story really is who Snake is and his journey as a person, really. Understanding his motivations. I can’t give away too much, but it really focuses on the one person instead of having 20 people on screen and understanding background. We start from the beginning. And, hopefully, this launches an amazing franchise.”
Golding has been frequently telling everyone who’ll listen that the project is going to be great, which is obviously his job as the leading man, but so far critics and audiences have remained largely apathetic to the adventures of the elite military unit. We’re bound to get a good G.I. Joe movie eventually, but the jury is still out on whether or not Snake Eyes will be the one to deliver it.