What critics considered the most recent GI Joe film

Henry Golding and Samara Weaving star in Paramount’s “Snake Eyes”.

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Once again, a stellar cast cannot save the GI Joe franchise from a terrible script, say critics.

Paramount’s “Snake Eyes” hits theaters on Friday with a “Rotten” score of 41% from Rotten Tomatoes, the sum total of 70 reviews.

The film stars Henry Golding (“Crazy Rich Asians”) as Snake Eyes, a rough loner looking for revenge after witnessing his father’s death at a young age. Fans of Hasbro’s toy franchise know that the character is destined to join the GI Joe team, a covert organization affiliated with the U.S. armed forces.

“Snakes Eyes” takes some liberties with the source material, as it swaps the blond, blue-eyed Caucasian ninja from the comics for Golding, who is of Malaysian descent. In previous iterations, Snake Eyes is also mute, the result of a helicopter explosion.

Part of the character’s appeal was its ambiguous backstory. Much of Snake Eyes’ past has been blacked out on his files, although it is implied that he had extensive military training before joining the Joes.

“[‘Snake Eyes’] takes the most popular GI Joe character and completely demystifies him until all that remains is a mild, handsome guy with a sword, “wrote Matt Singer in his review of the film for ScreenCrush.” ​​In the previous GI Joe films, Snake Eyes spoke never. Now that I’ve heard what he has to say, I prefer the alternative. “

“Snake Eyes” was Paramount and Hasbro’s attempt to revive the GI Joe franchise, which failed after “The Rise of Cobra” in 2009 and “Retaliation” in 2013, despite all the star casts to increase demand.

“The Rise of Cobra” brought together Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid, Christopher Eccleston, Sienna Miller and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and received a 34% “Rotten” score from Rotten Tomatoes. “Retaliation” added Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson and Elodie Yung, and received a “Rotten” score of 29%.

“People usually rate Transformers as the worst franchise based on any toy line,” Singer wrote. “What ‘Snake Eyes’ implies, maybe it isn’t?”

This is what critics thought of “Snake Eyes” before it was released in theaters on Friday.

Brandon Katz, observer

Despite a legacy of “medium-defining hits” like “The Godfather,” “Forrest Gump,” and “Titanic,” Paramount has spent the last decade producing large budget franchise tentsticks that are “often ornate in construction and individuality for generic Bypassed reverse engineering “. Merchandise vehicles, “wrote Brandon Katz in his” Snake Eyes “review for Observer.

Many critics lamented the film’s thin script and sloppy attempts at character development, including Katz.

“The script is full of clichés, tropes and never-ending predictability,” he said.

Katz noted that the film was shot well by cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, but impressive fight sequences were often overloaded with shaky camera footage.

Read the full review from Observer.

Still from “Snake Eyes”.

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Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

“Henry Golding has an undeniable on-screen presence,” wrote Lindsey Bahr in her Associated Press review of the film. “He looks good, sure. Lots of actors are. But Golding also has the effortless charisma that the greatest movie stars have.”

While many critics agreed that Henry Golding had star power, the charismatic actor had little material to showcase his talents.

“Snake Eyes” “understands the attraction of its star completely wrong,” said Bahr. “Golding just isn’t the right actor for the role. It’s not exactly bad, just wrongly cast and abused. And despite the novel additions and lightning bolts around him, his character is pathetically generic. “

Read the full Associated Press review.

Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

For Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post, Golding’s appearance was as stiff as a “plastic toy”.

“To loosen it up, however, Golding signed terrible material that shouldn’t have existed at all,” he wrote in his review.

Throughout the film, Snake Eyes flatters an ancient Japanese ninja clan called Arashikage. To become a member of this clan, he must complete three deadly tasks. However, according to Oleksinski, these challenges are slow and don’t serve the ultimate climax of the story – Snake Eyes becomes a joe.

At the end of the day, “Snake Eyes” is “a little better than the relentless puke” of previous GI Joe iterations, he said, but still a “joke-free slog”.

Read the full review from the New York Post.

Henry Golding stars in Paramount’s “Snake Eyes”.

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Sören Andersen, The Seattle Times

The fighting sequences promised in the trailer for “Snake Eyes” were “full of sword fighting and gunfire,” but “choppy and somewhat sloppy,” wrote Soren Anderson of the Seattle Times.

“It is as if [director Robert] Schwentke operates from a checklist of expected action film clichés and rushes through them all, “he wrote.

“Snake Eyes” also tries to incorporate favorite characters from the GI Joe franchise like Scarlett (Samara Weaving) and the Baroness (Ursula Corbero). However, they become “so randomly” included in history that their presence is confusing, Anderson said.

“You scratch your head: ‘Who are these women?’ Answer: You are there to set the stage for the inevitable sequels, “he wrote. “Spare us.”

Read the full Seattle Times review.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes.