Disclaimer: There may be spoilers below, so if any of the content pictured below is of interest, proceed with caution.
As far as the "badass femme getting revenge" genre goes, this movie ranks up there. First, Samuel Jackson doesn't play his usual self which is a plus. He's a more muted and reserved version of himself as compared to most of his roles. In fact, not sure he said "motherfucker" one time! Maggie Q is a great femme fatale, asskicking assassin who plays the role well. But the standout that one-upped her a bit was Michael Keating who plays her nemesis. Like most movies in this genre, you basically know how it ends but the question is if the trip to get there was worth it. In this case, it was.
The third movie in the live action G.I. Joe series, since the originally planned third (Vigilant) seems to have been shelved or delayed, apparently takes place in an "alternate continuity". Maybe to explain the change in actor playing Snake Eyes from Ray Park to Henry Golding? Anyway, this movie is a long string of plot holes and continuity flaws bundled together in a really weak storyline with magic rocks and faerie lights. The only thing we really get from this is how Snake Eyes got his name. This is a big departure from the first (Rise of Cobra) and second movie (Retaliation) that were actually entertaining and over-the-top enough to make them fun. In their attempt to make it a bit more serious they lost the feel of the prior and served up a dud.
First, this is not really a sequel in the sense you don't have to see the first to appreciate the second. A few characters carry over but the plot is basically the same, and that is just fine. A wonderful group of misfits given a serious task that is doomed to fail. The one thing this movie did better than the first was humor; consistently good humor from start to finish. The casting is top notch across the board, each of the squad likeable to varying degrees. The only nitpick is less about the movie perhaps and more about the DC universe. Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Deadshot... the amount of characters that have the same skill gets a bit redundant and lacks creativity. Easy to get past for this movie though, as it creates a healthy and fun contest between two characters.
The introduction is dumbed down beyond all belief, making it very clear that Statham is not just a regular new hire. Next we get an overdose of pedestrian toxic masculinity that is decidedly boring and not creative. Transition into Statham's character being impossibly badass before the writers making a segment impossibly dumb for us idiot viewers just as we get the explanation for why Statham is where he is. For the final phase we're led down the road seeing the same thing from different sides taking half an hour to get thirty seconds of what we need for the story and into the predictable ending. This movie was basically a handful of scenes and dialogue the writers thought were oh-so cool and molded an entire movie around it. In total, about two minutes of this movie is original or clever; the rest is by the heist / revenge playbook.
