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 elieve
it or not, the aptly titled "Snakes on a
Plane" began life when studio execs tried to
come up with the worst movie concept ever: a
myriad of venomous and very angry snakes are
released on a plane while in mid-air and start
attacking passengers. As a joke, they put this
idea on a website, to see what the public reaction
would be. However, in a surprising twist, people
loved it, and began to post up ideas for scenes
and casting on
internet forums. Even the odd "fan
fiction" script was written. "Snakes on
a Plane" (or "SoaP" for short)
quickly became the biggest goldmine in
Hollywood
for years. And, with the script being translated
more or less exactly from fans' ideas and Samuel
L. Jackson cast as lead, "SoaP" was
championed as the film that would save America's
waning movie industry. So, with millions of fans
and a wealth of hype behind it, only one question
remains: is "Snakes on a Plane" as good
as it's cracked up to be? The answer: a resounding
"no".
Don't get me wrong,
"SoaP" is not a bad movie; it's
light-hearted, funny and pretty entertaining
throughout. It's just not great. The plot is
incredibly contrived, leaving the storyline
completely predictable to anyone familiar with 80s
slasher flicks and 90s disaster movies: the
titular snakes are released in the vague hope that
this will end the life of passenger Sean Jones
(Nathan Philips), a witness against Eddie Kim, a
Chinese/Hawaiian gangster. It is up to the
archetypal "armed forces badass" (in
this case
FBI agent Neville Flynn, played by Samuel L.
Jackson) to save the day, as the passengers and
crew begin to die.
"SoaP" sticks
steadfastly to the conventions of the
aforementioned genres, without even aspiring to do
anything different. This could be viewed as a
cinematic technique; creating a film that is
rooted undeniably in genre as opposed to creating
something new, a la Quentin Tarantino. However,
unlike Tarantino's films, this damages the movie
incredibly. Every single aspect of
"SoaP" is horribly generic, from stock
characters such as token blacks and a supercilious
Englishman, to the oh-so-predictable ending.
Everyone knows that in movies of this calibre, the
first people to die are those who have sex or
those who get high; so is it really any surprise
that the first victims of the snakes are a young
couple who have sex whilst
getting high?
As well as lacking in
originality, "SoaP" also lacks
consistency in a big way. It's obvious that
countless people contributed to the story, as the
movie feels disjointed in terms of story and
style. We start off in
Hawaii
, as Sean Jones witnesses a murder at the hands of
Kim. Somehow, Kim's men find out where he lives,
and try to break into his house. Even more
miraculously, agent Neville Flynn manages to find
him before the gangsters do and whisks him off to
an airport so he can fly out to LA and testify in
a murder trial. Every occurrence in
"SoaP" seems way too convenient, and any
coherency it may have falls through giant plot
holes. For example, if Eddie Kim really wanted
Sean Jones dead, why didn't he just wait until he
arrived in LA and kill him there, rather than go
to the trouble of smuggling hundreds of species of
poisonous snakes onto a heavily-guarded plane?
But, if you're watching a
movie called "Snakes on a Plane" for the
plot then you're probably watching it for the
wrong reason. "SoaP" is a funny, cheesy
and fairly entertaining film. What's more, it's
actually funny on purpose. Samuel L. Jackson
delivers some quality lines in a way that only he
can, and saves the movie with his very presence.
There are some pretty cool deaths to boot,
although most are deliberate in trying to make the
viewer squirm (the snakes instinctively go for
nipples, eyeballs, tongues and one guy's penis).
Most importantly, however, "SoaP" does
not take itself seriously at all, and never tries
to give you anything other than 90 minutes of
action, black humour and snake-related fatalities.
I probably would have enjoyed
"SoaP" a lot more if there weren't so
much hype. After hearing literally millions of
people talk the film up for six months, it's only
natural to be a little disappointed by the end
product. However, fans of the film continue to
champion it as an Oscar-worthy flick, rating it
very high on IMDb. Which is a shame, because too
much hype can ruin a film. "Snakes on a
Plane" should be enjoyed as light
entertainment, nothing more. It's not deep, and
it's not great, but it is a good popcorn movie.
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