By this point in my reviewing career (that’s not really a career), I’ve already watched 8 movies of the Sniper franchise and if I’m being honest with you, the herculean patience require to wait hours for the perfect shot is a piece of piss compared to the patience that’s required to watch these fuckers and then write over a thousand words about them. While none have been truly exemplary, some have certainly been better than others, but even taking that into the equation hasn’t stopped the levels of dread grow when it comes time to sit in front of another.
However, while I would quickly hesitate to call it a classic, my viewing of Sniper: Rogue Mission – the 9th instalment of the unkillable stealth franchise – proved to be something that Sniper entries rarely often are… fun.
There’s a certain consensus that could argue that maybe this possibly wasn’t the right instalment to choose to use a lighter, snazzier touch (more details on that later), but after 8 instalments of can-I-shoot-him-before-he-shoots-me shenanigans, I’m more than happy for the surprise distraction.
Since we last saw former sniper Brandon Beckett, he had finally hung up the long range rifle in order to become a full, card carrying member of the CIA. When we meet up with him, he’s staking out entrepreneur Laura Lake as a favour to his buddy Zero (aka. fellow CIA agent Zeke Rosenberg) who believes she’s behind a massive, global, sex trafficking ring that he and a strike team are barely minutes away from shutting down once and for all. However, as Beckett watches, he sees that Lake has some startling company that night, none other than Harvey Cusamano, the Deputy Chief of the United States Border Patrol who probably is the reason that Zero’s mission ends up being a tragic bust thanks to the traffickers getting advance warning and escaping after executing almost all of the cam girls held against their will.
But wait, did I say almost all? That’s right, thanks to one of the slightly less creepy IT guys smuggling her out before disaster hits, Mary Jane manages to escape and makes it to local authorities who soon give Zero a call. Meanwhile, after apprehending Cusamano, Beckett gets a swift lesson in CIA politics and red tape when Colonel Gabriel Stone has to step in and reveal that there’s no way that arrest could possibly stick and promptly demands the former snipers badge.
Realising that corruption is everywhere and the Colonel is way to jaded and close to retirement to fight it any more, Beckett and Zero team up to not only protect Mary Jane, but try to bring down the trafficking ring themselves. Recruiting former enemy, the lethal ninja sniper known only as Lady Death, to their team after discovering she wasn’t deported but has been working as a waitress in a cafe New York. As the dysfunctional team starts to bond and the traffickers struggle to clear up the last loose threads, the two groups are due to clash with bloodshed on the cards.
At this point, I don’t think we could get further away from the stern tone and sweaty jungle surroundings of the original Sniper, which I suppose technically makes Rogue Mission a terrible example of the franchise. However, the infusion of perky banter, a far lighter tone and some action sequences that add more complex, almost Mission: Impossible/Man From U.N.C.L.E style beats to proceedings rather than the heavy handed military worship and self loathing sniping we usually get. There’s a massive problem with this of course and if you’ve paid close attention to the synopsis, you can probably guess what it is too. While that up-beat, almost MCU glibness proves to add a major shot in the arm to the weathered franchise, it does mean that funniest entry by far has curiously decided to start cracking jokes the exact moment the plot set its crosshairs on the notoriously unfunny subject of sex trafficking.
In fact, before the zippy, 70s inspired credits sequence kicks in that feels weirdly like your about to watch an episode of Archer, we’ve witnessed the sex traffickers ruthless slaughter 9 out of their 10 girls in a hail of gunfire which should stand as one of the franchise’s darkest acts; however, seeing as even the villain’s themselves get snappy one liners and distinct characteristics, the film’s major downside is that it frequently seems like it’s making light of a legitimately horrible crime.
While this can prove to be a little strange at times, director Oliver Thompson just wants everyone to have a good time and draws from a multitude of different sources in order to give the entry possibly more character and pep than it ever has. Leeching the cast amassing sequel baiting of an MCU or Fast And Furious movie, this ends up being the first film that suggests Chad Michael Collins’ Brandon Beckett actually has a personality and makes Ryan Robbins’ returning Zero a world weary slapstick magnet.
Not only that, but previous antagonist Lady Death also gets to join the fun, especially when it comes to jokes concerning her awesome origins (one rib has her harrowing tale deliberately drowned out by a moribund discussion about a podcast for jigsaw puzzles), or examining how an Asian super assassin can find a quiet new life slinging dishes in a diner. Jesus, they even let Dennis Haybert’s Colonel back in complete with an existential arc all of his own that still let’s us know that this lively romp is still linked to those Tom Berenger entries despite the lack of steely, humourless glances. Actually, while the franchise has now seemingly moved on from either Berenger or Billy Zane popping in for a bill-paying cameo, I can’t help but feel that the zesty tone would have been perfect for Zane in particular to show up to deliver acidic one-liners, but I guess the franchise has to fly free at some point.
Maybe the best aspect of Rogue Mission is that the fact that it’s straining so hard to be the “fun one” much in the vein of Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, that it’s way more of an ensemble team movie rather than a lone, tormented sniper movie, that everyone gets a chance to play, especially during the ramped down, but endearingly complex action sequences. Lady Death brawls with a man twice her size in the street while Beckett struggles to work out where a rival sniper is placed, only to discover he’s based on the roof of the same building; Zero has a full-on battle to the death in an elevator car complete with little pauses for character beats and all the while, the director himself delivers an all-out, insanely over-eager score that switches from western twangs, to flamenco rhythms, to even opera to 70s funk in order to really push the vibrant nature of an usually happy entry.
Yes, providing a sequel that pairs a lighter, jocular mood with the imprisonment and sexual exploitation of women may cause the movie’s aim to frequently drift towards it’s own foot; but I have to admit that in spite of myself, I had a ball. Whether the notoriously po-faced franchise can cling onto it’s happy face, or the filmmakers just wanted to use the to.e to bring down Hell in the next one remains to be seen; but I have to say that this is the first Sniper I’ve really and truly enjoyed from beginning to end. Trust me when I say no one is more surprised than me.
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