As we approach the five movie mark of a franchise that stubbornly refuses to roll over, there’s almost a sense of peaceful calm that washes over you as you prepare to watch a sequel you never knew existed to a franchise you never cared about. Let’s call it no-consequence cinema: the act of watching a movie where the actual quality of the thing doesn’t actually matter just as long as you’re doing something else simultaneously. In fact, I can’t think of a franchise in recent memory that seems to be tailor made for having on in the background while you play a first person shooter on a games console – but as my gamer days are a distant memory, I just had to tough the movie out on its own merit.
Once again, Chad Michael Collins takes point as Brandon Beckett, the reluctant sniper who seems to keep ending doing nothing but sniper missions, but as he’s still relatively new to the role and hardly a draw for an audience, once again the movies throw him a bone by wheeling out yet another classic face from the past. But while Sniper: Reloaded threw a slumming Billy Zane back into the fray to keep some continuity with the older flicks, in this film, Beckett finally gets to meet the big dog: his dad.
Once again, we find Brandon Beckett up to his squinted eyelids in military action as he still struggles to make peace with the fact thst he’s a natural born sniper much to his distaste, but as he takes out bad guys on the Turkey/Syria border, some iffy shit is occurring elsewhere in the world. David Simpson, a rogue sniper discharged for being a psycho–case has decided to take out anyone and everyone responsible for his predicament and he’s managing to keep everyone off balance by using a mixture of styles that range from old school rifles, to state of the art, remote control guns to take down his enemies.
While this seemingly has precious little to do with Brandon, he finds that he’s getting drawn into things by the very fact that his estranged, dead beat father whom he has never met was one of the sniper’s victims. However, he’s not alone as he’s joined by fellow sharpshooters Major Guy Bidwell (nicknamed Bulletface due to his preference for – you guessed it – shooting targets in the face) and pseudo love interest Corporal Sabaa Malik as they set off across the world in pursuit of Simpson before he works his way up through his list to a prominent General.
However, in the midst of various war-torn backgrounds, Brandon discovers not to believe everything that you’ve been told, especially when your estranged, presumed dead father, Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett, is involved and the spawn of his loins has to not only come to terms thst he’s finally meeting his father, but he has to shoot alongside him too if they’re ever going to bring Simpson down once and for all.
In many ways, watching Sniper: Legacy is kind of like watching the finale to a TV shoe that you’ve never watched – you’re aware of the whys and wherefores of everything, but you’re dammed if you actually fully give a shit about what’s happening. Plot wise, the fifth entry of a franchise that contains less quit than Rocky Balboa has nothing much to add to the near-impossible task of making sniping a fast paced thrill-ride for this direct to DVD entry, however, you have to give director Don Michael Paul some credit for trying to find some variety to complicate and add some pizzazz to the usual wait and shoot setpieces. We’re now a long way away from accurately showing the existence of a long distance assassin, so don’t expect any meticulous scenes of tension as the movie has no patience in exploring the solitary nature of a such an ability other than Brandon looking a bit sad.
However, jest if you must, but Sniper: Legacy actually has something of a semi-decent cast. Chad Michael Collins may regrettably still have the screen presence of bit of a particularly uninteresting twig, but everyone else fills their roles enough to carry things along. In fact, it almost seems as if they’ve farmed in extra characters to counteract the issue that Brandon Beckett is quite a deeply uninteresting person. He’s still grappling with the notion that to be a sniper means fighting a “cowardly” war of subterfuge and misdirection which instantly telegraphs a noticable lack of character progression like a big, neon sign. However, taking up some of the slack is such characters as Dominic Mafham’s deeply serious major with a penchant for signing his kills with a shot to the face (wouldn’t the forehead still count as the face, though?) and Mercedes Mason’s female spotter whom I figure is supposed to be some sort of romantic interest even though it never seems to arise.
However, at least we’ve got 24’s Dennis Haybert rumbling orders at people as a general that may be playing both sides, and best of all, we have Mark Lewis Jones to offer must of the same bluster he went on to give in films like Apostle, Gangs Of London and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The downside of this is not only does that mean virtually all of the supporting cast manages to hold the screen much better than the actual lead, but Beckett himself is only onscreen for around half the runtime as he goes off on unnecessary side missions when the script could have just sent him with his teammates.
Matters don’t improve when an utterly fed-up looking Tom Berenger finally shows up with the demeanor of someone who obviously wants to literally be anywhere else. It doesn’t help matters further that the film has the nerve to try and convince us that he’s been killed offscreen when he’s got top billing and he’s smeared all over the poster despite technically being a glorified cameo. The final indignity is that even though the act of having Brandon finally cross paths with his eagle-eyed papa is obviously supposed to be a major moment in relation to the franchise, Berenger and Collins have no chemistry whatsoever – especially when the latter keeps maintaining that snipers can’t be fathers. Actually, while we’re on the subject, wasn’t Thomas Beckett supposed to be stricken with some sort of nerve disorder that was effecting his four-fingered shooting hand – did that suddenly go away or something?
While I would hardly class Sniper: Legacy as the cream of the Sniper crop, the film does manage to contain some legitimately good production values thanks to some globe hopping that keeps the visuals fresh. Also, the movie climaxs with a genuinely over the top moment that sees a character get their head hollowed like a pumpkin due to a neat shot from that radio controlled sniper rig.
What should be a landmark moment in the franchise as heroes old and new meet for the first time ultimately is kind of hamstrung by the fact that Tom Berenger looks less enthused about it than we are, and Chad Michael Collins seems unable to emote at all. Still, points for a fun supporting cast and some flash locations – but I don’t think my major takeaway from a Sniper film should how nice Greece looks that time of year…
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