Sniper: Legacy - Not Bad

Don Michael Paul, director of the upcoming fifth Tremors film, had "Jarhead 2: Field of Fire" released not even two months ago and he's already ready with another film. This too is a DTV (Direct to Video) sequel to a theatrical film, though this one has already two other sequels ahead of it, making "Sniper: Legacy" the fourth in the series. For "Jarhead 2: Field of Fire" I saw it fit to watch the first film first, to see how they compared, this time I've decided to go in blank, hoping to see if "Sniper: Legacy" holds up on its own.

"Sniper: Legacy" follows sniper Brandon Beckett on a rouge mission to find the killer of his father, Thomas Beckett. A renegade sniper is killing everyone who was a part of an old mission, and it's up to a team of snipers, shadowed by Brandon Beckett, to find and kill whoever it is before the last person on the list is crossed off.

This is a perfectly decent film, especially considering it's a DTV release and the fourth in its series. It doesn't feel old and outplayed, though the concept doesn't reek of originality either, and it fits well into both current affairs and long-term ones. If someone showed me this without any knowledge of it beforehand, I'd walk away completely entertained. It's exciting, it's intriguing, and it doesn't suffer from any major flaws. There's nothing that strikes out as something I'd want to change or see play out differently. It's an all around fun film.

What's perhaps the most impressive is how cinematic it looks. I'm not sure if this is due to the director or his, or the studios', fine choice in cinematographers, but both "Sniper: Legacy" and "Jarhead 2" look like films that could be shown at a cinema. The only real difference that would make them stand out is the colour grading. They don't look like they've been fitted to play in a darkened theatre, and the cameras are more recognisable as something you'd see on a television series than a film, but the framing and editing makes it mostly appear to be of a much higher standard.

Overall this is a nice film to watch on a weekend night, but nothing that should be high on a priority list unless you happen to be into military themed films, and even then there's probably plenty of other films you could or should watch instead. But as someone who watches a lot of films and is constantly on the look-out for something more to watch than the big blockbusters, this is a good choice. It's better than a good portion of the films I've watched so far this year, and it definitely made me interested in checking out the previous installments of the series.



And lastly, on a "Tremors 5" note. This film is in many ways a lot closer to the Tremors franchise than "Jarhead 2". Here we see Don Michael Paul take on the fourth film in a series, three of which have the original star featuring in some capacity, unlike "Jarhead 2" which was the first sequel for a film and didn't have any major character return. It's hard for me to say how well Don Michael Paul has captured the essence of the "Sniper" franchise as a whole in this film (though he did a good job from "Jarhead" to "Jarhead 2"), but it worked really well on its own. This seems like exactly the kind of film I'd imagine Universal would be looking for in regards of reigniting the Tremors franchise. A film with a familiar face, that doesn't require a knowledge of the previous installments, and a band of new characters that can carry the franchise onward if the demand is there. I'm more and more confident in Don Michael Paul's ability in directing at least a decent Tremors film, only time will tell.