Not bad, the first half was by far better than the second but all in all a good action movie; The first half was interesting and captivating, I liked it a lot; the second half became full intrigue and explanations and shootings, with a bit of the usual “I’m the hero because I’m lucky” routine, and the ending was, like, well... simplistic might be a word, stupid might be another.
For once the supporting characters were not bad, and there were no sex scenes, which is almost a miracle; there is no absurd love story that feels out of place, not there is the much abused “I’ll leave you here to die thus giving you time to save yourself” moments. This is good.
What is present though is the usual fact that they develop the story making it almost impossible, and therefore as it always happens the ending has many points that are weak, rather stupid, and drag the movie down.
The plot: a retired sniper is called back to work by a colonel Johnson who convinces him with big words about patriotism. Bob Lee Swagger must help them ensure the safety of the President of the United States. He accepts of course but then something goes wrong. Someone ‘supposedly’ shoots at the President but instead kills the archbishop of Ethiopia. A cop shoots Swagger and everyone thinks he did it. He knocks unconscious FBI agent Memphis and escapes with his car. He goes to the only person he can hope will help him. He has nobody, but his dead friend Donnie had a woman, Sarah, so he shows up at her place asking for help. He’s barely alive, and he asks her to patch him up. She follows all the instructions and then saves him the best she can.
Memphis is blamed for his escape, and looking into it he finds himself more and more dubious that Swagger really did it. He keeps investigating, Swagger too because he’ll never get out of it unless he finds out the truth. Swagger saves Memphis’ life and they work together. They find the real shooter and he tells him everything he knows, that the archbishop was the real target, that they want to hide the fact that the government is involved in terrible things, that a whole village in Ethiopia was massacred because they wanted to build a pipeline in that area. The colonel sends some men to kidnap Sarah so to have leverage against him, but he has some too, he recorded the assassin’s words. They meet the colonel and the senator behind all this on a mountaintop. Swagger frees Sarah and takes down all the snipers. He destroys the recording, lets the senator escape and when the FBI that he called comes, he surrenders.
The director of the FBI and the Attorney General for the US accept to listen to him. He proves that he could not have done what they say he did and he’s freed, but the colonel is too because there are no proofs against him.
At the end, Swagger surprises the colonel and the senator while they are laughing about the whole thing and planning the next move, probably something similar to the African village, and kills them all, before joining Sarah in a car, and she drives away.
Now, the good points:
the beginning is interesting, he does what he’s asked because he’s alone (he only has his dog) and he has nothing in his life, so the patriotism is the only thing that can touch him. He tries to do a good job but is surprised by the events and can only run away.
Memphis is the FBI scapegoat; they blame him, say he shamed the department, and warn him on what he’ll say in his report. He says that the fact that a veteran like Swagger was able to disarm an agent just out of the academy does not make him shameful at all, only lucky to be alive. Good reasoning. Swagger’s words of innocence made him think so he looks into it and finds it strange that such a good shot like him could miss his target and kill someone so far away. That’s a good point.
Also it’s a rather weird coincidence that the cop who shot Swagger was very soon killed by common criminals on the street.
When some men kidnap him, he’s beaten up to find out what he knows before they try to kill him, and finally Swagger saves him. How were they planning on killing him? What was that thing that they attached to his arm? I guess some kind of device that was supposed to leave a wound as if he had killed himself, but what about the injuries due to the beating? What about any possible mark left by that thing forcing his hand to his head? And also, who was supposed to fire the gun, he himself is the only answer that makes sense if they wanted a suicide, but in that case, couldn’t he fire the gun, unload it before it reached his head? Did I miss something here? How was that scene supposed to go? Come to think of it, we have after all a “won’t kill you right away but give you time to get rescued” scene.
When Sarah opens the door, Swagger is very convincing and also very much injured. I liked her character because she doesn’t “necessarily” fall in love with him. What we see is: her Donnie’s death has made a loner out of her as it did with Swagger; she loved Donnie and three years later she has no boyfriend; maybe she’s not 100% sure of what happened, but Donnie liked and respected Swagger, he’s the closest thing to Donnie she’ll ever find, and he’s dying, so she saves him. When he tells her that his death is his fault, she cries and gets angry because by blaming himself he’s undermining Donnie’s death, saying that he knew what he was doing and he believed in it, and he must not take that away from him. Swagger then asks for her help and she accepts without reserve without needing to know what she has to do: I don’t find it that strange, I think helping him is like helping Donnie, the two men must have been alike in many ways. She likes him, yes, that’s not a crime, she’s beautiful and he’s the handsome hero her dead love respected and admired. Liking each other is normal and understandable, but the sentiment is not ruined with a stupid and out of place romance. In this moment they have nobody but each other, which makes their feelings vulnerable, plus they’re linked by Donnie. Maybe after the ending the characters will develop their relationship into a romantic one, or in another way, there’s no certainty and it doesn’t matter, what matters is that it didn’t happen now, at the wrong moment.
Later in the movie, she’s kidnapped. Of course he wants to save her, what kind of shitty man wouldn’t? Of course she believes he will, Donnie would have, right?
-- she’s held at gunpoint by the shit that kidnapped her and 99% also raped her , we’re not shows that, rather appreciated, but is very much implied that he did, so if Swagger shoots him she might die too since he has the finger on the trigger, so Swagger shoots at his hand blowing it away, then another shot at his arm blowing that up too, not too sure why that was necessary but I didn’t complain. When Swagger walks near them, and the men talk, she takes a gun and shoots the guy many times, I didn’t complain about that either.
Now, the men talk for a bit, then the FBI approaches with two helicopters; Swagger destroys the recording and surrenders... why does he destroy the recorder? Did he ever plan on using it as proofs? If not, why record it? It came rather handy in exchange for Sarah’s life, but when he started recording he didn’t know she was in danger, did he?
To prove his innocence, he loads the rifle that they say he used to shoot the archbishop with a bullet that Memphis secretly gave him, and attempts to shoot. He can’t because he does something to all his weapons before leaving, something that makes them useless, they can’t fire. That is apparently enough to free him on the spot of all charges... wow that was quick. They didn’t even check the rifle themselves. Also, they all stayed quietly seated while he loaded the rifle, said a few cool words, pointed the rifle at Memphis and then the colonel, and then pulled the trigger.... I mean, really? In front of you is a military man accused of attempting to kill the US president, and these man stay put while he loads it and points it? For real? Memphis trusts him not to kill him, so it’s cool that he stays put, but the others, what do they think? They don’t know him, he’s a suspect, why are they so cool with the fact that he’s handling a loaded weapon in front of them? We see that two men enter the room, but rather quietly, and also “after” he pulled the trigger. Did anyone call them? If yes, what took them so long? If no, why not?
Also, how come they let Sarah be present? Just because Swagger wanted it, just because Memphis brought her along? She’s a civilian, he’s military, a suspect in a very important case, is it believable that she’s allowed to sit there?
The ending: he shoots them dead, the colonel, the senator and those around. He puts a gun in the colonel’s hand and blows up the whole place.
Ok.
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