Like MCal27, I found this film left a bitter taste in the mouth. At first, I couldn’t tell whether it was deliberately satirising the stereotypical deluded religious American patriot ("God, Country, Family”…? Good grief!) and the appalling parenting that produced him… but after a while it became clear that this was genuine imperialist propaganda.
The good guys are presented as saints and the bad guys are presented as evil… simple as that…. no room for doubt. The uncomfortable truths of the US/Middle East situation are so obviously left out that it becomes unintentionally funny. I know that this is often a deal a filmmaker has to make in order to get access to genuine military equipment, but I’ve seen other films walk that line with a lot more confidence (e.g. Black Hawk Down).
The film switches back and forth between our sniper shooting at paper targets and "paper thin" human targets. There’s zero effort put into the development of his counterpart sniper, other than a mention that he is an olympic athlete. I kept asking myself, “What’s his story Is he doing it for the $180,000 reward? Is he doing it out of genuine patriotism for his country (like his american counterpart)? Is he doing it out of fear, intimidation? What is his name??”. The film never answers any of this… because the writers & director don’t care. These are all unequivocally bad guys, and therefore fair game to be lined up for a kill shot.
A story that made it slightly harder to decide whether your allegiances lay would have been far more interesting. The only point at which the film does this is when the sniper hesitates to shoot a child who’s about to pick up a rocket launcher… you’re either a professional killing machine, or you’re not - why the sudden sentimentality now? I suspect this moment was added to try and convince us this guy does actually have some semblance of a conscience. I was unconvinced… and suspect this was creative license on the part of the writers.
Watch this if you love to hear the expression “hooah!” (Heard Understood Acknowledged) at lot.
Avoid if you want anything that might challenge your little brain.