This is Why Snipers are Awesome

Rating: 5/10 (28 July 2013)

I always said Mark Wahlberg belonged in action movies. Well, Shooter proves my point. Don't get me wrong, Mark Wahlberg is a very talented human being from the Funky Bunch from action films to comedy films, this guy has done it all. In Shooter Wahlberg plays a talented sniper who is set up by Danny Glover to assassinate the president. Obviously Wahlberg is innocent so it becomes a story of vengeance, justice, and discovery of the truth. I expected a few things from this movie and what I got was different in a good way.
Action movies such as these are one of two things, a reckless bloodbath, or a decent or even good story with a lot of awesome and unrealistic action scenes. When watching a movie like this you got to take reality out of the equation. If it isn't too unrealistic it works and in this movie, most of the action is believable. In fact, the action scenes in this movie were some of the coolest and best I have seen in a while. The acting itself even surprised me. Mark Wahlberg did a very good job playing the ex-marine. He talks with confidence and he clearly knows what he is talking about. His hand to hand combat is very impressive. He clearly did his homework for this role.
Danny Glover is one of my favorite actors ever but he doesn't play the best villain. He is mostly all talk and by that I mean he doesn't really do much. When he is on screen he mostly just takes up space and rambles on about how dangerous and skilled Wahlberg is. In a way he is smarter than everybody else because he knows the reality of the situation and the fact that his plan is screwed. The Russian guy in the wheelchair was a better villain because he had interesting backstory and he put a cool twist to the story which was overall impressive.
Let's talk about the good stuff, the action. I love snipers. The idea of the weapon and how you can kill somebody from so far away with precision is interesting to me. The wind factor and angel was cool as well. The best scene was the snow scene. The meeting in the snowy mountaintops was foolish and pointless to begin with but they made up for it with some awesome sniper shots. Wahlberg is in a snow suit so he can't be seen and he takes out three or four men within a minute or two. The entire scene was clever, well written, well shot, and exciting. I almost re-winded my Netflix to watch it again. It also set the plot towards an ending and it was an all-around great scene.
There were a few characters in the movie that weren't that great like the girl that was supposed to be the love interest but couldn't really find time for and the FBI agent who had a strong beginning but faded off in the end. The FBI agent was convinced that Wahlberg was innocent and he was digging into it. Danny Glover and the rest of the people involved did not like that and after a fail attempt on his life Wahlberg takes him in as a student. The guy is useful and has a few awesome moments but in the end he is forgettable and unimportant which I think is sad because he was a good and string character.
There is one scene I need to talk about and it is probably controversial. That scene is the raid on the house. It starts out great with a few stealthy kills that looked awesome. Wahlberg plants some pipe bombs for insurance and that obviously foreshadows a shootout with a lot of explosions. This is where I see the problem. I understand the situation. It is the middle of the movie and there was a good time since an action scene so it needed to be big. There is a fine line between big and unbelievable and a few times this scene flirts with it. It is entertaining but 20 on 1 I don't see how it was possible. I was hoping the pipe bombs would take out most of the guys but it really didn't and they had to e taken out by an endless clip of pistol and assault rifle. It was a good scene just too exaggerated for the sake of excitement.
Overall, Shooter was a very fun and exciting movie. The story was good enough with a few good characters and a twist and turn or two. I would gladly watch Shooter again with some friends being as I think it is a great background movie. It is a very good time and Wahlberg did what he does best, and that is be an action star. He was right at home in the role and it was great for his career. Shooter proudly gets the WillyT Recommendation for being a fun action movie that was better than I had hoped.