Seven Snipers shoots blanks

Repetitive, predictable plotting and tropes that blare like a trumpet mean that instead of revving me up, action movies generally put me in a zone of ennui, no matter how many vehicles explode or chases ensue. Seven Snipers switches one basic action cliché by putting women in key roles but nonetheless falls prey to following a trail long ago blazed by others. As many similar stories note, snipers and high-powered criminals often want to hide away and retire. That happens for Radha Mitchell as Kris, a former soldier once known as Voodoo. Living in rural Queensland with her teenage daughter, Voodoo gets away with claiming a relatively passive military career as a medic. As any action fan knows, that lie can’t last forever, so screenwriter Andrew O’Keefe adds an attack that alerts Voodoo to upcoming problems. Director Sandra Sciberras jumps into the action game full throttle, using surrounding landscape with rustling grasses to brew suspense as Voodoo and her initial hunter play the stalking game. As promised by the title, other snipers arrive, mostly as support for Voodoo who now realizes she faces one major nemesis, a killer known as Dragon. The stars get away with those names. The strong-jawed Mitchell, able to fight off aliens in the movie Pitch Black, makes operating heavy firearms look easy as twirling a marching band baton. And Tim Roth—whose various bad guy roles include getting labeled as The Abomination in Marvel Universe movies—oozes nasty vibes as Dragon.  Performers and setting give Seven Snipers some distinctive points in what otherwise proves the kind of road where autopilot works just fine.