While you might be reasonably awed the series has lasted so long, this installment is rank proof that this universe is badly, desperately in need of a violent, massive shake-up. It is so blatantly derivative and thinly conceived.
The sequences are mounted without something to actively propel them through, which becomes an ordeal to endure. It is an overwrought exercise in silliness, painfully protracted into almost two hours despite little holding it together.
The film opens with action. It is a trick, a gambit to lure us in. Such action returns only in the drawn-out climactic passages. The target is an arms dealer, Kovalov. The snipers have closed in on his base of operations. These are the Phoenix rebels. The film then cuts back in time, establishing the series of events leading to that situation. The hero is familiar. A long spate of introductions ensues. Nova belongs to the Phoenix rebels vowing to overthrow the government and return peace to the country, putting their own lives at stake.
The plan is to break into the base of operations. There are long introductions: axe twins bonded for life after successfully making it out from the clutches of Al-Qaeda militants, without any manpower backing them up. Beckett is requested by Modise to train Zondi, whose grandfather and father martyred themselves to the patriotic cause. The film shoots back to the operation, inside the room with Kovalov. The blast happens. Kovalov also collapses, and so does his scientist.
Those out of the blast radius, including Beckett and Rozie, are unaffected. Beckett becomes the leader of the remaining few. They know hundreds of armed militia sent by the Prime Minister are on their way.
