Legacy: Black Ops is an exercise in claustrophobic tension studying the effect of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on a soldier returning to civilisation after undergoing torture at the hands of the enemy. Made on a budget of just $500,000 the film was written and directed by newcomer Thomas Ikimi and stars The Wires Idris Elba who gives an acting tour de force in the lead role. Legacy: Black Ops is released on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday. Here is our review... Malcolm Gray (Elba), a celebrated soldier specialising in black ops is taken hostage and tortured whilst taking part in a failed mission. On release he is unable to come to terms with the experience. Gray holes himself up in a shabby hotel room to try to overcome the effects of severe anxiety and paranoia. His isolation and internal debate over the legacy he will leave behind results in some terrible realisations about his life and family, particularly his brother, a US senator. With a strong, fast moving opening sequence, the film begins part way through Grays black ops mission prior to his capture. It feels like a typical men on a mission movie with his team of soldiers establishing individual personalities very quickly. As the team are captured the film cuts to an excellent opening titles sequence as newspaper headlines glide across the screen integrating the cast and crew names into the text. Following the titles the film settles down and the pace massively slows as Gray moves into his hotel room. It soon becomes apparent that the remainder of the film is going to take place in this one room. In fact every scene in Legacy: Black Ops is an interior scene, there are not even any establishing shots of locations and as a result the film feels more like a stage play and becomes very static. This is not helped by unimaginative camera work; the camera rarely moves it is literally a window into the room. It is only when Grays story is told in occasional flashback scenes that the camera has the chance to come to life. Idris Elba gives a really strong performance in the central role. His portrayal of Gray is quite believable as the scarred, psychologically damaged soldier haunted by visions of his past. Elba is intense and dynamic showing great range as he slowly descends into a virtually inevitable outcome. Performing monologues direct to the camera with extreme emotion unfortunately his efforts are wasted as he is almost too good for the material he has been given to work with and the script lets him down badly. Legacy: Black Ops is dogged by its slow pacing as it plods towards a conclusion. Its one of those films where not a lot actually happens and supporting characters are come and go without making much of an impact on the story. The film is certainly claustrophobic merely from its setting in the single location but it fails to generate any tension only boredom.
Quality
Legacy: Black Ops low budget roots are self evident in the presentation of the film for this release on Blu-ray and DVD. The picture is intentionally very grainy and quite dark in places but overall it is a decent transfer. The sound is rarely given an opportunity to shine however a brief scene of action involving a knife fight played out to the sound of a boiling, whistling kettle is effective as is the transitions between the hotel room set scenes and flashbacks.
Extras
The main special feature on offer is an audio commentary with Thomas Ikimi, the Nigerian born writer, producer and director of the film. He explains the whole process of the making of the film from the initial inception of the project to the post production. Its a good coherent stream of consciousness that rarely pauses for breath as Ikimi proves he is obviously very passionate about his project. In addition to the commentary there is a 13 minute making of documentary with interviews with cast and crew as well as clips from the film itself and b-roll footage from the set. Four deleted scenes which add little to the film and the usual misleading action packed trailer complete the package. Legacy: Black Ops is released on Blu-ray from Monday.