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Not as good as first sicario.
Still tense but not as tense as the first. A bit "over-dramatic" tbh
Sicario 2: Soldado is a film that doesn’t need to exist and throughout it’s runtime continues to prove that. With it’s original film being one of my favourite films of 2015, I wasn’t looking forward to the quickly announced sequel that wouldn’t be directed by Denis Villenuve but instead was directed by Stefano Sollima who is currently directing the Call of Duty movie. And much like a Call of Duty game, this film lacks substance, story and tension.
The biggest disappointment this movie brings is it’s writing. The original writer Taylor Sheridan came back to pen the story for Soldado and I am honestly amazed that this is the same person who wrote and directed Wind River; my favourite film of 2017. The plot is all over the place with unbelievable pacing issues, poorly written characters and plot convenience that doesn’t make sense at all.
For a film that is supposed to be grounded in reality to show the hard hitting truth of what fighting the Mexican Drug Cartels are actually like, the film relies way too much on the same film tropes because they can’t let their star power ever die. Main characters either get lucky when they’re shot or miraculously survive a bullet to the head causing any tension that could have been given to the film to disappear within seconds.
Sicario 2’s main flaw is that for the first twenty minutes it doesn’t know what type of movie it wants to be at all. With the opening sequence being aimed at how the DEA are now having to fight ISIS but that plot point never gets developed ever again and is disregarded only to become a mess of storylines and genres.
Benicio Del Toro steals the show with what he is given and plays the character of Alejandro with genuine human heart and emotion as his character battles with protecting the daughter of the man who killed his family. Josh Brolin however phones in most of his performance as he is given very little to work with and exists solely to advance the plot along every so often.
After watching several interviews for this film I noticed a pattern. Every single interview consistently mentions Brolin’s work in Avengers: Infinity War and never the Sicario 2 itself. With Deadpool 2 and Infinity War marking 2018 as the summer of Brolin I have a sneaking suspicion that this film was made to try and convince audiences to see another Brolin Summer Blockbuster.
Overall, Sicario 2 is a film that doesn’t need to exist and only does to ween off the success of Josh Brolin’s superhero career. With music that sounds almost like stock music for a student film and a poorly put together plot with no tension as characters practically come back from the dead for sake of plot convenience. Sicario 2 is the copycat younger brother of the overwhelmingly superior Sicario and is only given any attention solely for it’s namesake
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