Released: June 2018
Rated R
Run Time: 122 Minutes
Director: Stefano Sollima
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Genre: Action/Thriller
Cast:
Benicio Del Toro: Alejandro
Josh Brolin: Matt Graver
Isabel Moner: Isabel Reyes
Jeffrey Donovan: Steve Forsing
Catherine Keener: Cynthia Foards
Matthew Modine: James Riley
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t mind sequels or re-makes as long as they bring something new to the table instead of rehashing whatever came before. There have been many sequels that have done that: Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, and The Dark Knight just to name a few. They took what everybody was familiar with in the previous and they expanded on it in multiple ways: Story, character development, setting and themes. Then you have the films really don’t do anything new and are just…there. When Denis Villaneuve’s Sicario was released back in 2015, it became a highly-regarded thriller that didn’t pull any punches. It wasn’t a straight-up action flick, but there was tension from beginning to end, because it was unpredictable, gritty, and brutal. The film’s ending had a sense of finality and it really didn’t seem like there was anywhere else they could go with that. It was self-contained. Apparently, somebody somewhere thought that Sicario would make a decent franchise, even though it didn’t need to be. Now, we have Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and all I have to ask is: Who the hell green-lit this?
The film opens as three men walk into a local supermarket and blow themselves up. As a result, the US government has decided to classify the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. CIA agent Matt Graver is tasked with heading into Mexico and starting a war between the cartels so they can wipe each other out. To do this, he has to kidnap the daughter of a notorious cartel leader. He enlists the aid of attorney-turned-hitman Alejandro to start to shake things up. That’s the gist of it. It had an interesting angle, but the whole terrorist aspect felt like it was dropped about 30 minutes into the movie. Instead, it became more of trying to get this girl and high-tailing it back to the US. The first film took us to the front lines of the America’s war on drugs on our southern border, and it left the audience wondering what it would actually take to win that war. This story in the film feels like a distraction from the actual conflict. It went off in another direction and it just doesn’t work. It also doesn’t help that Soldado sets up another film, although I won’t say how. Spoilers and all. From a story-telling standpoint, Day of the Soldado feels like a cheap imitation of the original film.
Don’t get me wrong: There’s definitely stuff here to enjoy. For one, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro are at the top of their game. Josh Brolin has been having a stellar 2018 with films like Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War. He’s come a long way since Goonies. He plays a character whose ethical compass seems questionable even though he’s clearly willing to do his best to protect his country. Benicio’s character of Alejandro is still fairly enigmatic, but he’s a character that’s willing to walk up to anyone in the cartel and take their head off and get away with it. Benicio’s performance is amazing. The character of Isabel is also pretty good, even though she’s a kid, but she’s not annoying. The cinematography is top-notch and is stunning to look at. The action hits hard and fast. It’s okay, but it doesn’t have the same kind of gritty realism that the first movie had. Unfortunately, the entire film feels more like an action film than a full-blown thriller like the first film. Sadly, when the action stops, the movie grinds to a halt. I honestly don’t know what the director had in mind, but the film’s pacing feels completely off. It’s like the movie doesn’t know what it wants to be.
That also leads into another problem I had with the movie: It’s characterization. While I appreciate the performances by Brolin and Del Toro, we barely learn anything more about their characters that we didn’t already know from the first Sicario. We know that Del Toro’s character was a former attorney-turned-hitman when his family was murdered by the cartels and that Brolin’s character is a government agent. We don’t know anything more about these characters other than what they here to do and to be. That frustrates me to no end. Honestly, the film could have spiced things up by showing us some flashbacks of Alejandro’s past, which could’ve given us more insight into what makes the character tick.
The first Sicario was amazing because it was built around some very strong characters and themes that included the blurring of the line between doing what’s right and what’s necessary. I didn’t get anything like that from Day of the Soldado. This is a movie that actively works against itself. Yeah, some of the performances are pretty good and the action scenes are pretty decent, but the pacing and execution of the film doesn’t really gel with what the movie was trying to accomplish. The director, Stefano Sollima, took the reigns from Denis Villaneuve, and boy does it show. Stefano lacks the experience and expertise that Denis showed in the first film. Day of the Soldado isn’t the worst sequel I’ve seen, but it’s one of the most disappointing, mostly because it exists. Sicario didn’t need a sequel and I have to be honest, you’re not missing much if you skip this one. The first film, I definitely recommend, but not this one.
My Final Recommendation: Toss this one in a vat of acid. 4/10