Sicario: Day of the Soldado

I thought this movie was pretty good. It's a follow-up to the absolutely terrific film Sicario but it doesn't quite stay in the same tier as the original. The acting is still just as good as the first. Brolin and del Toro are incredibly talented and the new actors/actresses like Isabela Moner did a fantastic job. I just thought some characters weren't consistent with their actions like the first one. Especially del Toro's character, it was written a bit weirdly and the ending was kind of odd compared to what I would have expected to happen given their nature in the first movie. I still recommend a watch and even a back-to-back viewing with the original but I really hope they close this series with the cliffhanger and keep it a solid one-two punch. 3.5/5 stars.

Sequels typically strive to go bigger and badder than the original. This sequel is no exception. This issue with attempting to up the ante is that it often causes sequels to lose sight of what made the original special. Again, this sequel is no exception.

For some reason that I still don't understand, 'Sicario: Day of the Soldado' opens with coverage of Somali pirates, Mexican-United States border crossings, and graphic scenes of ISIS suicide bombers that will leave you unsettled for an uncomfortably long time. Government agents presume that all these terrorist efforts are connected. They're not.

The film's inclusion of these scenes doesn't add layers to the complexity of anti-terrorist or anti-drug efforts (it's unclear if that was ever the intention). Instead, the scenes only serve to offer some of the BANG BANG moments that sequels seem to require.

There's an emptiness, a pointlessness to the violence-that should be the point of the film. "The war on drugs" is a war without an opponent, and the U.S. is fighting an unwinnable fight. The violence only begets greater violence, one immoral acts leads to dozens more like it, and everyone becomes dirty in the end. This film has no heroes.

I wish that's what this movie was about, but it misses the point. It lacks the perspective and awareness of the first 'Sicario' film. The action in this film is well shot and exciting, same as the first film, but all subtle yet crucial details that made the first film excellent are wrong in this one.

The acting saves the movie from failure. Josh Brolin is excellent once again as the smirking tough guy government agent, and Benicio Del Toro is award-worthy as Alejandro, the sicario. Though he has taken frustrating character development leaps since the first film, Del Toro is nonetheless commanding, angry and tactful. Mercifully, he also provides a few drops of humanity into a movie in desperate need of some. Most actors lack the versatility to successfully transition between all these emotions. But this is Benicio Del Toro.

If you're a huge fan of Del Toro, Brolin or this genre of film, consider seeing it in the theater. Otherwise, wait until you can watch it at home.

Once you get over a bit of a slow start, the film proves to be entertaining and engrossing, and it draws attention to the inner, sometimes dirty, machinations of government and the jurisdictional "system". The acting is also pretty much all-around top-notch.

The only thing that I found as a slight negative, is that it really doesn't have any kind of re-watchabilty factor. Once you've seen and enjoyed it, as much as one can enjoy a film of this nature, I don't find that there is any allure to ever watch it again.

Okay, so this doesn't come close to the first movie in the series. But, it comes close enough to being close that it's much more than watchable. It's actually a very good movie. If it was a standalone movie and Sicario never happened, people would more appreciative. Del Toro is his usual badass self. The cartels and U.S. law enforcement are brutal, per the usual. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys fast action.

Film starts really well. Gritty, violent, miltaristic. Relevant and exciting. Cool photography and sound. Interesting plot line. Seems like a solid follow-up to the excellent original. Helicopters, machine guns, explosions, mercenaries and black ops. But about halfway through it comes to a screeching halt that it never recovers from, even as there are some scenes that give you hope that the pace will resume.

But the film commits itself to going with a train of events that are not engaging or exciting. It never follows up with what could have been supremely interesting, the cartel war that the planned and executed event was supposed to trigger. Instead it undoes itself with the embarassingly obvious attempt to set that stage for another sequel. We get a lot of wasted time on the way, with story decisons that make no sense, and a convoluted and boring backward human-smuggling idea with political motivations.

The other major annoyance is the young gangster character. He does not act, at all, and his one-expression face alone is extremely unpleasant, not in a menacing way, but punchworthy. Highly ineffective and off-putting. Really bad casting.

First half was great. Second half was a joke.