Den of Thieves: Pantera

After watching the original, I eagerly expected to see more of what I enjoyed: characters with some depth that have chemistry, equal screen time with the heroes and villains, dialogue that pops with energy, story beats that feel authentic: Ultimately, a fun heist movie. A warm homemade meal.

What I got was the Tuesday cafeteria special: a scoop of leftover mashed potatoes, and it landed right in the lima beans. It's food, but I didn't love eating it.

Credit where it's due, Den 2 is shot well and sounds great. Better than the first. Some nifty heist hijinks were clever.

But the lazy writing, plot conveniences, flat characters, meaningless subplots, insufferable music score (near the end), and shoddy pacing sully much of the positives.

The first Den displayed constant tension as the cops brushed shoulders with the crooks in everyday situations, suspicion ever present. Here, there's hardly any friction, and when it's there, it's contrived.

And at the end of the day, I'd rather watch Ghost Protocol or Italian Job than a shallow, underwhelming imitation.

Well I just got out the theatre and let me say this:

Whereas the first movie was very gritty, dark, violent, this movie is very colorful, tacky and sassy.

Kind of dissapointing sequel if you compare it to the first. I guess it's a solid Sunday movie if you're bored and want to watch something. The first movie gave me a vibe similar to HEAT. This is like they tried to aim for the Italian Job. Wish they would've stuck with the Formula of the first movie. It worked. Don't know why they tried to change it so drastically and do a 180. The characters are not interesting at all and you don't really get invested like you did in the first part. Butler and Jackson's characters don't feel like the same guys from the first movie either. Could've been better. It's a ok-ish sequel.

Slap a different name or main characters on it and it's a passable action hiest movie, trying to call it a sequel to Den of Thieves is just disrespectful to the first one.

The first crew were tight, controlled, and meant business. In this one we have only Donnie and Nick and some generic stand ins who we don't know or get to know, so we don't care for them at all.

The action scenes in part 1 were phenomenal and well shot and acted. In this one they were sloppy and felt forced. Especially at the end of the car chase, truly after an all night drive to escape and THAT'S where they meet up with what's his face.... sure, that wasn't immensely convenient...

The heist itself wasn't terrible, it felt real enough with a few minor issues.

A staffing of 6 or so guards for the world diamond exchange.... 2 guys to clear the whole building???? They didn't even have radios when clearing ffs.

During the escape chase, the entire city of Nice is practicially empty because.... just because.

Ad placement takes on a whole new level of idiocy in most newer movies, this time Porsche (Volkswagen group) and Audi were the focus.

The ending also not very convincing, Nick does what he does and then just passes on this info that isn't even helpful... "sit back left" not a single shot fired and "back left" isn't actually a seat position, rear passenger or driver side is. Back left depends on your orientation.

Had anyone else delivered the info though it would've made more sense.

Story ~ 6 ⭐ Unfortunately, the story was not fully developed. It felt lackluster. Just, maaaah. It had all the ingredients of an acceptable script, but it lacked high stakes. There was not nearly enough pressure put on the two leads. It had a great hook at the beginning, but then it dragged on trying to build character or story or ... so there it is, it just tried and never succeeded at being special. There is one scene where the film focuses on backstory and character. Just one, all jammed into one. It's noticeable.

Acting ~ 6 ⭐ Gerard is a long way off from Sparta here. His performance wasn't moving; it lacked emotion and nuance. The 2nd lead, O'Shea Jackson Jr., well how can I put this nicely ... was not as good as Gerard. There was no chemistry between the leads. It just was not there. They tried to add a romance sub-plot but that failed too. Enough said.

Cinematography ~ 8 ⭐ The cinematography was saved by the sweeping drone shots and the chase scene. It was good but not great. I think I'm being generous here. The landscape where this film was shot is breathtaking. They were smart to spend a lot of money on drone work. It's a pretty film, but nothing spectacular.

Some Commentary I was excited to see this movie, mainly because of the trailer-it's got a killer trailer. While in the theater, I kept hope, saying to myself, okay now it is going to ramp up and change for the better, but it plateaued and never did. The gravy never thickened.

There's a formula in Hollywood that big studios use. It goes something like (Name Actors + cool stunts + marketing = box office). There are of course numbers and multiples attached to this equation. This movie felt like it was plugged into the equation and shown to be profitable, then green-lit.

My Advice Wait and see it on Prime Video. It's still fun, but not theater fun. Or, go watch it and let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree. Until next time.

Den of Thieves: Pantera follows up Den of Thieves from 2018 but is not in the same league. It feels formulaic all the way though and a little forced. Not an awful movie but below the standard set by the original.

Gerard Butler returns and looks even less in shape with every passing movie, and this one seems to deal with this fact by giving his character food to shout past in almost every scene which gets a tad annoying.

This time the action takes place mainly in Nice, France with an attempt to steal diamonds. Set pieces are adequate but as mentioned the acting feels a little forced and the whole movie is not as satisfying as the original and the runtime too long.

Worth a watch and under another title would have been adequate but not of the same quality as the first movie unfortunately.