Sisu: Le chemin de la vengeance

Lots of over the top action? Yup. Blood? Yup. Vengeance is on the menu? Yup. Story? Well, kinda. 😂. But you don't go to see a dialogue heavy storyline. You aren't getting a a deep narrative. Guns, bombs, beheadings, and bombast. And I loved it! It's better than the first film and I really loved that film. I just wished it was about 20 minutes longer. All in all, go see it. It's a visceral film.

With a protagonist who simply cannot die, there's very little in the way of real jeopardy in Sisu: Road to Revenge; a white knuckle ride of edge-of-the-seat suspense this is not. What it is is an hour and a half of insanely violent action set-pieces full of gore and general lunacy, but very little in the way of plot. If you know this before going in, and are happy with that, then this sequel to the 2022 Finnish film Sisu should provide a bloody good time. With the emphasis on bloody.

The story goes like this: after the end of WWII, Russia takes control of Karelia, a region of Finland, displacing the population. Indestructible soldier Aatami (Jorma Tommila) drives his almost as indestructible truck across the border into the new Russian territory in order to dismantle the home he once shared with his now deceased family, with the intention of rebuilding the structure back in Finland. When the Russians realise that the man who killed over 300 of their soldiers during the war is now on Soviet turf, they send Yeagor Dragunov (Stephen Lang), the war criminal who murdered Aatami's wife and children, to deal with the situation.

Split into several chapters, Sisu: Road to Revenge doesn't concern itself with logic or obey the laws of physics: anything goes, the film resembling a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon at times. Like the roadrunner, Aatami escapes every trap laid for him by Dragunov and his men, albeit sustaining a little more damage than the cartoon bird ever did. There's plenty of shooting and explosions, a scene that feels like it has been plucked straight out of a Mad Max movie, an attack by Russian fighter planes, an extremely silly moment in which a tank does a 360 degree somersault through the air, and an ending involving a train propelled at high speed along the track by a Russian missile. Countless nameless Russian soldiers are riddled with bullets along the way.

Director Jalmari Helander handles the action well enough and keeps the film moving along at a decent pace, while star Tommila puts in a decent (dialogue-free) performance, with solid support from Lang and Richard Brake as the KGB agent who wants Aatami dead. And there's a cute dog as well. My rating is 6/10 - not as good as the first film, but still worth checking out.

The movie is still really entertaining, don't get me wrong. Jorma Tommila is just as phenomenal as he was in the first movie, and brings his A game. He's able to convey so much emotion without saying a word.

Where the movie lost me a little though is how absurd some parts were. The first movie had absurdity too, but it still felt at least somewhat grounded. In this movie, it felt like they were trying to harness some Mission Impossible with some of the set pieces. I found that less compelling. I also felt like the main character was dumbed down a little bit. In the first movie he's incredibly intelligent and cunning, and while he makes mistakes he feels like this unstoppable force of nature. Here, he makes a lot of really questionable decisions, and doesn't really feel as "scary" as he did in the first movie.

I seem to be in the minority though, and even with those complaints, the movie was still really entertaining. There's some really fun action scenes, and it's a tight 90 minutes that doesn't drag. I think it's at least worth a watch!

This is a very Finnish take on the nostalgic action movie genre. Good action movies with a one-man army are absolutely silly but when they are good - like Sisu and Sisu2, they are convincing in their own reality.

Action scenes in the Soviet Union are so over the top but make sense in the context of the story. Extreme but not psychologically serious violence of this film honors the genre of action films from the 80's and 90's. And many of us grew with those films which makes this feel nostalgic; you feel safe on your seats even though everything is covered with blood unless it is exploding into million pieces.

Jorma Tommila is just fantastic as the main lead: not a single word is said by him throughout the movie but his performance is one of the best I have ever seen. I guess that I just love actors who are extremely physical and raw in a subtle and precise way. There was this Finnish cult-leader like professor in the national theater school in the 1980's named Jouko Turkka. I think he would have been very proud of his student's job as an avtion star at the age 60+.

There is a dog and a man. No words. Just one man's mission to save what he can save when everything is lost. The ending is beautiful. Tommi Korpela has a small part but he makes every word count in the catharctic moment.

I enjoyded this film a lot. My American-Australian husband loved this as well (and the first one too).

I was genuinely excited that Aatami's story continues. I loved the first film, and the moment it became clear there would be a follow-up, I was immediately interested. "Some men fear death, others walk straight to it." that's Aatami in a nutshell, once again.

Right from the start, this film feels bigger: higher budget, more scale, more impact. Bigger, better, bloodier.

What I really appreciated is that the narrative style from the first film remains intact. The chapter structure, the quiet intensity, the mythical way Aatami is framed, all of that returns. "Violence is a language and he speaks it fluently." Aatami is once again portrayed as more legend than man.

Stephen Lang as the antagonist was a real highlight for me. He's simply built to play men who feel dangerous the second they enter a frame. "They thought the legend was over. They were wrong." And that's exactly the vibe the film carries when Lang shows up.

As for the action: uncompromising, raw, and extremely entertaining. The brutality remains, the intensity rises and yes, the ending goes a bit over the top, but that fits this world and the tone completely.

"Pain is temporary, purpose isn't." That line captures the drive behind Aatami's journey.

Thematically, the film also stays consistent: "Revenge doesn't ask questions, it answers them." And the story follows that philosophy direct, brutal, and without hesitation.

If you loved the first film, this is a strong continuation. If you love 80s-inspired action films, even better. And for everyone else, this is a stylish, ruthless revenge trip that knows exactly what it wants to be.