Movie Review -- Sicario: Day of the Soldado

  Sicario: Day of the Soldado is one of three movies I'm seeing this year – the others being Tomb Raider (reviewed back in March) and Venom (coming out in October) – not out of genuine excitement for them but more due to sheer curiosity. 2015's Sicario is a masterpiece of cinema that nicely wrapped up everything it set out to do. It's another one of those good movies that definitely didn't need a sequel, and yet here we are. So does Day of the Soldado honour the legacy of the first film while also being a good film in its own right? Let's take a look.

  Sicario 2 opens with human traffickers and drug cartels doing their thing along the Mexico-US border, except instead of just illegal migrants they're smuggling Islamic terrorists as well. CIAgent Matt Graver is tasked with striking back at the cartels by starting a war between them – the whole terrorism subplot is dropped rather quickly. For this he enlists the help of his old friend, Alejandro Gillick. It's a film that's just as brutal and badass as its predecessor but with a little more focus on action and less on moral dilemmas and the War on Drugs. There's somewhat less political and moral themes than the first film's although the theme of bureaucratic hypocrisy is still there. Overall, it's a story that isn't as engrossing as the first though it is enough to keep you entertained.

  There's also a problem with the movie's pacing. Within the last 30 minutes I kept thinking “is it over now?” not because I was bored but because there's several times where it looks like the movie could end at any moment. At least the ending we do get is pretty cool.

  Now for the characters. Emily Blunt's Kate Macer doesn't make a return nor is she given a proper replacement in Day of the Soldado. This is a real downer since Macer really gave the audience someone to latch onto in Sicario 1 as she experienced and reacted to the film's moral ambiguity firsthand. Instead Sicario 2 has the audience observing characters at arm's length which isn't as affective or thought-provoking. Josh Brolin returns as one of the film's two main characters, Matt Graver. His performance is more serious and less happy-go-lucky than in the first, but it's still quite good. This film has him faced with the likelihood of betrayal so it makes sense that perhaps he doesn't derive as much joy from his job as he did before. The other returning character is Benicio del Toro as Alejandro Gillick. His performance is spot on, very similar to the first film's. The only difference is that we see much more of him in the sequel and so the aura of mysteriousness he once possessed is a bit lacking this time around.

  Another mighty blow to fans of the first film is that Denis Villeneuve is no longer directing. Instead we've got some dude named Stefano Sollima and his direction is quite different. Gone is the picturesque composition and gone is the colour symbolism. Instead we've got more standard cinematography with some admittedly cool point-of-view shots from inside vehicles. At least that chilling theme song makes a return.

  And that's about all there is to say about Sicario: Day of the Soldado. It's a wholly unnecessary sequel that still manages to be sufficiently entertaining. It doesn't hold a candle to the original, but in spite of its flaws I still enjoyed it.

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