'Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado' A Review

Why do we go to the movies? Simple entertainment is the most obvious answer, we go for distraction. But beyond that cinema has the potential to provide so much more. It can provide solace in times of grief, inspiration in times of apathy, adventure even relief from tedium, and hope in times of despair. It can transcend and elucidate. It can reflect back at us the society in which we live in order to call attention to various aspects and injustices within it, that we complacent or ignorant, may not see. And even within the typical summer blockbuster fair film still has this potential. Saccharine indie drama is not the only place for insight. This year, for example, the relatively straightforward comedy Game Night transcended its genre classifications to get at something truly joyous and celebratory. Especially now there is no reason for tired, reductive, rote storytelling.

Enter Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado a lazy, unclear, irresponsible, unnecessary sequel to the significantly more nuanced but flawed original. In our current political climate with the rampant US/Mexico border fear mongering the opening of the movie and the idea on which its plot is founded is either egregiously obtuse or deliberately inciting. Either way it is creatively negligent. Seemingly having no awareness of the implications of this piece of popular media the creators immediately piss away their credibility, essentially, in the cold open.

Emily Blunt as a forcibly ineffective observer to the realistic US and Mexican governments corruption and collusion with the cartels is one of the main reasons the first film works at all. The sequel is more predicated on the action-movie illogic of 90's flicks like Air Force One. In the original Josh Brolin's Matt Graver is a mysterious and darkly pragmatic, very pointedly devoid of morality. In this he inexplicably grows some kind of conscious. The same goes for Benecio Del Toro, who gives a soulful but squandered performance, although he almost makes the switch believable it is totally incongruous with the plot and the original picture. Without Blunt as the third party any kind of actual thematic resonance is lost in the action-movie-trope morass.

More Surrogates than Sicario.

Don't See It.