Tuesday 26 June 2018

Film Review: Sicario - Day of the Soldado


Stefano Sollima’s Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a solid sequel that is sorely lacking in identity.

Sicario wasn’t a film that was crying out for sequel; Denis Villeneuve’s (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) potent concoction of crime, war and cop procedural was a perfect storm of pulsating intensity and atmosphere that told a punchy, concise story. It was self-contained and exited stage left with an emotional, gut-punch of an ending. One and done, mission accomplished. 

With most of the creative talent that made its predecessor such as success now absent, Sicario: Day of the Soldado doesn’t have a lot going for it on paper; along with Villeneuve, lead actress Emily Blunt is gone as are cinematographer Roger Deakins and Icelandic composer Johan Johannsson, the latter of whom sadly passed away last year. All signs are pointed squarely at Day of the Soldado upholding the grand tradition of half-baked and ham-fisted follow-ups that coast along on the residual goodwill of its forebear. Y’know, something like Speed 2: Cruise Control or Jurassic Park III

And while Day of the Soldado is conclusively not as bad as either of those, it certainly begs the question – why? Why does this film exist? Why does every mildly successful film have to become a franchise? 

The film centres around US operative Matt Graver (Josh Brolin, in his third major role of the year) and Mexican hitman Alejandro Gillick (a brilliant Benicio del Toro), who are sent back across the border to stir up trouble between powerful Mexican drug cartels. The US Government wants the cartels fighting one another rather than smuggling terrorists into the States, and so the black ops duo are tasked with kidnapping Isabella Reyes (Isabela Moner, Transformers: The Last Knight), the daughter of a high-profile drug lord in a staged false flag incident. When the mission goes awry, Graver and Gillick are forced to cover the tracks, even if it means betraying their country and one another. 

A taut screenplay from mid-budget Americana maestro and returning scribe Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Wind River) is what puts Day of the Soldado over the line; Sheridan’s proclivity for creating compelling characters both big and small, from a high-school kid caught in a cycle of violence to a deaf goat farmer just trying to survive the harsh Mexican desert, is what immediately grabs you in Day of the Soldado

Moments of unbearable tension or alarming violence, such as a gunpoint discussion on a school bus or a broad daylight curbside assassination, evoke the same feeling of shock and awe that we felt in Sicairo. Brolin and del Toro seem a little more two-dimensional than last time but deliver absorbing performances all the same. 

It’s elsewhere that this sequel struggles. Sicario, the first one, was a suffocating experience for cinemagoers. It was draped in an unshakeable curtain of fear and tension; death or a fate worse than death lurked around every corner or behind every door in Villeneuve’s film. And the audience was along for the ride every step of the way, courtesy of a compelling surrogate in the form of the Blunt’s Kate Macer. 

That gripping, stomach-churning atmosphere is noticeably absent in Day of the Soldado. As good and as talented as the filmmakers are, the finished product is simply lacking the polish and the depth of the first film. The cinematography is familiar but flatter. The score, save for a reprisal of Johannsson’s powerful hooks at the end, is imitating rather than innovating. 

The Verdict: 6/10


If Sicario is an extravagant wedding cake with delectable icing, Day of the Soldado is one of those $5 Woolies mudcakes; still good, but not as special or as memorable.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado is in cinemas across Australia on Thursday June 28.

1 comment:

  1. Great review. I'll see this, but I'm also struggling with the fact that it exists in the first place. I loved Sicario and it ended so perfectly. Plus, a big sell was Alejandro and Kate, and with no Kate, I'm not sure how that will go.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...