Review: Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Directed by Stefano Sollima

Starring: Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin.

The story follows the drug war at the U.S- Mexico border as hostility intensifies, causing fear of terrorist attacks in the United States.

Good thing I watched Sicario recently I guess. If you haven't checked out my Sicario review, check it out now, before reading this. Now, about the movie.

Well, that was, wow. I have to say, I was first really disappointed when I heard there would be a sequel, since it ended perfectly in my opinion. Among that, I also heard that Denis Villenueve won't be returning to direct it. Denis Villenueve in my opinion, one of the best directors in modern day cinema, having directed Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, and most noticeably the sequel to the iconic Blade Runner.

After just leaving the theater, I can say I was satisfied, and it was a worthy sequel to its powerful predecessor, however it did have some flaws.

One was pacing. the film was incredibly slow. It was a huge problem in the beginning 20-45 minutes, but began to pick up after that. We are talking about a 2 hour film here, and some of the times, the scenes would drag out and that might not interest viewers. The story written again by Taylor Sheridan was good for the most part, but it did lack some reasoning and some of the plot confused me after leaving the theater, when I thought it would make sense. The characters were further fleshed out especially Benicio del Toro's character Alejandro who went from a hit-man with no background in the first film, to a character we can relate to. Isabella, was also a really good character in the film, as her character arc experiences a big change throughout the film.

It has serious vibes from the original so I have to give props to Stefano for trying to envision Denis Villeneuve's vision of how the sequel would be if he were to direct it. Talking about the vibes, let get into detail. the film featured the traditional border crossing which was shown in the original, it also featured the high angle shots, and many bird's eye view shots. The music was incredible and tense and was dedicated Jóhann Jóhannsson (composer of the first film) who tragically passed away a few months ago.

The characters were good yet again, most noticeably Josh Brolin and del Toro. their chemistry on screen is brilliant and gave us that mini nostalgia feeling watching the first film 3 years back. Their violent actions, makes it hard for us to call them a hero, and in this situation it's almost perfect. Josh Brolin is seeming to be man of the year at the most part, already in 3 big box office movies (Avengers IW, Deadpool 2, and now Sicario 2), so huge props to him. Roger Deakins did not return to work on this film, but in his place Dariusz Wolski did a decent job recreating the atmosphere that the first had. Director Stefano Sollima wanted to address the topic of immigration and how it corresponds to the relations of USA and Mexico, and that in return gave the film a whole different perspective. He also mostly used practical effects, which is really impressive for most of the scenes in the film, adding it to the realism factor.

What really hit me, was leaving it open to a sequel. I often do not like sequels., I mean this whole review started with me not being optimistic about this movie at all. I felt it really didn't need a sequel, the story spoke for itself like the first film and now they insisted on leaving it open for one more film just for the sake of having one more film to wrap it up.

I took some time to think over it, and honestly I don't mind now. There were many times were I felt, "Oh no, a sequel it's going to be horrible", but there were barely times were I questioned that the sequel would surpass the original. This happened to me though, with Blade Runner 2049, with John Wick, and with The Dark Knight. John Wick is similar to this regard with Sicario, an action film looking to build a world. I thought John Wick 2 was going to bomb, and that in return surprised me when I liked it more than the original, and now even more excited to watch the upcoming third one. It's the same feeling I am getting now with Sicario, I am disappointed that they had it couldn't be one film, however I am excited to see the possibilities it can open to create a complex world filled with possibilities and interesting characters.

Not as great as Villeneuve's original, but a definitely worthy sequel.

7.5/10

#FilmReview #2018