Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) Review

"No rules this time."

-Matt Graver

After a group of terrorists strike Kansas City, it's discovered that they came over the boarder through Mexico, transported in via the cartel.  CIA Agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) is given a mission to start a war between the cartels.  Graver brings in lawyer-turned hitman, Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro), to help him.  Their attacks go well, managing to start a war between the cartels after they kidnap Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner), daughter of one of the cartel leaders.   But their operation falls apart when their convoy is attacked.  Matt and Alejandro are separated and suddenly the allies now have different objectives, and a lot of people will die before it is all sorted out.

Heads up: there will be spoilers ahead.  Very quickly; I did not care for this movie.  It's an average movie, but a poor Sicario sequel.  I can't recommend it to people who were fans of the original.  If you don't mind spoilers, read on.

What Sucks:

My biggest problem with this movie is it isn't a very good sequel to Sicario.  The writing feels inconsistent.  Both Josh Brolin and Benicio do a fine job, but their characters feel drastically different from the first movie.  Matt Graver was a pretty upbeat guy in the first film.  Even though they were going to do some very bad things, he was pretty cheerful about it.  He was the type of guy you'd want as your boss.  That's not the case in this movie.  He's pretty grumpy for the most part and lets his emotions get in the way, which doesn't happen at all the first film.

The same goes for Alejandro.  This man had no problem gunning down children in the first movie.  And although he was fond of Emily Blunt's character, he would have killed her if he had to.  Now all of sudden he doesn't want to kill this one kid and is willing to risk everything to save her?  It doesn't make sense with what we know about him.  He's far too soft and I don't understand why.  

I could understand if Isabela was a likable character, but she isn't.  She's mostly just scared and acts kinda bitchy once in awhile.  I mean, she is the daughter of a cartel leader, so it makes sense she acts that way, but it doesn't make sense why Matt and Alejandro would suddenly risk everything to save her.

I guess my other point here is; I don't want Matt and Alejandro to suddenly grow a conscience.  That's what I loved about the first movie, they did horrible, terrible things, and were fine with it.  It made them compelling characters and fun, if disturbing, to watch in action.  Sicario 2 loses that and it brings down the movie greatly.  

Going back to Isabella, a good chunk of this movie feels like an escort mission in a video game.  We have the competent Alejandro looking after the useless Isabelle.  Nobody likes escort missions and I don't want them in my movies.  It's no fun.

Moving on to Alejandro's execution.  I hated the execution scene.  I don't think Alejandro would scream that much in this situation.  He would face down the executioners with defiance.  I just didn't buy his actions in the scene.  Then, when they shot him, IN THE FACE, I got mad.  It was a terrible way to kill of this character.  But then, suddenly, he's alive again.  The bullet just went through his cheeks, I got even more mad.  It did lead to an awesome scene later on, but the way Alejandro's "death" was presented just felt cheap and disingenuous.  They could have handled it much better.

Finally, I did not care for Catherine Keener's performance.  I don't know if she was miscast or just phoned in her performance.  Either way, it didn't work.

What Works:

If this was a standalone movie and not a sequel to Sicario, I would say I liked Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro's performance.  They did a good job, it was the directing that was the problem.

There were also some solid action scenes.  The two best were the attack on the convoy, which I though was excellently handled and did a great job of building tension.  The other is near the end, where a severely injured Alejandro is just trying to drive away, and a car with cartel members tries to stop him.  Watching him casually toss a grenade into their car and keep driving was probably my favorite part of the movie.

Finally, I thought the first act was solid overall.  The terrorist attack was well directed and the setup for the film was exciting and interesting.  

Verdict:

Sicario: Day of the Soldado has some solid action scenes, a good set up, and fine acting by the two leads.  If it was a standalone movie, it would be pretty average.  Unfortunately, it's not a standalone movie and the characters feel very inconsistent with how they were written in the first movie.  Add on the poorly handled execution scene, the annoying child along for the ride, and a poor performance by Catherine Keener, and you have a movie I cannot recommend, and it certainly does not have it going on.

 4/10: Disappointing