Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Denis Villeneuve's Sicario from 2015 was an intriguing drama about America's war on drugs that broke away from the norm and was a bleakly refreshing experience. Told from the perspective of Emily Blunt's idealistic FBI agent brought onboard a covert CIA mission, she witnessed the questionable lengths her country will go to tackle the ongoing problems in Mexico and gradually discovers she was being used all along by Josh Brolin and his team to get away with their mission. The end result was a powerful story and a fine achievement for Villeneuve, who had a fantastic decade, but I surprised when the announcement came that this film would be getting a sequel.

This time going without the help of Blunt's agent, losing the first film's moral compass, the tagline to Sicario: Day of the Soldado is appropriately 'No rules this time' as Brolin's team, with the help again of Benicio Del Toro's former hitman, are authorised to go into Mexico to start a war between the top cartels in response to terrorist attacks. The opening is as tense and haunting as the film before as Italian director, Stefano Sollima, proves that he along with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and returning writer, Taylor Sheridan, can do justice to the original but this wasn't quite everything I hoped it to be.

The first half/two thirds of the film are carefully paced and waste little time as the story efficiently jumps along as Brolin's team set about completing their mission. Whereas Sicario was slow-burn journey into the ongoing conflict, Sollima's take is far more gung-ho and reminded me of James Cameron's take on Aliens as he avoided replicating the original. Brolin takes to the centre stage well as our questionable protagonist but despite a fine performance from the cast, Guðnadóttir's worthy score to her late predecessor and strong visuals, Day of the Solado lacks a satisfying final act as the story dissolves away before the credits.

It is a shame as I was invested in this for the majority of the film and I wanted to like it but, if the news of reshooting the ending are true, the last 30 minutes or so unfortunately undercut the rest of the film making the final scene lose much in the way of any impact. Regardless, I hear a third film is being considered and I hope it happens as there is a good story to be told but it might require Villeneuve's hands at the wheel if Sollima was responsible for changing the ending here.

I would still recommend Day of the Solado for anyone who liked the original as it still makes for an exciting journey across the border even if it's not the smoothest and that ending just blunts the overall experience so be warned. The series needs to be more like John Wick to John Wick 2 instead of Jarhead to whatever straight-to-DVD mess that followed.