Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) Reviews

• It's a worthy follow-up

  nothimme2018-08-12

  This is one of those action movies that it only job is to give you as real as possible experience with its beautiful cinematography. It doesn't feel as real as ''Children of Men'' and it probably won't get a Oscar but it serves its job. The movie may not be as masterful as Villeneuve's original, but it achieves to keep you on the screen. There are really good heart-pumping scenes that beautifully blended with the score in its convoluted plot. Just like in the first movie, the story gets darker and darker. It reflects real-life situations, that's why it's so dreary and compelling. All the events is a buildup to our main story. It all ties together perfectly in the end. And even though key cast member Emily Blunt no longer here, the movie stands alone as a powerful modern-day Western, thanks to the Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro, and Taylor Sheridan who also penned the screenplay of the first movie. I'll definitely watch this again.

• Unfulfilling experience

  jtodegard2018-08-05

  Where the original Sicario was carried by the suspence created by the contrasting naive FBI-agent Macy (Emily Blunt), the cynical CIA-agent Matt (Josh Brolin) and the vengeful Alejandro (Benicio del Toro) as ruthless sicario turned against the drug carlets operating along the US-Mexico border, the sequal lacks this tension and becomes an analogue and rather predictable story. Decent acting performances, and attempts to recreate the original dark athmosphere cannot save the weak plot, where several interesting issues launched at the start are not followed through. This makes for a rather unfulfilling experience, despite hints of another sequal.

• Are you joking!?

  pierce-horan2018-07-02

  SPOILERS: I cannot believe the great reviews this movie is receiving? I must have been watching something else? Ruined imo what was a fantastic first movie with a terrible follow up (and as many mentioned a follow up not necessarily needed). The trailers for second movie we're misleading- there is no war with the cartels. There is no war between Benico or Josh. The story is a convoluted mess, gives a new female lead way too much screen time and importance but you still don't care about her compared to Blunt's character from the 1st movie. Worse - this movie destroys Benico's brutal raw Sicario from the first (able to murder children) and turns him into the killer with a heart. Ridiculous. The ending was worse with a ham fisted finish that sets the series up for a 3rd installment. Honestly very disappointing- what I loved about the first was a rawness/realness where as this second is just fantasy. It's so bad that this had compelled me to write my first ever review!

• Stellar Acting, Exciting Action, But Lacks Awareness

  Jared_Andrews2018-07-07

  Sequels typically strive to go bigger and badder than the original. This sequel is no exception. This issue with attempting to up the ante is that it often causes sequels to lose sight of what made the original special. Again, this sequel is no exception. For some reason that I still don't understand, 'Sicario: Day of the Soldado' opens with coverage of Somali pirates, Mexican-United States border crossings, and graphic scenes of ISIS suicide bombers that will leave you unsettled for an uncomfortably long time. Government agents presume that all these terrorist efforts are connected. They're not. The film's inclusion of these scenes doesn't add layers to the complexity of anti-terrorist or anti-drug efforts (it's unclear if that was ever the intention). Instead, the scenes only serve to offer some of the BANG BANG moments that sequels seeming to require. There's an emptiness, a pointlessness to the violence-that should be the point of the film. "The war on drugs" is a war without an opponent, and the U.S. is fighting an unwinnable fight. The violence only begets greater violence, one immoral acts leads to dozen more like it, and everyone becomes dirty in the end. This film has no heroes. I wish that's what this movie was about, but it misses the point. It lacks the perspective and awareness of the first 'Sicario' film. The action in this film is well shot and exciting, same as the first film, but all subtle yet crucial details that made the first film excellent are wrong in this one. The acting saves the movie from failure. Josh Brolin is excellent once again as the smirking tough guy government agent, and Benicio Del Toro is award-worthy as Alejandro, the sicario. Though he has taken frustrating character development leaps since the first film, Del Toro is nonetheless commanding, angry and tactful. Mercifully, he also provides a few drops of humanity into a movie in desperate need of some. Most actors lack the versatility to successfully transition between all these emotions. But this is Benicio Del Toro. If you're a huge fan of Del Toro, Brolin or this genre of film, consider seeing it in the theater. Otherwise, wait until you can watch it at home.

• Unnecessary, unwanted sequel.

  tstudstrup2018-07-29

  The original was a masterpiece, in my opinion. It was brutal, dark, super-realistic with a great story and great acting. And some highly intense actionscenes. It had me and my buddy at the edges of our seats from the beginning to the end of the movie. This time however the plot is too thin. It starts off with some terrorist attacks on the american side of the border. Why the mexican drugcartels would commit terror on US-soil is never explained. But somehow the american government knows this wasnt ISIS. Because Matt Graver is once again hired by the government to bring down the mexican drugcartels. He is allowed to get dirty and start an all out war. He brings in Alejandro again. And he starts the war by kidnapping some drug lords daughter and make it seem like it was done by another cartel. Something goes wrong and alot of corrupt(?) mexican policemen are killed. The girl escapes. Alejandro goes after her. The dead policemen makes the government pull the plug on the whole war, before it ever starts . Matt tells Alejandro to kill the girl, but he refuses. After this the film goes from bad to worse. The so called war on the cartels, never really happens. In the orginal it felt like a war. Here I felt cheated. Not just because of the lack of action, but because, the story never evolved into anything but mediocrity. In the first one, the mission was to bring down a certain druglord. And for Alejandro it was personal. This time Alejandro is there for no reason at all. And the goal is to bring all the cartels down. This is obviously ridiculous and impossible. And that makes the movie fail. It never really gets going. Despite the same talented leads (except from Emily Blundt) and the same studio and all that, it just doesnt deliver. The trailer promised an all out actionmovie, so I really wasnt expectiung much, based on the silly trailer. But the movie couldnt even deliver on that promise. I give it two stars, because in itself its not that bad a movie. But as a sequel its downright bad.