When one looks at the current slate of movies that traditionally come out during the summer box office movie season, they usually consist of sequels to comic book movies or big budget films with hundreds of expensive CGI shots. The industry consists of franchise oriented films, which makes it even more impressive that a smaller budget film with a serious tone such as Denis Villeneuve's
Sicario received a sequel in the summer 2018 with the studio brave enough to put it up against franchise favorites such as
Incredibles ll and
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The first
Sicario was a solid and effective thriller, that became a surprise hit at the box office while garnering critical acclaim for it's storytelling, acting performances with praise being directed towards Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro, the films stunning cinematography, musical score, and strong direction from Villeneuve, who later went onto helm the underrated masterpiece sequel to
Blade Runner titled
Blade Runner: 2049. The film also received well-deserved Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Editing at the Academy Awards. It didn't take long for a sequel to
Sicario to become greenlighted with the story continuing from where the first film ended with the main focus being directed towards Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin's characters. Absent from the sequel are Emily Blunt and Denis Villeneuve as the director with Stefano Sollina taking over the directing helm. The end result is a reasonably decent follow-up to the first film, even if the sequel doesn't match the well-craftedness of
Sicario. Whereas the second continues without the involvement of Blunt, whose character left a huge impact on audiences with the first movie and Denis Villeneuve's masterful directorial touch, the sequel still manages to be stylish, grim, and engaging to watch thanks to Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin's performances.
The plot for
Sicario: Day Of The Soldado continues from where the first film left off with the US government declaring Mexican drug cartels terrorists, and enlisting the help of a team of agents to initiate a war between two cartels with their plan starting with the kidnapping of one of the kingpins daughter. The sequel has federal agent Matt Graver (Played by Josh Brolin's), re-teaming with the mercurial Alejandro (Played brilliantly once again by Benicio Del Toro) to help fight the drug war on the U.S-Mexico border, which escalated to the point of the cartels trafficking terrorists across the US border. The plot for
Sicario: Day Of The Soldado is interesting enough to make for an effective sequel, that's full of suspense and tension with some action sprinkled throughout the story. The problem with the new film however, is that the audience lost key characters they can connect with such as Emily Blunts character from the first one. Blunt and Villeneuve did such a good job of building up her character from the first one, along with getting the audience drawn into the story with them caring about her well-being at the end. With the sequel, the audience loses that connection with the characters as Brolin and Del Toro's characters don't hold the same emotional power. Removing Blunt's character Kate Mercer from the script, essentially removes the moral compass of the first film as well as what would've been the sequels heart.
Day Of The Soldado still does a strong job of reprising much of the same type of directorial style of the first film with similar cinematography, music, and mood building with the films grim atmosphere. The filmmakers essentially offer the audience more of the same in terms of what made the first film work such that films realistic, gritty, and violent viewpoint of terrorism, traffiking, and the necessity of becoming dirty in order to win pivotal wars. While the sequel looks appealing visually and is on point with the first
Sicario in technical terms, the film lacks some essential ingredients that would've brought it much closer to the 2015 film, but the end result doesn't completely collapse nor fail. A comparison to these sets of movies are 1993's
The Fugitive and it's sequel/spin-off film U.S
Marshals. The first was a well-received critical and financial hit like
The Fugitive with the sequel not performing as well both critically and financially.
Day Of The Soldado feels very much like
US Marshals where it works as being an entertaining follow-up to it's predecessor, but never comes close because it lacks the heart of the previous film despite carrying much of what made that film work. Both sequels lose their main star while retaining the supporting cast, that helped make their predecessors what they are. In the case of
The Fugitive and U.S
Marshals, the sequel loses Harrison Ford but still retains Tommy Lee Jones in the main role to keep it worth watching and exciting. With
Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, the sequel loses Emily Blunt but retains the strong side characters from the first movie played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro, to maintain the audience interest while attempting to fill the void of Blunts absence.
As far as acting performances go, the cast of
Day Of The Soldado shines through once again much like the first, delivering strong and believable performances as the actors and actresses bring both realism and grittiness to their parts. Josh Brolin does a very good job reprising his role as Matt Graver from the first movie. His character remains as equally interesting and compelling to watch with him taking the lead this time along with Del Toro's character. Benicio Del Toro delivers a dynamic and scene-stealing performance as hitman Alejandro, proving to be just as intense and intimidating as he appeared in the first film. Whether together on the screen or separate, Brolin and Del Toro are the driving forces of the story with both delivering commanding performances while working well off each other. Isabela Merced shines as the young daughter of a kingpin, whose kidnapped by the main characters in hopes of starting a war between two cartels. Jeffrey Donovan reprises his role and impresses as Steve Forsing, member of Matt Graver's team. Catherine Keenar and Matthew Modine both do well in their minimal roles, adding both quality and class to the cast with their performances. Elijah Rodriguez impresses as Miguel, a young boy recruited by the cartels to perform illicit border crossings. The cast as a whole delivers top notch performances with everyone bringing their A game to the film, though one clearly misses the presence of Emily Blunt, Daniel Kaluuya as her partner Reggie, and Victor Garber as Dave Jennings. Whereas Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro gave outstanding work in the original film, the sequel has Josh Brolin and Del Toro leading the rest of the cast, as well as setting the bar for what everyone's performances should be.
The directing by Stefano Sollima works effectively in terms of delivering an entertaining and tension-filled action thriller. Sollima had a heavy task set infront of him in regards to continuing the work that's well-established by Denis Villeneuve. Although he's no Denis in regards to masterfully building up tension and characters, Sollima does a very good job of trying to retain the same style and tone of the 2015 original. The cinematography by Dariusz Wolski is impressive though not as innovative and striking as Roger Deakins Oscar-nominated work on the first
Sicario. The films editing moves the film at a slow-pace like it's predecessor, allowing time for the story and characters to develop as well as the building up of the tension in the story. The score by Hildur Guonadottir does a good job of continuing the work started by the first film conposer Johann Johannsson, who sadly passed away in 2018. Johannson earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his work on the first
Sicario and although Hildur's work isn't as a strong, still manages to be a worthy companion piece. The approach that Sollima takes with the sequel is both a noble and risky one as he presents the sequel as being a story with no moral guidance with the removal of Blunt's character from the equation. By doing this, he presents a darker and more haunting film, which includes highly intense scenes such as terrorists walking into retail stores on US soil and detonating bombs strapped to themselves. Sollima makes it a point with this scene to show that there are no rules in the sequel, and that the environment presented in the film is lawless with both sides taking extreme measures in order to achieve their goal. Sollima maintains the spirit of the first movie but doesn't try to copy or remake it. Instead he makes a distant sequel which manages to tell it's own story despite it's faults. Sollima also tries to give Brolin and Del Toro's character more of a complex in this one, particularly the latter as the audience saw minimal of Alejandro in the first
Sicario, which helped make his character extremely well-crafted effective and memorable in that film. The films action sequences are well-shot and filmed in a way that draws the audience into the scene, making them feel apart of the moment while making them question whether certain characters will make it to the end of the film. Like
U.S Marshals, the sequel to
Sicario manages to go in a different direction than it's predecessor and manages to work for the most part.
The films writing by Taylor Sheridan is strong with the sequels plot being well-thought out and serviceable despite the film lacking the key main character, that helped make the first such a hit with audiences. The sequel tackles themes that include smuggling terrorists into the country for profit, the reign of drug cartels, issues regarding the Mexico/US border, suicide bombers, Border Patrol, and revenge. The films message as evidenced by the graphic nature of the films violence says that the war against terrorism and drug cartels is not an easy one, and that drastic measures must be taken in order to win (Hence the eliminating of the films moral compass which is the character of Kate Mercer). The films script is written in a way that doesn't necessarily require one to watch the first
Sicario film in order to fully understand what is going on in
Day Of The Soldado, despite the film having the same main characters. The sequel does a good job of reintroducing Brolin and Del Toro's characters along with explaining their motivations to the audience and reintroducing the murky and lawless world they operate in. Although the main characters are portrayed as being the protagonists in the story, they use methods that exceed what is considered to be acceptable by lawful standards with the villains being low level and downright corrupt. In terms of righteous characters, there is no main character in the film that can be considered a sympathetic character other than the drug kingpins daughter Isabel Reyes, despite the fact that the audience first impression of her involves her fighting a classmate. The film is essentially a story about morals being thrown out the window and extreme measures being taken in a quest for gaining power over the other side. The filmmakers and writer Sheridan make an interesting play on the concept of the first movie by presenting a lawless environment with the audience not having any character they can agree with nor get behind. While that approach is a bold and smart one for the sequel, it also robs it of one of its key elements that made the first film so appealing to audiences, as well as providing the barrier between the two sides.
The question that fans of the first
Sicario will find themselves asking upon watching
Day Of The Soldado is whether the original film even needed a sequel as it's story was bookended solidly. The sequel tries it's hardest to justify a continuation of that films story, even going as far as utilizing the supporting side characters from the first film, who are appealing enough to continue the story.
Sicario: Day Of The Soldado gives audiences much of what made the first movie work, while managing to churn out a reasonably decent yet cynical sequel that serves as being an interesting play on the themes and concepts that the first movie built up. With a third movie planned in hopes of completing a three film arc with the
Sicario story, one hopes that the writers can find a way to bring Emily Blunt back for the third film as well as Denis Villeneuve as director to give the story the grand finish it deserves.
Day of the Soldado for the most part is intense, thrilling, and works as being a sequel that stays consistent with the first film even if it doesn't reach the same cinematic height as that film. It wasn't a sequel that audiences needed as
Sicario wrapped things up nicely, but it doesn't ruin or tarnish the legacy of that film. One hopes though that the third movie goes back to basics and provides fans with a strong finish as the end of this movie leaves the audience hooked to find out what happens next.
Final Verdict: A worthy sequel to
Sicario despite it's faults. There's more that's positive about it than negative.
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