In order to be successful, sequel films must reconcile two contradictory conditions. On one hand, they must keep a continuity of theme and characters with the original film in order to attract the spectators who remember it well. On the other hand, they must bring a sufficient degree of innovation and novelty, perhaps different points of view or new characters that arouse the interest of viewers who have not seen the original film or those who have not been enthusiastic about it. It is not an easy task, and comparisons are in more cases unfavorable than favorable. The film that opened the series ‘Sicario‘ managed to bring to the audience a violent story from the world of drug trafficking on the American-Mexican border that fully satisfied fans of the genre, but also raised moral issues about the limits of the law and the justification of unconventional methods in the fight against criminal organizations that have no scruples and no limits in their actions. The quality of the film lied precisely in these issues that were beyond the regular patterns of action films. ‘Sicario – Day of the Soldado‘ also follows all the rules of the action movies but fails to offer anything extra.
The opening is promising. A night mission on the porous border between Mexico and the USA is filmed in a style that continues what we have seen in ‘Sicario‘. A terrorist attack committed a few days later in the heart of America indicates that the action is combined with a story of fighting international terrorism. In fact, if additional justifications were needed to add violence to a film taking place in this part of the world, these scenes explain why methods of combating Islamic terrorism are applied in the area of drug trafficking controlled by Mexican cartels. Two of the well-known heroes of ‘Sicario‘ return – Matt Graver, the ‘specialist’ in the fight against crime and terrorism by any means (Josh Brolin) and Alejandro, the executor under his subordination (Benicio Del Toro) whom we know from the first ‘Sicario‘ that he has everything reasons to take revenge on Mexican gangsters. However, the character who compensated for the violent violence and asked questions about the methods used, which had been played in the original film by Emily Blunt, is missing. Something of her humanity is transferred to the character of Alejandro, but this is not enough.
‘Sicario – Day of the Soldado‘ works OK as an action movie. The story is believable only by accepting the conventions of the action movies, but as soon as these are accepted it offers the opportunity of some excellent action scenes filmed in the deserts on both sides of the border. The director of the film is the Italian Stefano Sollima, at his first feature film in Hollywood, and I think there will be more, because from the point of view of cinematography and the fluency of the story telling there is no visible fall compared to Denis Villeneuve‘s version. Benicio Del Toro shows what a fine actor he is and manages to add something extra to the role of the hitman (‘sicario’) with a significant life story. The scenes in the desert in which he manages to gain the trust of the teenager he kidnapped at the behest of his bosses are perhaps the best in the film. Josh Brolin does what is expected of him and adds to his personal filmography another role of tough hero in action movies. Fans of the genre will be satisfied. However, those who saw and appreciated the first ‘Sicario‘ risk being disappointed. The ending seems to draw one of the possible directions of the third series. The producers have already announced that this is a trilogy. I hope that at least some of the complexity and narrative qualities atop of the action will reappear in the third film.