Review of Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) by Wayne K — 07 Jul 2018

Sicario was one of my favourite movies of 2015, and so I got pretty excited when I heard a follow up was being released. I'm not usually big on sequels, but with such a great original and definite potential to continue and expand the story, I had high hopes.

Brolin & Del Toro are back, and still on great form, especially the latter. His control, his methodical approach, and his grasp of subtle expressions, he gives the film's best performance. Everything that made the first film work is present here.

Steady camera work, exciting, compressively edited action sequences, a stripped-down score which does nothing but amp up the tension, and a genuine sense of cultural significance. This time the theme of Mexican Cartels is blended with terrorism, both big modern-day talking point.

The first half is stronger than the second, with the plot often wandering slightly while trying to regain its footing as the film progresses, but there's a lot to admire as well as enjoy here. It proves that a scene can be shot slowly and still be exciting, and a hero can carry out morally dubious acts but still earn our respect for the good he's trying to do.

It might not quite reach the high watermark set by the first one, but it certainly comes close, and that's a lot more than most films nowadays achieve.