Sicario: Day of the Soldado Movie Review

Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

Watch the trailer
Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine, Shea Whigham
Rated: R

Plot
The drug war on the US-Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have been trafficked terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Burns re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro.

Verdict
The first half of this is amazing. From the false flag story to the intensity, I loved it. It's so good it makes the movie worth watching despite the second half that falls prey to contrivance with the story just grinding to a halt. This becomes a run of the mill action movie. Part of that is the sub-plot with a border town teen that muddles the story and leads into the last scene that is tagged on just to point us to a third movie.
Watch it.

Review
The first Sicario (read my review) was elevated from just a simple action movie due to the direction. The writer is back, but not the director. The title translates to "day of the soldier."

Josh Brolin plays Matt Graver.

Sequel's rarely live up to the original, but this was impressive despite director Denis Villeneuve not returning. I will watch in Villeneuve movie. His resume is impressive.
I love the first half of this. The U.S stages a false flag operation to pit two cartels against each other.
Brolin as Graver and Del Toro as Alejandro are the only returning characters from the first and they team up for this mission. In the first movie, we didn't know if the operation was outside of the law. In the sequel, there is no question. It makes you wonder how often the U.S. meddles with other countries.
There's a parallel sub-plot about a teen, Miguel, living in a border town. I wasn't sure how this related, other than providing a window into trafficking and how kids fall into working for the cartel. While it connects to the main plot, this is part of an issue I have with the movie.
Suspecting drug cartels are committing acts of terrorism to increase border security to drive up drug prices, the U.S. government moves to classify them as a terrorist organization. This is an extension of the cartel's human trafficking operations, now moving terrorists across the border who in turn are blowing themselves and others up. Trafficking has become more profitable than drugs.

Like the first movie, this features an intense caravan into Mexico, and it's impressive how much tension is derived from cars driving. When they hit a dirt road and dust reduces visibility, you just know something is about to jump. This scene is a turning point in the movie.

Benicio Del Toro plays Alejandro.

The second half changed tone. It just wasn't the same tightly wound movie anymore. Part of the mission was to kidnap a drug kingpin's daughter. This mission flies off the rails and the U.S. calls it off. Del Toro's character goes rogue. I'm not sure why. The kidnapped daughter knows who he is, which just felt strange. How does she know that? It serves no broader purpose for the movie, and that knowledge doesn't put her in any more danger. You could cut that line and it changes nothing other than making this more believable.
The subplot Miguel intersects with the main plot. It happens in a way that you just know Miguel and Alejandro will meet again. It's contrived, and any one of the traffickers could have recognized Alejandro later instead of Miguel, the little girl did after all.

The second half just came apart for me. It's not bad, but the first half was so amazing that it's hard to maintain that kind of intensity. I was impressed with what the movie did to a main character, but then that was undone which is cheap. In the moment I was thinking, there's no way they do this. How will he get out of that? Then... wow. They did it. That moment is robbed of it's power when it's undone a few scenes later.

Miguel has crazy luck. The second half threads him through everything. It seems the whole subplot with Miguel is shoehorned in just to create a bunch of contrived moments. That leads straight to the final scene that is a cop out. We Miguel, who was apprehensive to help the cartel but needed the money, is now fully committed to gang life. He's got expensive clothes and a bunch of tats. He looks like he's in a gang, and he is. He walks into the ambiguous ending. His fate is unclear because I don't know if the person asking him the question is genuine or sarcastic. I'm half expecting revenge, but the movie ends before we know. It does answer a question about a main character, but I'd prefer it hadn't. While I liked seeing Miguel a year later, this quickly becomes a teaser for Sicario 3, when it should have been a scene that shows us the cartels just don't stop.