Backdraft II Movie Review

Backdraft II (2019)

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Written by: Gregory Widen
Directed by: Gonzalo López-Gallego
Starring: Joe Anderson, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin
Rated: R
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Plot
The sequel to the 1991 movie follows an investigator with the Chicago F.D. who has to track down an arms dealer using deadly fires as a distraction.

Verdict
There's no reason for this to exist. It uses some stupid plot devices to continue the plot, and I still haven't quite figured out what happens because once this gets to the end apparently the writer no longer cared if the plot made any amount of sense. This movie throws a lot at you without every picking a clear villain. It's a forgettable waste of time.
Skip it.

Review
Backdraft 2 is also known as Backdraft roman numeral II. I don't know why. This is a sequel to the 1991 movie, Backdraft. Rookie firefighter played by William Baldwin, is on the same squad as his older brother who is the chief played by Kurt Russell. Lots of fires are happening. Baldwin's character wonders if it's his brother after they talk to a pyromaniac played by Donald Sutherland. It's not, stuff happens, and Kurt Russell dies.

A backdraft occurs when a fire sucks all the oxygen out of a room because the room is sealed well so that air isn't getting in. This is commonly seen in these movies as smoke escaping then being sucked into a room. When you open the door, ka-boom.

I'm willing to bet this wasn't originally written as a Backdraft sequel. It was rebranded to lure people into watching this.

Joe Anderson plays Sean McCaffrey.

Main character Sean McCaffrey is insufferable. He thinks he's smarter than everyone else even though other people put together his clues throughout the movie. His go to tactic is to find the tallest person in the crowd and accuse them of starting the fire. In the first couple scenes he picks a kid out of the crowd and gets him to confess.

McCaffrey is saddled with a partner he doesn't want. He hates her because she's a woman, she's a threat, or the script requires it.
I don't understand why Sean can't just be good at his job. Why does he have to be unlikable? He's egotistical and condescending. It doesn't help that the dialog in this movie isn't good. Lines meant to be funny aren't. While I don't know any fire investigators, I doubt they talk about fire as the dragon and feel the need to listen to burnt homes.
I was surprised by the size of his ego more than once, and I began rooting for the villain, whoever that might be. The movie really drops the ball on that point of the story.

Joe Anderson and William Baldwin.

William Baldwin appears as the same character in the 1991 movie to tell Sean to quit being a jerk. The advice doesn't take.

There's a magic dog that I really hoped would start talking or somehow be Kurt Russell's character reincarnated. The dog does help solve the case, no really.

Donald Sutherland appears as Ronald Bartel. I have no idea why. I also don't know why an imprisoned felon is just sitting around in a hospital lobby unattended. This movie clings to the original like it's a life preserver. We can't go more than ten minutes without some kind of callback.
I don't know why Bartel is in this movie or why the prison allows known fire starters to visit Bartel for advice.
The movie is so heavy handed at times. It really pushes that Sean is some sort of tortured genius, but it's not done effectively.

The bad guy story is convoluted. I know what happens in the movie, but it does fit together in a way that makes any amount of sense. There are bad guys that want missile plans, professional fire starters hired by these people, maybe other bad guys as the original missile bad guys may have been killed. Who really knows? The movie obviously doesn't care so thus neither do I.

There is just so much stupid in this movie. Characters turn into blithering idiots for no good reason. I assumed that's what would happen to the villains, but again that's a tangled mess. This movie gets worse the longer you watch. I don't know who was the real bad guy at the end. I'm most disappointed that the insufferable Sean was victorious.