Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

Last April I finally watched Sicario and I loved it. It was not flawless but it had a compelling story, interesting leading character, great acting, and suspenseful and thrilling action. I wish I could say the same about Sicario: Day of the Soldado, a sequel that falls far behind its predecessor. 

It's been a while since the events of the first film and now Mexican drug cartels are smuggling suicide bombers across the border into the United States. CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) is tasked to deal with the situations whatever it takes, even if that means starting a war between the cartels, and he brings in vengeful hitman Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) to help him.

While the plot to the first film was simple and very straightforward, this one's is a tremendous mess. It's not even clear what the main storyline is as the film starts with a plot which is then completely ditched for something else. Also, it lacks logic, it's filled with holes and makes very little sense. And I'm shocked, I'm speechless, I'm angry even, because how is it possible that Taylor Sheridan wrote this mess?

The characters are just another of Sicario: Day of the Soldado's problems. There's very little character development and, as a result, it feels like the new female lead --god, I missed Emily Blunt's naive Kate Macer so much-- has too much screen time for a character you simply don't care about. As for the returning characters, they often act inconsistently as if they were completely different people than they were in the first movie. Not only this doesn't make any sense, but it's frustrating to see those characters, especially Alejandro, treated like that. 

The performances, on the other hand, are strong and definitely make the film more enjoyable. Josh Brolin does great in the role of Matt Graver, the amoral CIA agent, and delivers terror but also professionalism mainly through body language and appearance. Benicio del Toro steals the show though as he plays the thin character in a way that you end up rooting for him, even though he's far from being a hero. 

Columbia Pictures, Lionsgate, Rai Cinema

Then, of course, there's the direction. While Sicario benefits from the more than solid direction from Denis Villeneuve, Sicario: Day of the Soldado kind of crumbles under the direction of my fellow countryman Stefano Sollima. He fails almost completely at delivering drama and tension, and the atmosphere never feels as threatening as it should feel. The result? A pretty boring film that cannot be saved with a few great performances, a great musical score and a beautiful cinematography. 

Sicario (2015)

I remember seeing the trailer to Sicario in cinemas back in 2015 and thinking, "damn, that looks good", then somehow I managed to miss it and for some reason or another I kept putting it off. In the meantime, I watched Hell or High Water and Wind River, both written (and the latter also directed) by Taylor Sheridan and having loved both I figured it'd make sense to check out his first work. Also, this movie is getting a sequel this year and it's basically one of the most anticipated films of the year so, yeah, I had to watch this. 

After surviving an explosion following the discovery of a house with dozens of corpses, idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) joins a special anti-drugs task force run by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) that operates on the border area between the U.S. and Mexico. With the help of the mysterious Columbian-born Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), their ultimate goal is the capture or kill of cartel boss Manuel Diaz (Bernardo P. Saracino).

There's a lot more to the plot but saying anything else would spoil the film if you haven't seen it yet. Anyway, it's a pretty simple and straightforward plot, there are some twists along the way but nothing jaw-dropping and yet it keeps you glued to the screen, guessing what will happen next, what the objective of the mission really is until it unravels at the end. What's more important is the message the story delivers. In a few words, it says that all the U.S. and other foreign involvment in the war on drugs has only made the situation worse.

What makes the story more interesting is that we see it through the eyes of an ingenué, someone who believes it's all black and white and that there's nothing in between. That's what makes the main character, Kate Macer, so interesting too. The character is paper-thin, with no development whatsoever --we only learn that she is divorced and hasn't had a man in years. She is completely irrelevant to the story, many said, but she isn't. *SPOILER*If you follow the story instead of, I don't know, thinking about how hot Emily Blunt is or whatever, then you know there's a reason for her to be in the film, and it's to legitimize the operation of the CIA because they cannot operete on domestic soil without a federal agent*SPOILER* Also, her being the typical agent who always follows the rules allows us to see the collision between the black and white and makes the blurry line between good and evil more clearly. Emily Blunt does a really good job at capturing the struggle and inner conflict of her character, her difficulty to adapt.

Lionsgate

The other main characters are thin too, especially Josh Brolin's Matt Graver who comes off just as an asshole. Benicio del Toro's Alejandro is given some backstory but he doesn't have any more depth that Brolin's. That said, both actors, especially del Toro, give good performances. Some of the other members of the cast, Daniel Kaluuya and Jon Bernthal, also make a good use of their small screen time.

In addition to Sheridan's screenplay and soling acting, Sicario also benefits from Denis Villeneuve's direction. The guy knows how to build tension and the movie shows it. Though there aren't enormously tense scenes, Villeneuve managed to keep the tension high thoughtout the entire film and delivered some nice and tense action sequences.

The film also has an outstading score by the late Johann Johannsson, amazing sound editing, and a flawless cinematography by (finally Academy Award winner) Roger Deakin.