Sicario: Day Of The Soldado

This review may contain spoilers!

I thought for sure that without Emily Blunt this sequel would fail to impress, but it actually manages to surpass all expectations quite easily. I would give Sicario: Day Of The Soldado an 8.5/10.

The magic of the Sicario films is that they immerse you in a world much darker, bloodier and cruel than our own; a war on drugs and terror where there is no room for a moral conscience and the rules of engagement are tossed out the window pretty fast. I liked how this film divided the action up a lot more, focusing on America's approach to sowing the seeds of war amongst its enemies and also spending reasonable time showing the smuggling operations of the Mexican drug cartels through the eyes of a young initiate. Sicario: Day of the Soldado takes extreme measures and has plenty of scenes in which violence is taken to a very dark place; however, I find it interesting that this film rekindles some degree of morality within the leading protagonists: Alejandro and Matt. This journey back to some semblance of moral reasoning within the shadowed theatre of war reasons out an optimistic return to principled combat and engagement, an outcome that may never occur but that we hope for nonetheless.

I love how the Sicario films are shot; the empty depth of the surroundings, isolating these lone instruments of war is fascinating, or the manner the camera seems to glide through moments in which shadow operatives storm a compound. The editing is something I'm really pleased to see has stepped up from the last film, taking cues on when to transition almost flawlessly and making this a seamless film to watch visually. The score of the feature has you on your seat throughout, you'll be drawn in and when the tempo steadily rises and the horns hit you'll feel the sense of danger about to explode in the coming scene.

Benicio Del Toro, who played Alejandro, continues to standout incredibly in these films; Del Toro has such a gentle, good presence considering his role's affinity for killing. Josh Brolin, who played Matt Graver, has such an indifferent approach to the violence he creates; Brolin's role is like an attack dog being pointed at a target to bring carnage wherever he goes. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, who played Gallo, is a fantastic antagonist in this film; he has a warm charisma towards his young initiates but is capable of heightening a scene to a vicious point of murder quite suddenly. Shea Whigham, who played Andy Wheeldon, has nice professional chemistry with Brolin in their scene together; I was really impressed by the casual attitude and subtle demeanour through which this pair construct their bargaining scene. Elijah Rodriguez, who played Miguel Hernandez, doesn't say much over the course of the feature yet still makes a huge impact; Rodriguez brings out a character who falls deeper and deeper into the underworld, making some incredibly bold choices for survival and money. David Castaneda, who played Hector, is an interesting and manipulative role; this is a well-portrayed gang enforcer who does a great job at turning Rodriguez's Miguel down a very dark path. Bruno Bichir, who played Angel, is an inspired role who appears near the end of the second act; Bichir's deaf role has some apprehension towards Del Toro and the manner in which they come to terms is probably one of the best scenes in the film.

However, the best performance came from Isabela Moner, who played Isabel Reyes. In amongst this incredible mature cast of award-winning performers, this young actress really shines. This character when introduced is quite nasty, a mean fighter and capable of manipulating the adults around her through intimidation. Moner often reminds the audience how young this role is, showing the terror and panic she faces when being kidnapped or taken Garcia-Rulfo's Gallo. However, what I really loved is that this young performer lends her character such a mature intuition; she is more than capable of observing and responding to suspicious situations quite adeptly. Moner is fast up and coming in the features she stars in and I'm looking forward to seeing where her career takes her next.

The real problem for this film is the ending, the 'death' scene of Alejandro is a pretty major moment of poor writing. Watching this character get shot through the head and surviving stretches the belief a fair bit and makes the final moments of the feature hard to follow. They clearly wanted to raise the stakes for the characters but this wasn't a great choice and grated pretty majorly against the realistic depiction of modern warfare these films tend to strive for. The pacing also suffered a lot, a problem that has persisted from the original. Both features tend to escalate the action but then find long periods where there is a significant lull, enough to slow the narrative down a bit.

Jeffrey Donovan, who played Steve Forsing, has really dropped his game since the original Sicario; Donovan doesn't deliver dialogue as well as he had nor did he have the presence to make himself heard in scenes he shared with Brolin and Del Toro. Catherine Keener and Matthew Modine, who played Cynthia Foards and James Riley respectively, are such dry, bland roles compared to the rest of the cast; Keener just comes across as tired and lacking energy in her portrayal. Raoul Max Trujillo, who played Rafael, is a very docile role and doesn't feel like he wields the power his role purports to; this is very much a performance where he is placed front and centre but really doesn't have the presence to keep up with Brolin.