Sicario: Day of the Soldado - Review

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Minus Actress Emily Blunt’s FBI character “Kate Macy” the remaining central characters from the 2015 hit “Sicario” all return in this 2018 follow-up sequel called “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (Day of the Soldier).

Once again front and center we find CIA agent Matt Graver calling on the mysterious Columbia operative Alejandro Gillick when Mexican drug cartels start to smuggle terrorists across the U.S. border for huge profits. When Gravier is summoned to the State Department to discuss a way to counteract this problem, Matt decides the best solution is to escalate an internal war between the drug smuggling – people smuggling operatives in Mexico on the idea they will turn on themselves. To make the war more likely Matt and Alejandro decide to kidnap a top kingpin's daughter to deliberately increase the tensions even further. But the best laid plans go awry when the young feisty girl is eventually seen as collateral damage to senior political higher ups in Washington leaving the two men who have fought many wars together left to decide her fate while also questioning everything they have been fighting for over the years.

REVIEW: I am a bit perplexed by the wide swings in reviews. I really enjoyed this film. And while some of the highly established film critics profess a love for it as well, I was surprised by some who professed almost a genuine disdain hatred for it. But one thing is for certain the 2015 effort was mesmerizing and as great as that film was I knew if there were to be a sequel it would be chasing a high standard as a crime thriller. I believe some fans - some critics went in thinking directly or subconsciously they wanted the same recycled story line of a good intention “Kate's” competing against a revengeful intention of the Sicario Alejandro”?. After all it was their innate competing wills for the pursuit of justice that made the 2015 film so riveting and smart to experience. 

But just like the 1979 film "Alien" film which was a noir nuance psychological thriller plot that raised its ante in the 1986 "Aliens" sequel by infusing it with more action packed commercial thrills, so is the case with this Sicario sequel. Some of the humanistic qualities have been pushed aside for a far more commercial plot effort to appeal to a wider summer audience. Its meaner, darker, angrier, more brutal, more violent and more singularly focused from beginning to end. A story that also uniquely wraps itself in the very timely and topical issues currently in the news involving the US Mexican border today. And while this 2018 effort is in deed more commercial in its tone and pacing with all of the darker qualities I mentioned above, it still manages to confidently be directed and executed with a realistic in your face with hard-boiled nightmarish intensity. And we see it every step on the character's faces and in the way they use their guns. "Matt  and Alejandro" are not just killers they are two smart tough as nail men teaming up to wage an all-out war on the nation's southern border with really bad men. But not a war fought on the winning concept of someone conquering oil or land, but rather a deadly waged war for the control of the flow of human trafficking as the commodity.

Now If you see this, please take your bath room runs up front because this 2018 Scairo is packed with so much action that even to look away from the screen for a minute may cause you to miss something central to the story. Each and every second, not each scene, every second is a tough, testosterone laden, high impact adrenaline injected story of real depictions of violence and the authentic emotions reacting to that violence as anything you will ever see in a movie. The violence is not casual but rather exudes a certain authority to shock you and keep shocking you to the point where you not only see how it impacts these characters lives but also how the same violent events impacts your emotional psyche as the viewer.

“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is not like its predecessor at all. "Sicario" was far more calculating in its execution with hidden mysteries slowly being revealed along the way. This film is an assault on your action thriller senses like a hammer to your head. Never relenting for one second in its 2:00 running time. Beautifully shot while coated with the same haunting musical score from the original this film navigates a deadly backdrop of where military, espionage and terrorism stories meet. An intersection where the Brolin and Benicio characters doing their best “killing thing”. And when these two men act together for the same causes they are less simply being two cold blooded assassins. They are in fact more like two brothers in arms doing the necessary dirty work of using violence by any means,  without fear in the ever increasing darken shadows of a world seemingly immersed in more and more violence.

Again if you see this hoping it’s going to be just exactly like the original, you will be disappointed as it is not as masterful as that one. But what it does do well is continue this unique story from an entirely new perspective; from a new angle with an ending that clearly indicates this saga will be continuing with a third film. And it does it through a unmistakable truth that both “Sicario” and “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” share riveting stories where the attitude and the look of these people feel very much real. Real in the way they move. Real in the way they take action. Real in the way they talk. Real where there are meaningful consequences to bare, not in just one or two or three scenes, but in every single second of your viewing time.

4.00 Stars