In a year already loaded down with a ridiculous number of sequels, it became increasingly difficult to imbue any one of those with a real sense of gravity. As we recently witnessed with Fallen Kingdom, studios are more than happy to push a low quality follow-up on the movie going audience as long as it makes money. The onus of selectivity falls on the public, but once the tickets are purchased the consumer has no power…and the studios are well aware. While Sicario: Day of the Soldado wasn’t bad, it’s a stark reminder that not every movie needs to have a sequel.
Picking up three years after the events of the first film, Soldado focuses mostly on the same characters save for Emily Blunt’s Kate Macer who was very much the lead role in the original. Her presence was desperately missed, not just because of her talent as a performer but due to the complete lack of connection to her character in the new script. Macer was the narrative perspective and without her it’s all a bit more foggy. Blunt’s absence certainly cast a large shadow over the rest of the movie and it felt more like a stand alone project than a direct sequel. Anyway, three years down the road, a series of suicide bombings with suspected connections to the Mexican drug cartels escalates US efforts south of the border. Enter CIA Agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and, by extension, his special associate Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro). Just reading it all back to myself now, the story is much less refined than its predecessor and the characters just seemed to get thrown into a loosely connected narrative.
Taylor Sheridan rose to prominence on the back of Sicario and he hasn’t written a bad movie since, including a Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nod for Hell or High Water in 2016. His biggest strength as a writer comes from his character crafting and this film is no exception. With Macer out of the picture, there is more focus on and more depth to the relationship between Matt and Alejandro. Their dialogue is almost always short and to the point, but it’s very clear that there is a long history between the two that is about to come to a head. Even though this particular story is about that relationship, there are several other interesting characters introduced. Much like the first film, there is a secondary plot line which runs parallel to the main story until the two collide in spectacular fashion. It was easy to see it coming this time around, but it ultimately played out well. For a film I was hearing mixed things about, Sheridan delivered a solid screenplay that created its own identity.
Brolin and Del Toro both brought high quality performances to the table as they almost always do, but it wasn’t anything we didn’t already see the first time around. However, thanks to some new faces in the cast, we got to see a wide range of perspectives. Firstly, Elijah Rodriguez likely sent his stock skyrocketing with this performance. His character is a young American with Mexican heritage and a passport who decides to help a group of smugglers during a border war. This was his first on screen role (voicing young Joaquin in The Book of Life) but he knocked it out of the park. His brooding intensity ratcheted up as the events of the plot fell into place and gave the character a much needed edge. Isabela Moner was the fulcrum of this story as Isabel Reyes, the daughter of a cartel boss who winds up in the crossfire. She is firey and charismatic despite having to play the damsel in distress role for a while, but ultimately it’s tough not to cheer for her. These two young actors are going to have many doors opened for them after this movie runs its course.
Jo Edna Boldin, Marisol Roncali and Mary Vernieu put together a good group of diverse talent for this film, but the veterans they brought in were exceptional. Catherine Keener is always a strong performer and as Cynthia Foards, a government intermediary of some kind, she was exceedingly unlikeable…but that’s the point. Keener is just one of those actors who has the ability to sway the audience to one extreme or the other and this was a great example of taking a bland character and injecting some actual personality. For my money, the most interesting person in the film was a deaf mute named Angel, played by Bruno Bachir. Alejandro and Isabel stumble upon him by accident, but the character dynamic is undeniable. Bachir easily steals the scene and the film could have gone a completely different direction at that point, but he is only in the movie for a brief period. Honestly, there were a number of instances where things could have gone much differently and opened up into a whole new plot.
The first film was a tough act to follow and Denis Villeneuve left some big shoes to fill…or rather, a big director’s chair. Italian Director Stefano Sollima stepped in to helm the sequel and while he did a good job, it’s easy to see that something was off. The majority of his experience is in television and, in many ways, the film felt like a long episode of a much larger story. As I mentioned earlier, the narrative burden was changed significantly and spread across a number of characters…each with their own different perspectives. I don’t know whether that was solely Silloma’s decision or something inherent in the script, but the focus was dithered as a result. That led to a general lack of tension throughout the two-hour and two-minute runtime and killed the pace because the audience knew they were waiting on something that couldn’t happen until the end. To his credit, he maintained the ominous tone and gritty realism that made the original a success without having to compromise production quality. I doubt this is going to catapult Sollima’s career in the states, but it should earn him another crack at the director’s chair.
There were a few key changes on the production side of things, but that didn’t hinder the quality. Hildur Guðnadóttir worked in the music department for the first film and stepped in to score the sequel after the death of composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. The void left by Roger Deakins was filled by Dariusz Wolski, who’s an incredibly talented and accomplished cinematographer in his own right, so the visual appeal of the film didn’t suffer. I enjoyed the first film enough to extend the benefit of the doubt to its sequel, knowing full well that a second film wasn’t necessary. Leading up to its release, I wasn’t hearing positive acclaim so I was a bit more cautious with my expectations. While Day of the Soldado didn’t have the same impact as its predecessor, it was still a well done film.
Recommendation: If you enjoyed the first Sicario, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t like this one too. Yes, it feels like a lateral move, but that’s better than taking a step backwards. However, there are a lot of options competing for your consumer dollar at the box office this weekend.