Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

Review #1105: Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

Cast: 
Benicio del Toro (Alejandro Gillick), Josh Brolin (Matt Graver), Isabela Moner (Isabela Reyes), Jeffrey Donovan (Steve Forsing), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Gallo), Catherine Keener (Cynthia Foards), Matthew Modine (Secretary of Defense James Riley), Shea Whigham (Andy Wheeldon), Elijah Rodriguez (Miguel Hernandez), Howard Ferguson Jr. (Troy), and David Castaneda (Hector) Directed by Stefano Sollima.

Review: 
Apologies for the delay, I had some things I needed to get done in the past few days, so this review was delayed from its intended day of Wednesday. Hope you enjoy regardless.

Sicario was a movie that I described as a "tense and brutally effective thriller", with the main three leads of Emily Blunt, del Toro and Brolin proving to be dynamic to watch in how striking each are in dealing with what transpires on screen, and it was a film that had a sense of purpose and intent to what it showed on screen. This time around, the filmmakers decided to not have Blunt back, stating that the "moral guidance for the audience" that she provided in the first movie did not fit with the tone of the sequel. Perhaps the fact that she is not featured alongside del Toro and Brolin that makes this feel a bit unnecessary for some, and your mileage may vary on how this film succeeds at churning up points to exist. However, one important that is retained from the first one is Taylor Sheridan as writer, and he does a fine job once again in giving these characters a fair bit of depth and interest to them. It is in the depiction of the action and in the main three of del Toro-Brolin-Moner that the film works best, with parts in the story being the biggest detriment. The two movies stand out in their levels of moral complexity, with the first one being the one with more of it. It doesn't click as well with showing the pursuit of some sort of greater good crashing into the nature of what it takes to make for said "greater good" that occurred with the earlier film, but its the sequences with del Toro and Moner that make it seem fairly worth it. Brolin also does a fine job with making his (fairly) amoral character work in not having his plotline come off as stale. The other members (including a returning Donovan, who I had forgotten about) do decent in the time they get on screen. The action this time around is pretty rough, with occasional moments of shock but manages to not come off as repetitive or dull. If you compare the two Sicario movies, it is evident which is better pretty quickly, but it shouldn't get in the way too much of how the sequel manages to succeed on its own terms just enough to make a winner. Although it is a bit eager to set itself up for a sequel moreso than the original, I am curious to see where the story will lead itself from here.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.