SICARIO DAY OF THE SOLDADO (O-RVZ MOVIE REVIEW)

Sicario Day of the Soldado is a crime thriller movie which is a sequel to 2015's Sicario directed by Denis Villeneuve a masterpiece director who also directed some of the amazing movies such as Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. Though this sequel doesn't have Denis returning on the directing chair, we get to have a new director Stefano Sollima helming the directing duties and some returnee casts from the original film like the likes of Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro. The story continues after the plot of the original film and tells about the war on drugs and Mexican Cartels.

This sequel doesn't really live up to the excellent quality from its predecessor. Though this movie isn't that bad, the first few scenes were definitely dark and set-up the whole plotline of the movie. The plot kinda lost on me as the movie goes along and I was having some issues with its pacing. It was slow and at times really lost my focus on the film. Unlike the first one, the intensity stays all throughout of it which this sequel had a hard time doing so. Good thing that at the second half of the movie, things quickly heat up and once the characters and plotline come in full circle, it was dark, intense and chilling. The performances of the casts especially the 2 lead men were great as well. Benicio is really something else, he can give out a cold and dark performance like of a hitman or assassin and somehow he is also able to give off a performance that is a fatherly figure showing a deeper emotion from his character which makes you sympathizes with him. They also kept the creepy and haunting soundtrack from the original film. It's something to give you an idea that this is really a sequel to that Sicario movie. There was something about the plot that I didn't like. It is indeed a slow development which you need a greater focus to stay with the movie.

OVERALL

SICARIO DAY OF THE SOLDADO is a good movie that doesn't have the excellent qualities from its predecessor. At times, I found some problems with its pacing and also some parts of it were boring. Things quickly heat up at the second half of it which is a good thing and the performances from the leads also helped in maintaining my interest in the whole movie. It's definitely a downgrade from its original, but it was still a good crime thriller movie.