Sicario: Day of the Soldado (**)

Look no further than my initial review of 2015's Sicario to see what a great film that was. The standards by which a sequel would be compared were so high, but it's not just lack of skill that makes this movie so forgettable - it also misses the mark altogether. It's rare for a follow-up film to surpass the original, but here is a movie that feels like a ploy for more money. Nothing more.

The film logically abandons Emily Blunt's wide-eyed character from the first film, the FBI agent who discovers the world of illegal drug trade at the Mexican border firsthand. In many ways her character served as the audience: asking questions, learning the film's mysteries alongside us, and ultimately discovering that there are no morals defined in black and white. Part of what made Sicario so amazing was Blunt's character and her descent into confusion, all the while a hitman named Alejandro (Benicio del Toro) goes from mystery to the center of our attention. That film didn't end with a pretty bow on top. It left the characters with no further standards as to what is right and wrong.

Enter the sequel, a movie that takes off from the first few minutes with several loud bangs and a new topic: terrorism. Where the first film focused on drugs, here we learn of a cartel's plot to smuggle Middle Eastern terrorists across the Mexican border (?) in order to enact war on the American people (??), or something like that. It's like we are watching a wet dream of Stephen Miller or Donald Trump. Not once do we see illegals crossing the border seeking refuge, but on numerous occasions do these people crossing the Rio Grande smuggle in explosives and weapons. Yikes.

The Secretary of State recruits Graver (Josh Brolin, who has been in a lot of films this year, all of his performances spectacular) to begin a war against a Mexican cartel in order to destroy them from the inside out? I don't know. Graver retrieves Alejandro for one more mission that involves kidnapping a crime lord's daughter and smuggling her back across to the United States... And then bring her back to Mexico... And then bring her back once more to the US for good measure. The film (written by Taylor Sheridan - he also wrote the original) attempts to capitalize on the multiple plots of the 2015 picture but comes out on the other side with an overall boring movie. Without Blunt, there are no characters we can identify with, and to be honest, all the characters here are incredibly drab.

Many praised the first film for it's realism, all of which goes out the window in a magical climax involving a bullet to the head and an apparent Lazarus moment that I did not buy for a second. The film concludes on a bleak note that leaves the audiences with no answers and apparently no questions, either. Remember the film's opening in which illegals cross our border and blow up buildings. There is no resolution to that plot, no insight into why Mexicans might flock to the US. It's a one-sided approach that is quickly ignored and covered up with layers of additional plot in an attempt to make the audience forget what was so repulsive about the film's opening. What can I say? No Denis Villeneuve. No Roger Deakins. No Jóhann Jóhannsson. Sure, this film has a modicum of craft, but it's art that could have been better spent on a better, more tense movie. If you see "Sicario," just pretend that it's a standalone film. "Soldado" doesn't deserve to shine it's predacessor's shoes.