Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a 2018 crime drama set along the Mexico border where cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border.
Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin are back in the follow up to 2015’s Sicario, in Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan returns as well for the screenplay, and relative newcomer, Stefano Sollima, has taken the director’s chair. Although they certainly brought some extra firepower to the table for the sequel, the story itself doesn’t quite have the flow of Denis Villeneuve’s original. While fans of the original should still thoroughly enjoy the sequel and get their fill of action, Villeneuve not being present is noticeable.
Soldado begins with a suicide bombing taking place at a small grocery store in Kansas City. Those responsible for the bombing are affiliates of Carlos Reyes, who operates one of the largest cartels in Mexico. This prompts The President of the United States to brand cartels as terrorist organizations, and Matt Graver (Brolin) is brought in to lead the (unofficial) charge against them.
Graver puts together a team, including Alejandro Gillick (Del Toro), to pit Reyes against his main competitor and have them self-destruct in a civil war. In order to spur this, they kidnap Reyes’s daughter, Isabel (Isabela Moner), and place the blame with the other cartel. After staging a “rescue” to make Isabel think they hadn’t kidnapped her, they are fired upon by a Mexican police escort who betrays them. During the firefight Isabel escapes on foot, so Alejandro goes to track her down while Matt and his team escape to safety across the border.
News of the Americans killing Mexican police goes public, so the POTUS gets spooked and shuts down the operation. Cynthia Foards (Catherine Keener), who works under the Secretary of Defense (Matthew Modine) and was overseeing the operation, orders Matt to kill Alejandro and Isabela to clean things up. Matt calls Alejandro to let him know the situation, and that he’s been ordered to take out Isabela. Alejandro tells him that they can’t do that, so the two men are forced to cut ties. It’s now up to Alejandro to get Isabela across the border to safety, while Matt and his team are tracking them down.
The best thing that Soldado has going for it is that it brought back two of the main cast members, Brolin and Del Toro. Brolin plays a government spook to perfection, always chomping on gum and strolling around in flip flops with a smirk on his face. One of the best parts about his character in Sicario was that you never knew when to trust him or what his true motives were. Without having Emily Blunt around to deceive, that part of Brolin’s character is more or less gone, which was a bit disappointing. And then of course we have Del Toro returning in a role where his only goal in life is to take down anyone and everyone affiliated with the cartel that killed his family. Del Toro is great again in the sequel, but we see more of his human side this time around. He develops a certain affection for Isabela, and he’s not just a cold-blooded killer anymore. We see a more vulnerable side to him, not only the soulless hitman from Sicario.
The tone of Soldado felt more like a blockbuster. The story was more theatrical and dramatized, whereas during Sicario you felt like you were getting a live look into the battle with drug cartels and the corruption surrounding it. It’s clear that the studio told Sheridan to throw a story back at them so they can get Brolin and Del Toro back together onscreen. Mix in some smoke and mirrors with more firepower and voila, you’ve got your sequel. A large part of the story revolved around illegal immigration and the people that herd them to the border, but it was really just added to aid the ending. For better or worse, there didn’t seem to be any sort of political agenda in play. The result was a sort of rushed and muddled ending that leaves you unsatisfied. However, the movie does set itself up for another installment, so diehard fans will be excited for that.
Hildur Guonadottir and the sound department from Sicario both returned, which was crucial because of how important they were to the original. The music and sound do wonders for building the tension throughout, and that was still apparent in Soldado. What was also apparent was Villeneuve’s absence. He has such a knack for storytelling in movies such as Sicario, Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, that without him here the flow of the movie is more jumbled and sloppy. His movie developed a story leading into a twist at the end, but there was no mystery in Soldado of what was really going on. Blunt not being around was noticed as well. In the original, she was needed as a moral compass while being surrounded by so much corruption. This time around Keener and Modine are brought in, but they are just as morally corrupt as Brolin and Del Toro, if not more.
This is by all means an entertaining movie. It didn’t exceed my expectations, but I wasn’t expecting it to. Villeneuve is a genius and one of the best directors out there, hence he had been offered the chance to direct Bond 25. When I found out he wasn’t returning I knew that I couldn’t get my hopes up for a The Dark Knight type situation, where the sequel is better that the original. Despite that, just seeing Del Toro and Brolin back on screen together was great. The action and intensity didn’t go anywhere, however I’m excited to see what their next move in this surprising franchise is.