Sicario 2 is a very solid sequel

With the loss of four of the key principals from the first outing – the star, the director, the cinematographer, and the composer – this sequel may appear to be hampered coming out of the gate. However, although it lacks a lot of the nuance and political subtext of Sicario (2015). Sicario 2: Soldado is still a very solid piece of filmmaking which is well worth the price of a ticket.

Although Emily Blunt, Dennis Villeneuve, Roger Deakins, and – tragically – Johan Johannsson are gone, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro are back and in fine form. The most important thing about this second film however is the screenwriter Taylor Sheridan. He is being described in some quarters as the master of the modern Western. Certainly with both Sicario movies, Hell and High Water (2016) Wind River (2017), and the current Kevin Costner series Yellowstone to his credit that seems a fair description.

Having written the 2015 movie, Sheridan had originally conceived the story as a trilogy so this is properly a second instalment rather than a sequel as such. The first film dealt with the war on drugs but now the Mexican cartels have moved on to people smuggling and, we are told, they control most of the illegal cross border trade between Mexico and the United States.

As federal agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) points out people trafficking is a no-brainer for the cartel; they don’t have to grow or process the crop and, if it fails, they will come back for another attempt usually at a higher price.

When a terrorist atrocity in the United States is linked to bombers who were smuggled across the Border, the US government intends to make people trafficking a terrorist offence. Graver is thus given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to stop the cartel so he turns to prosecutor turned hit man Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) to take on the job.

Brolin and Del Toro plan to kidnap the daughter of the cartel boss – the man responsible for the deaths of Del Toro’s family – and make it look like the raid was planned by another cartel. With the gangs then at war the US government should be able to step in and clean up.

If you are familiar with Sicario you will appreciate that such an apparently straightforward plan is destined to become mired in betrayal, bad luck, and political cowardice. The upshot is, without giving too much away, is that Del Toro and the girl are stranded on the Mexican side of the border deep in cartel territory.

Given America’s current immigration scenario the release of this film could hardly come at a more appropriate time. The difficulties of the Trump administration are referred to only obliquely but they provide an interesting backdrop for the story to play out.

Sheridan’s script does a great job of world-building, especially at the start, as we become aware of the tangled web and full extent of the people trafficking operation. The action moves along crisply carrying several story strands at once and managing to tie them together fairly effectively. There was one, for me, unnecessarily sentimental episode at the end of act two which was tonally awkward but otherwise it is highly efficient storytelling.

The action scenes are similarly well-handled, director Stefano Sollima is best known for his Italian crime series Gomorrah (2014) which covers similar territory. However, and this may seem a small quibble, although the violence is brutal at times there is very little moral dimension to it.

In the first film we had Emily Blunt as the audience’s eyes and ears to take us through this moral maze. Without her Sicario 2 deals in absolutes; it’s them and us and the implicit rightness of the US cause means Brolin – good as he is in the role – doesn’t have to have a single moral qualm about his actions.

Despite this lack of layering Sicario 2 delivers on every other level and sets things up nicely for an eagerly-anticipated final instalment of the trilogy.