Sicario / Sicario 2: Soldado - 2 Movie Collection

Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin revisit their roles as Alejandro Gillick and C.I.A Special Activities Division Officer Matt Graver in this the second Sicario movie.After a suicide bombing killing fifteen people at a retail store in Kansas City the U.S Government Officials believe it to have been instigated/caused by one of the main Drug/People trafficking Cartels in Mexico and decide with Matt's team the best way to disrupt the Cartels is to instigate a war between them by making each believe they have been targeted by the other.....Matt enlists the help of Alejandro a hit-man with his own reasons for joining a mission such as this.Alejandro targets a lawyer who works for the Matamoros Cartel while Matt and his team kidnap Isabel Reyes daughter of the leader of the main rival cartelDuring operations that follow Alejandro forms a bond with Isabel, a bond that will become an issue later on...........when the team taking the young girl back across the border they are attacked by the police escorting them the outcome will become a political problem between the U.S and Mexico, an unpleasant directive to close-down the operation will be made by the U.S authorities....Matt has to follow orders, Alejandro has no such commitment.Isabel had fled during the firefight between the Mexican Police and U.S Convoy after which Alejandro had set out to find and look after her.Whilst i am sure not all will agree with me, i myself enjoyed this one more-so than the first, i thought the tale to be both tension-filled and gripping, also i felt it had more action sequences............certainly a film worthy of viewing

** SPOILER FREE REVIEW + UHD/4K REVIEW **The first Sicario is a tight, tense, intelligent action-thriller, which slowly unravels each plot point at an increasingly appropriate pace, whilst attempting using Kate Macy (Emily Blunt) as the 'moral anchor' throughout (even if many may disagree with her sense of morality).Sicario: Day of The Soldado however, leans more towards the action side of the action-thriller genre, and whilst the action is mostly excellent, too much of the original's tight storytelling is lost in favour of gritty combat.Although upscaled from digital 2K to 4K, the image quality of the 4K/UHD Blu-ray is excellent and offers a noticeable improvement over its 1080p Blu-ray counterpart, yet it won't offer grant that 'wow' moment that some 2018 UHD discs offer.As for audio, the UHD BR brings Dolby Atmos to the table, offering a slight advantage over the DTS 7.1 found of the regular BR, bringing a full object-based Dolby Atmos mix. With an appropriately suited sound system, this Atmos mix adds that additional depth to audio, and stands out in both quiet scenes along with scenes with aerial objects such as drones and helicopters.

I was eagerly awaiting the release of the Sicario 2 as the first Sicario was very good in content - storyline and action. Sicario 2 has the potential of a good storyline but there is less action and drama this time. Also, a lot of the movie is night-time and the quality of the video is often poor where it is not possible to properly see what is going on. Sound is fair altho' the background mood music is very good indeed. The story has tie-in references to the first Sicario, and the ending indicates a further Sicario movie. Overall, I was disappointed with this Sicario 2 which could have been a cracker with more care and attention to both how the story unfolds and the night-time sequences; the day-time ones were far better. Hence my average rating of 4-stars.

'Sicario' is a very good film but unfortunately, this sequel just doesn't measure up in terms of plot and general storyline. It's pretty much more of the same military style executions but without the depth of the first one. In order to stir up trouble amongst the Mexican cartels, they kidnap a leader's daughter and then later on decide to take her back as the plan didn't quite work out like they wanted it to. Del Toro decides to do this even though Brolin and the military refuse to help, at least at first. Without giving any more away, the film is basically just okay. Also, I didn't like the odd ending where Del Toro seems to be offering to train the young kid who shot him.

Many other reviewers have written at greater length on why "No 2. Soldado" is not as great as the first "Sicario" but what surprised me on watching the DVD is that after all the critical panning it received on original release (which is why I did not bother to go to the cinema to watch) is overall how good it still is!I watched the DVD with my brother who had not seen the first film and so did not know the backstory. Our conclusion at the end was that this was one of the better action movies (acting, script, cinematography and soundscape especially) that we had seen for a few months. The intricate plotting of the first film may not be here but Taylor Sheridan given the films he has been involved with to date still knows how to make characters complicated even if the story line is not in this case.With a different director and Director of Photography I was concerned this would look and feel like a "Son of" follow up but overall I doubt this will have done the "Sicario" franchise too much harm and the ending clearly sets up for a third follow on. Indeed I now look forward to where the story will be taken next!