It's an improvement to a lot of the complaints I had with the previous installment. At the same time, it does let us down in terms of the character setup. Writer Joe Russo clearly was compensating for the previous script, which had some problematic things. Yet, his solution was to make this script as bare bones as needed. In that, this film is not too far off from the recent films in the Mission: Impossible franchise, starring Tom Cruise. Those films have become an excuse for doing outrageous or over-the-top action scenes tied together by the most bare bones of plot details or narrative. It seems as though Russo wants the same for this franchise.
Chris Hemsworth (Avengers: Endgame and Snow White and the Huntsman) stars as Tyler Rake, a mercenary who is hired for missions in various countries, missions that often involve him having to rescue someone from a hostile situation. Tyler is dealing with the death of his son and the dissolution of his marriage while he served in the Australian army. He does military-like operations for money. There's not much setup needed to put him in any rescue scenario, but the setup in the first film felt so contrived and had no dramatic stakes for the protagonist.
Here, Russo's script changes that. It gives Tyler a personal connection to the mission. It's not that a character like Tyler needs a personal connection in order to affect good action sequences, but it does add to the stakes and dramatic weight. However, where it gains in Tyler's stakes or connection, it loses in other things. As before, Tyler is still dealing with the loss of his son. As before, he's paired with a teenage boy. Unfortunately, the teenage boy in this film isn't as developed as the previous. We simply spend less time with him and in his head.
Andro Japaridze plays Sandro, the teenage boy in question here. He's basically the human MacGuffin in this narrative. As in the previous film, Sandro has daddy issues. Those issues include having a father who is a criminal, involved in deadly activities. He has to decide if he's going to be loyal to that father or be loyal to his mother who calls upon Tyler to help rescue her, Sandro and Sandro's younger sister, Nina from Sandro's father named Davit Radiani.
What's insane is that Davit has been sentenced to prison for over a decade. Yet, he's somehow made arrangements for his wife and his two kids to be put in prison with him. This film skips over this fact. Sandro and Nina are children, living in a prison with dangerous criminals, probably confined to their prison cell and this film doesn't explore that or give the children time to talk about that experience. Sandro says he was there for his protection, as if being in prison with Davit was the only way to protect them. This statement is undermined because this film introduces Zurab Radiani. Zurab is the brother to Davit and uncle to Sandro, who commands a veritable army himself and is fully capable of protecting Sandro as well.
We don't get enough time to understand Sandro's relationship with his father. How much a person cares about that relationship can vary. It would add to the dramatic stakes, but, like Mission: Impossible, all one needs to know is that Davit and the people associated with him are bad. Tyler and his people are good and are saving lives. As such, it's all about the action, the camerawork, the choreography and the stunts. On that, this film delivers.
The centerpiece is, as it was in the previous film, a long, continuous take or a simulation of one. That centerpiece is the prison break where Tyler first rescues Sandro, his sister and mother. From a prison whistle to a train tumble, we follow Tyler and his team for a 20-minute sequence that feels like a roller-coaster on steroids, absolutely thrilling.
Rated R for strong/bloody violence and language.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 2 mins.
Available on Netflix.
