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Join UsStar Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Tornike Bziava.
Director: Sam Hargrave.
What’s Good: Extraction franchise is a prime example of how technical brilliance and a great mind to use it can create a lucrative IP. Plus, Chris Hemsworth can take down a village alone.
What’s Bad: Russo Brothers have decided to go even more lenient on the screenplay and have forgotten they are shaping a massive universe because this one looks nothing more than a ‘by the way’ story with no connection to the past or future.
Loo Break: As much as I want to tell you that there is nothing complex in the story to move away from the screen, the camera work is stopping me, too, because some action sequences are so brilliant that you won’t want to miss them.
Watch or Not?: You Should. But not with too many expectations.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Available On: Netflix.
Runtime: 122 Minutes.
User Rating:
Tyler Rake has defeated death and has survived brutal combat in Bangladesh. He now spends his retirement in Austria only to be suddenly dragged into a mission by an unknown man to extract his wife’s sister and her two children from a prison in Georgia. With a new mission, and a personal one at hand, Rake now has an unknown reason to put his life in danger.
Extraction 2 Movie Review: Script Analysis
Extraction and franchises from the same corner of the cinema are among the most padded projects if you look at them closely. Big stars putting in all efforts to look their rugged/flawless best flaunting their hot, chiseled bodies, a technical team that builds an edgy visual world (if they are good at their job), directors who create the phenomenon of a person who can save the world as a whole, and so on. In all this, there are ample rooms to hide the chinks, if any, and most of the times, it is the weak/not upto-the-mark writing. The first Extraction was a brilliant example where the scale of the movie compensated for the very predictable writing, and the franchise became a global phenomenon.
Does Extraction 2 succeed in doing so? Well, the glass is half full this time. With Joe Russo and Anthony Russo (The Russo Brothers) back to their writing credits by adapting Ande Parks’ graphic novel Ciudad, the sequel to the widely successful movie is at best a complimentary episode (like those Marvel Holiday Specials) which is just a warm-up to the big game. But as an audience, we weren’t in for a Holiday Special but a big game itself. And that is where the movie fails in fulfilling its job.
The opening is quite interesting, and I have to agree. Tyler is almost dead and is now in retirement, recovering from all that happened in Bangladesh, and also seeking redemption for his past trauma. Cut to Georgia, where two brothers have created havoc, and one is married to someone Rake knows. The approach to the opening is interesting. The Russos invest more time in setting up their villains than Tyler because you almost know everything about the latter. So now, delve deeper into these new characters. They aren’t just bad men with power but have gone through hell to be monstrously seduced by power when they achieved it.
There are more storylines introduced, with Nik (Golshifteh) getting a much more significant and prominent role, and finally meeting Rake’s wife, Mia, and Nik’s brother Yaz. But all of this is only to be forgotten and faded into action sequences that are brilliant but are placed after voids. Because the complexities never feel enough to move, you are invested in a character. The first Extraction was predictable but also very complex. You could feel the chaos even before you saw it visually. The tension spoke to you as a viewer, and the future was translated pretty well on the screen.
But in Extraction 2, everything is pretty simple and compressed to fit a very crisp runtime, which doesn’t make sense, because 21 minutes out of the 2 hours are spent in a splendid climax action sequence (about that later). Talking of complexities, the procession, the one that is extracted, Ovi, in the first part, had gravity as a character; he was written from the same pen Tyler was, so he could stand tall as a character graph in front of him. This time there are three people in Ovi’s place, but none get similar treatment.
After having witnessed the best John Wick: Chapter 4 in the same year, Extraction 2 looks nothing more than a budding experimental short film.
Extraction 2 Movie Review: Star Performance
Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake is now synonymous with this part. The actor is an action star, and his personality helps him elevate that aspect of himself much, much higher. But Chris tries to show the world his acting caliber in the scenes between the action sequences. When he is seeking redemption, grieving for his dead son, accessing his decision to always fight with death. But the script never gives him enough room to sit and let the emotions take over him and the audience completely. One half-baked scene with Mia by the end is served as redemption to him, and it is a crime not just towards Rake but the audience who has been invested.
Golshifteh Farahani is a chameleon. For an actor who saw a film of hers released in India, six years after its festival circuit tour, she shows a range by playing Nik. Yes, she is Nooran from Irrfan Khan’s last movie, The Song Of Scorpions. The actor, this time, gets an emotional arc, which again feels half-hearted because we are never let to stay with it to feel devastated when she does.
Idris Elba has an interesting part that has a bigger future and the actor has the calibre to pull it off. Rest everyone gets to be a plot device with good acting and mostly one-time characters.
Extraction 2 Movie Review: Direction, Music
Sam Hargrave is a fabulous director when it comes to the action genre. He knows what will churn out the expected reaction, and he delivers that. But where he lacks is building the world between those action scenes. The material is indeed weak, but the director doesn’t do anything to save it. The aforementioned 21-minute-long action sequence is gut-wrenching as it plays out in a single shot. But the climax that it leads to doesn’t complement the mastery of the last 21 minutes at all. It’s too easy and too obvious for a franchise that is supposed to be difficult. Because an entire country was scaled the last time.
DOP Greg Baldi takes the mantle from Newton Thomas Sigel, and does a superb job of capturing this world. It isn’t an easy job to capture a movie like this one. The action is edge-of-the-seat stuff yet again, but the fight between Chris and Randeep Hooda in the market in the first one still remains the best.
Extraction 2 Movie Review: The Last Word
Let’s just say Extraction 2 was riding in a lot of hope because they first built them. Maybe one more chance is what the team deserves, and a new big baddie being hinted does inject some more hope.
Extraction 2 Trailer
Extraction 2 releases on 16th June, 2023.
Share with us your experience of watching Extraction 2.
For more recommendation, read our About My Father Movie Review here.
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