Directed by Sam Hargrave (Extraction) — Screenplay by Joe Russo (The Gray Man; Avengers: Endgame).
Sam Hargrave’s Extraction 2 takes place nine months after the events of the first film. The so-called ‘myth of Mumbai,’ Tyler Rake (played by Chris Hemsworth) has opted to retire from his time as a mercenary to live a quiet life in Austria and recover. That’s until a stranger (played by Idris Elba) approaches him with another extraction mission. Ketevan (played by Tinatin Dalakishvili), the sister of Rake’s ex-wife, has alongside her two children been locked up by her incarcerated Georgian crime boss husband, who abuses and manipulates his family. It is Rake’s job to get Ketevan and her children out alive, and, in the process, take on a crime syndicate and an entire prison in the process.
There was a lot to like about that first Extraction film. Not only did it feature an A-list actor in a leading role, it was also a thrilling exercise in action stunt filmmaking that could blow your socks off through hard-hitting action. However, what I thought held the film back was its bland writing. I had hoped that the writing would improve for the second film, but, frankly, it really hasn’t. This time around I’ve mostly got the same positives and negatives to share. While the action is notably even more impressive in Extraction 2, the writing is just generic and trite. The story feels like a thing of the past, whereas the action is outstanding. Imagine how good these movies would be with more inventive narratives and characters that aren’t merely cardboard thin.
Early on in the film, a character tells Hemsworth’s character that “You fought your way back, you just have to find out why.” The answer is obviously that Netflix ordered a sequel, but there definitely is some suspension of disbelief that you have to get over if you remember the first film even a little bit. At the end of the first film, it looks like Tyler Rake is shot dead in Mumbai. He’s clinically dead, as this film says, but it doesn’t look like he’s lost a step once the film gets going. Now, that’s more of a nitpick than a problem with the film. The actual problem is that, yet again, the supporting characters in the film feel like holdovers from a relatively old script. This film’s story is just as bland as the first one.
Here you’ve got one-dimensional, paper-thin Eastern European antagonists who treat women like they are their property, and we only get a throwaway line or a very brief glimpse at a flashback to tell us who they are. They are basically anonymous tired stereotypes, which is just so boring for a sequel that ought to try to improve on the first film. That is because the script is only there to service the stunt and action sequences that the film is clearly built around. Whenever it tries to be more than that it feels underdeveloped. It seems like the filmmakers wanted to speak to the relationship between fathers and sons and what is passed on through generations, but it feels like an afterthought.
What is even more unfortunate is that the film is built around this unnaturally infuriating kid who only exists to be a plot device to make sure the bad guys can find the good guys, even when it doesn’t make sense. There are ways to work around this problem, but, in the writing process, a deliberate choice was made to have this kid be at fault time and time again. The setup and payoff to this ‘arc’ is so frustratingly obvious.
But Sam Hargrave’s film is still an extremely remarkable action film because of the fact that the action is gritty, gory, hard-hitting, and pulse-raising. The film has an extended action sequence in which — through an artificial (i.e. stitched together) long take — Rake has to fight his way through prison, fight his way through a train (there are so many action scenes set on trains this year, what gives?), participate in a violent car chase, and use a gatling gun to fend off villains in a helicopter. It is so well-designed and choreographed, and the action is extremely effective. Unlike Chad Stahelski’s stylized John Wick films, it doesn’t have that stylized shine or a soundtrack to fist-pump to. Rather, it is just pure, gritty seemingly handheld action. The car chase reminded me, in moments, of Children of Men, and, like the first film, there are moments when it is very video gamey (like you’re moving the analog sticks of a controller). The action scenes are predictably sensational.
When I write reviews of these Extraction films, I find myself in some sort of emotional tug-of-war. On the one hand, the action is so exceptional that I find myself wanting to praise this film as one of the most entertaining films that Netflix has put out. But the thing is that whenever the film slows down and the writing or the characters take center stage, I am pulled in the opposite direction, as its bland and trite script (at worst, it derails the film, and, at best, it’s merely serviceable) feels stuck in the past with paper-thin one-dimensional characters and one intensely infuriating plot device character that ought to have been smoothed over by another rewrite. If the writing for the inevitable third film has learned its lessons and has any depth to it (and if Sam Hargrave returns to direct), then it’d likely be one of the very best action films of its year, but, at this time, Extraction 2 will have to settle for including the best action scenes in any Netflix original film.
6.7 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 