Sicario 2 review: Soldado is a brutal equal to its predecessor

Dir. Stefano Sollima, Starring: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan

“Adios,” mutters Benicio del Toro’s steely hitman Alejandro Gillick before unloading eight bullets into a corrupt lawyer without breaking a sweat - an appropriate re-introduction to the casually brutal world of Sicario. In 2015, the original shone a light on issues rife in the US. This unnerving follow-up, titled Sicario 2: Soldado, has done so again with a sequel that's every bit its predecessor's match.

The film ditches former lead star Emily Blunt for a new tale uniting del Toro's character with Josh Brolin's CIA agent Matt Graver. The story doesn't so much switch its focus from cocaine to terrorism as use it to propel the action forward. Hell or High Water writer Taylor Sheridan's script charts the CIA's team-up with Gillick to eradicate the immigration of potential terrorists onto US soil. Their plan? To start a war between two cartels by abducting a top kingpin's daughter (Isabela Moner) with the intention of framing the rival side.

Denis Villeneuve, who directed the acclaimed Oscar-nominated original, hands the reins to filmmaker Stefano Sollima whose audition - superior Italian mob drama Suburra - was passed with flying colours in 2015. It's to Sollima's credit that the material is dissected competently despite the plot's complexity (it's about 794 laughs short of being a Coen Brothers film). He keeps the audience continually abreast of the who, what and why while retaining the lingering dread the original maintained throughout with solid assistance from cinematographer Roger Deakins and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson (his portentous three-note motif remains courtesy of Hildur Guðnadóttir).

Sollima's first foray into Hollywood filmmaking is as adult as they come. Moments into Sicario 2 and it’s clear he hasn't been hired to mess around. Instead of teasing out its thrills, Sollima doles out the twists in as quick succession as those bullets from Gillick's firearm. Each one hits hard - sometimes a bit too much; an early scene involving suicide bombers in suburban America is as tense as anything you'll see in cinema all year while the visual of seeing immigrants mistreated by border control causes trembles in light of recent events.

Despite its continual action, Soldado is a pleasingly placid film. Sollima refuses to balletically drag the camera around in favour of lingering on moments unnervingly longer than he should. His handle on Sheridan's often sketchy material is as firm as Villeneuve's and evokes other filmmakers who can sustain such tension including Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk).

It helps that he's working with a dynamite duo. Brolin may coast capably on autopilot but, in Gillick, del Toro has found the role of his career. His highlight arrives in a mid-section scene which sees him use the language we learn he used to communicate with his slain daughter after meeting a deaf man in the desert. He visibly stunts his emotions, in turn, snatching at the audience's heartstrings. It's a necessary reminder of the drive of a character who was mercilessly gunning down numerous Mexican police officers just scenes before.

There are quibbles. While the task of replacing Blunt is unenviable, there's no effort to supplant a female character half as interesting into the sequel, save for Catherine Keener's basically-nameless CIA agent and the impressive 16-year-old Moner who spends the running time being thrown from one vehicle to another. Then there's the final scene that's so shamelessly tacked on it almost dares you to denounce the already-confirmed third Sicario film despite your better efforts.

When Soldado works, though, it soars, holding your breath hostage in a way most films yearn to pull off. It's hard to gauge how appealing Sicario films would be without the allure of del Toro but it's to his credit alongside the promisingly talented Sollima that they have made something so brutal so watchable.

Sicario 2: Soldado is released in cinemas on 29 June