'Sicario: Day of the Soldado' Is a Skillfully and Thoughtfully Constructed Thriller

2018 has been a big year for Josh Brolin.  Avengers: Infinity War.  Deadpool 2.  Sicario: Day of the Soldado.  Those three are among the biggest movies of the year, and he’s starred in all of them.

Anyway, Sicario: Day of the Soldado is the sequel to Sicario, one of 2015’s best films.  It once again features CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and assassin Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) running another drug war-themed black op.  This time around, as response of the US government to the discovery that Mexican drug cartels have smuggled terrorists across the border, Graver and his team are tasked to conduct false flag jobs for the purpose of manipulating the drug cartels into going to war with each other.  But when a young girl who gets entangled in the plot is branded as a loose end that needs to be cleaned up, Graver and Gillick are challenged on how far they are willing to go to perform their duties.

Overall, Soldado isn’t as great as the first Sicario film.  Taylor Sheridan’s script for Soldado is pretty solid, but it’s not quite as thought-provoking and subversive as his past works on Sicario and the other thriller films that he wrote since then, Hell or High Water and Wind River.  In fact, the second half of Soldado feels too conventional in comparison to his usual writing style.  This even results to Graver and Gillick arguably behaving inconsistently to the cold-blooded, conscienceless characterizations established in Sicario.

In addition, Dennis Villeneuve isn’t on the helm this time around.  Though new director Stefano Sollima has crafted a stylish and generally tight film, he’s unable to inspire the kind of white-knuckled thrills that Villeneuve masterfully accomplished in Sicario.

Nevertheless, Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a great film worth watching.  A skillfully and thoughtfully constructed thriller like this is somewhat of a rarity in modern-day cinema.