Childhood disappointment, snuffing out innocence, and xenophobia. Happy 4th of July y'all.
“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is nowhere near one of the worst films that I have seen all year but it is undoubtedly the most miscalculated thing that I have ever seen reach theaters in quite some time.
While the original “Sicario” was a masterfully crafted suspenseful action thriller that was respectfully meditative and in some cases even insightful regarding the nature of the Mexican drug cartels and the politically charged armed conflicts surrounding them as an uncontrollable burgeoning force of nature, worthy of more praise than it received by year’s end, it didn’t exactly do gangbusters at the box office, nor did it set itself up for some sort of coming franchise.
Sadly the gift of Benicio Del Toro’s award worthy performance as cartel bounty hunter Alejandro Gillick, driven to dismantle cartel’s via dirty dealings with the US military following the death of his family, has become a curse in disguise, as the good folks at Sony have seen fit to turn a feature length adaptation of the best parts of “Narcos” into a self serious and substantially less interesting version of “John Wick” and ultimately succeeding in being the 21st century version of John Wayne's "The Green Berets."
“Day of the Soldado” follows the further adventures of Gillick in his neverending quest to tear down the drug cartels, picking up with a newly commissioned operation to turn Mexico’s organized crime against itself in an effort to tear itself apart following the apparent smuggling of Muslim extremist suicide bombers into the country via the US/Mexican border.
The means to this end is the staged kidnapping and rescue of a cartel head’s teenage daughter, portrayed by Isabela Moner, whom Gillick is later forced with protect after the operation has gone wrong, forcing him to be burned by the agencies that enabled him up to this point.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to dress up that “Day of the Soldado” is just a forced concept of a sequel.
Although director Stefano Sollima lacks the elegant eye for composition, tone, and atmosphere that “Sicario” director Denis Villanueve has demonstrated across his entire career but nevertheless manages to craft a stylishly grim and brutal action thriller that does work as mindless popcorn entertainment, even if the level of craftsmanship going into it overshoots that to no successful effect.
Solidly executed aspects of storytelling can’t change how toothless the story itself ultimately feels. The first film managed to use meditative moments amid the chaos of a dehumanizing conflict along with the juxtaposition of Del Toro’s jaded and mysterious demeanor with Emily Blunt’s well meaning idealistic but ultimately naive perception of South American war on drugs to reveal a messy and potentially unsolvable phenomenon perpetuated by human pessimism to a point of becoming self sustaining.
That a sequel appears to have very little on its mind outside of its own pulpier aspects is kind of a disservice to begin with, leading to a number of Hollywood contrivances that feel out of place and kill what little impact the movie did have as entertainment, but the implications run far deeper and much less fortunate.
The messy nature of the war on drugs and the governments of both Mexico and the United States roles in it becoming as messy as it has is an unfortunate reality that should absolutely be acknowledged. I would however, like to have a potentially troublesome conversation with the movie executive that thought a major blockbuster that America needs to see right now is not only about Mexico sneaking criminals across our borders for plans too vaguely defined or overly simplistic to make much sense but smuggling Muslim terrorists in with them.
Watching the growing rise of globalism that I grew up seeing take an unexpected recession here in America, driven by the paranoia of people deluded enough to believe our government and way of life can be wiped out by a “Red Dawn-esque” invasion by smaller nations has been an unsettling reality to grapple with daily.
So going into a movie that seems to be content with falling back on these extreme and unfortunate images for the sake of sensationalism with no regard for how easy it is to take them out of context, or conviction in exploring them as the morally gray agency of the previous movie that doesn’t hesitate to screw over its allies for self serving purposes are now positioned as sympathetic characters adhering to an honor that had been previously scoffed at only to ultimately ring hollow is more than a little bit infuriating.
“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is not a total loss of a movie. Josh Brolin and Del Toro are as magnificent here as they were in the previous films, even if their material isn’t quite up to snuff, Isabela Moner continues to show off a budding successful career that I’ll be fascinated to see unfold as she grows, and the action set pieces are executed solidly and paced excellently.
Unfortunately, its solid filmmaking can’t quite overcome a hollowness at its very core that makes it disposable at best and may start to piss you off if you actually begin to think about it.
4 Poorly Made Sony Decisions out of 10
Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo of “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”
fame, “Fireworks,” a remake of a 90s live action TV movie, tells the story of
Norimichi Shimada’s efforts to cope with the disappointments of reality after
finding himself able to remake his decisions throughout the course of the day
with the help of a mysterious glass sphere.
Baffled by the nature of this ability in question, Norimichi
attempts to take it all in stride and use it to his advantage for the sake of
spending one final day with Nazuna, the girl that he loves who is attempting to
run away from her own problems at home that could separate the would-be couple
prematurely.
When Shinbo gets to really cut loose with the visual style
of the film, gradually foreshadowing a twist about its nature that is
masterfully executed in its revelation from the subterfuge executed to hide it,
“Fireworks” is at its absolute best.
The movie is undoubtedly a slow burn but once revelations
about its time turning gimmick come to life and begin manifesting within the
film’s production, a burgeoning work of excellence begins to make its presence
known, as the characters become more organic and cohesive and the nature of
their ordeal more transparent, in the process, painting a picture of childhood
and gradual maturity that is subtle, remarkably charming, refreshing, and even
nostalgic.
Sadly the impact that should have landed as an emotional gut
punch is severely dulled by a screenplay so clumsy and awkward that it may
really try your patience in getting to that rewarding middle half.
The plodding script, packed to the brim with awkward
dialogue that doesn’t always convey the irreverent nature of childhood interest
the way it may have intended, along with an awkward plot structure that clearly
made exercising animation and art style creatively a chore in some places bog
down a feature that suffers from diminishing returns when its best portion
comes into play and almost feels as though it forgot to add in content to
properly sell its own ending.
“Fireworks” is a diverting enough little feature in its own
right but when measured up against a plethora of contemporaries that execute
its own concepts in a far superior manner (Your Name, The Girl Who Leapt
Through Time, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Whisper of the Heart, and The Place
Promised in Our Early Days, just to name a few), it unfortunately doesn’t quite
rise above average at best despite its absolute best moments having almost
little competition in the oversaturated but never tiring landscape of genre
coming of age anime centered on the nature of childhood being whittled away by
the encroaching harshness of adulthood.
5 Flat Pyrotechnic Displays out of 10
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