Welcome back to the world of the Mexican Cartel and the Police Enforcement tasked with fighting them. Sicario 2: Soldado is a follow up to the hit 2015 film that starred Emily Blunt as an idealistic FBI agent.
The sequel has lost its predecessor’s star, but replaced Emily Blunt with starring roles for Benecio Del Toro and Josh Brolin. Both of whom are riding the blockbuster waves of Hollywood with a supporting role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi for Del Toro and two different superhero film credits for Brolin in 2018 with the hotly anticipated Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2.
Release Date
Sicario 2: Soldado has been slated for a UK release date of Friday the 29th June 2018. This is a prime summer spot for the film, and after receiving high critical acclaim for the first one the studios will hope for good box office figures. At the moment, no other major film is set to be released on the same day in the UK.
The only close competition it has is from the all female led Oceans Eight which stars Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, and is due to be released a week before Soldado.
Story
The plot for the film appears to be similar to that of the first one, however, this time around it would seem the war between the Mexican Cartel and the American law enforcement has escalated dramatically. The American Government hire Matt Graver (Brolin) to tackle the ongoing problem of the Cartel and try to bring them down once and for all using any methods he chooses. This gives him the notion to hire super assassin Alejandro Gillick (Del Toro) to help kill off key members of the Cartel.
Gillick has his own personal vendetta against the Cartel after his daughter was killed by them, and this time it would seem he’s been given a license to kill to provide his own sense of justice.
Cast
Benecio Del Toro and Josh Brolin lead the cast, and they’re joined by Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine, Jeffrey Donovan and Isabela Moner who was last seen in the latest Transformers blockbuster The Last Knight.
It’s an impressive cast, however, it would appear they’ve not filled the void of where Emily Blunt’s character fit in. In Sicario, she provided a strong, tough performance that rivalled the two macho men Brolin and Del Toro and this chemistry was what made the first film so appealing and well received.
Production
Stefano Sollima is directing the film and he takes over the reigns from acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049). The screenplay was written by Taylor Sheridan, who also wrote the first film. Sheridan is currently a man in demand after following up Sicario with Hell or High Water which was met with high praise and landed him an academy award nomination for best original screenplay. You can find more on the production of Sicaro 2: Soldado from there Twitter page.
First Impressions
This film has lost Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins who provided his director of photography expertise on the first film. This is a huge gap to fill as these are two men who are at the top of their fields. However, they’ve kept Taylor Sheridan heavily involved with the film and that’s extremely positive. He’s a gifted writer and also recently showed his talents as a director on the 2017 movie Wind River. His script could have been the clinching factor that brought back Del Toro and Brolin for the sequel.
The trailer for Sicario 2: Soldado, looks just as drama filled and action packed as the first film. With Benecio Del Toro and Josh Brolin leading the pack it would appear this next installment of the Sicario franchise will give us just as much of an emotional punch as the first one did.
