Mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is back in action. This time he’s trying to rescue the wife (Tinatin Dalakishvili) of an abusive crime lord (Tornike Bziava) and her two children from a Georgian prison. Operatives Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) and Nik’s brother Yaz (Adam Bessa) return to help Rake infiltrate the cell where the family is being kept. They are pursued by a ruthless Georgian gangster (Tornike Gogrichiani). The mission is further complicated when young son Sandro (Andro Japaridze) is conflicted by feelings of loyalty toward his evil father.
Extraction 2 is a sequel to the Netflix hit that came out in April 2020 during the pandemic’s early days when movie theaters were closed. Frankly, I didn’t care for it, but I’m happy to say the follow-up improves upon its predecessor. However, this routine shoot–’em–up isn’t much better. Violent action movies shine when the audience can sense some humanity among the people. Chris Hemsworth is an appealing personality with a lot of charisma when he plays Thor in the Marvel films, but he is a generic stoic hero here. Director Sam Hargrove is working from a script by Joe Russo. Together they attempt to provide a loose story of family, but this exercise is just an excuse to show lots of killing and little else.
I will admit there are some well-choreographed scenes. It’s frenetic and nonstop, so you get what you came for, but this is brutal stuff. A man is killed when a pitchfork is shoved through his throat; another is crushed by a load of heavy weights after a dumbbell bar is kicked, and one guy’s hand is gruesomely ripped in half. Ouch! Combatants are constantly being stabbed in the legs, arms, and backs. Expect geysers of blood. I know some aficionados have a taste for gore. They will admittedly find much to enjoy here. I am not one of those people, so I’ll stop…and extract myself.
07-05-23
5 Responses
I agree. Plenty of gore and non stop action. It’s always funny to me that a few people can go up against hundreds of people and weapons and still come out practically unscathed. 2 1/2 ⭐️
Yeah it made no sense. I was ok with that. The oppressive killing for two hours straight just got to me.
We’re in agreement. There’s just not enough personality here and I just found it odd how the best action sequence of the whole thing is shoved up front. Maybe I’m being overly nitpick-y with that but Idk. The “extraction” part actually was awesome. Then the rest of the movie just kind of fizzled out.
Yeah it was very repetitive. How many different ways can you show someone being killed?
John Wick would argue there’s never enough. 😉
Interesting comment I read the other day, which described the Wick and Extraction franchise as a “nuclear arms race of ass-kicking, and where does it go from here?” It’s a good question!!