Extraction 2 – Review
122 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Joe Russo
Directed by Sam Hargrave
**NOTE: this post will be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
After barely surviving his grievous wounds from his mission in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tyler Rake is back, and his team is ready to take on their next mission.
The sequel to 2020’s successful Netflix original, you would think this movie would simply attempt to one-up that action-packed Chris Hemsworth vehicle with even crazier action sequences.
But you’d be wrong.
Picking up at the end of the first film, we find Tyler Rake (spoiler alert) being shot multiple times and falling off a bridge into a river. Washing up on the shore, he is taken to hospital by his colleagues (Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa) where he barely survives before being treated to an Austrian cabin-based retirement from his mercenary days.
Once again written by Joe Russo and directed by Sam Hargrave, Extraction 2 does, in fact, ramp up the action by a factor of… three? Five…?
it’s a lot.
Plucked from retirement by a mysterious man with an offer from Rake’s ex-wife, we are treated to a Rocky-style montage of amazing training and recovery from otherwise debilitating injuries as Rake prepares to break a Georgian gangster’s wife and children out of the prison in which they are being kept with said gangster.
I won’t spoil why his ex-wife wants them out.
What follows is the first of many extended action sequences, and the one which is by far the most ambitious in its conception and execution. Seeming to be a single long take, Rake infiltrates the prison, gathers the targets and begins to move to the exit, only to be discovered and the guards alerted by another prisoner.
As the children’s uncle pursues them across Europe, we get a couple more long action sequences, though none shot in the single-take style of the first.
This fascination with doing long, looonnngggg, shots is becoming a bit stale, actually. Yes, I raved at the ridiculous apartment sequence in John Wick 4 but started to wane a bit on the staircase battle in the same film.
It can be overdone, is what I’m saying, if not used judiciously.
Extraction 2 nearly crosses that line. Nearly, but not quite.
But let’s be clear: the action sequences are pretty f***ing awesome, even if they fall short of the combat realism (or rather, its physical effects) that makes John Wick such an enjoyable franchise. It’s to be expected, of course, with director Sam Hargrave’s stunt background and action movie credentials.
But writer Joe Russo does manage to add some more character moments and development into this one, with us getting a look into Tyler Rake’s life before becoming a bad-ass merc. My guess is, they learned that from the John Wick franchise, as well.
Action for action’s sake is fine, but if you want to elevate, we — the audience — needs to care about these people.
In the end, we find Rake worse off than where he began: beat to hell and stuck in a prison, until… well, the mysterious stranger reappears with an offer…
Extraction 2 is an action-packed, mile-a-minute thrill ride for action junkies, and with a third installment almost certainly on the way, we can expect to see Chris Hemsworth saddle up again sooner rather than later.
Extraction 2 will be exclusively on Netflix beginning June 16 and stars Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, Tornike Gogrichiani, Adam Bessa, Daniel Bernhardt, Tinatin Dalakishvili, and Olga Kurylenko.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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