3 out of 5

Directed by: Sam Hargrave

Significantly less dumb than the dumb Extraction, but still sufficiently dumb enough to qualify as a dumb popcorn actioner, Extraction 2 – kicking off its dumbness with a very silly numbers-in-title logo – puts Extractioner specialist Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) back in the rescuing saddle, montage-recovering from his wounds in the previous film and finding motivation to work again. …Because this time, it’s personal, and etc., as the job offered to him (by a cheeky Idris Elba) involves reuniting his ex-wife with her sister, Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili), who is being kept in a Georgian prison with her daughter and son, as, essentially, the property of her incarcerated mobster husband.

Working with DP Greg Baldi, the look of the film feels a bit less raw and earthy versus the first, leaning towards a more generic, gray-blue palette, but, as hoped, the visuals in general have more of an identity than that flick, with Hargraves showing more confidence in what he wants to do, leading to a more satisfyingly paced runtime. The extended oner is back, and it’s wholly gimmicky and as questionable as before – so many places where sacrificing the “coolness” of a faux-oneshot would’ve provided a better edit and more impactful action – but Hargraves leans into it more, kind of admitting to the gimmickry and thus willing to make it more ridiculous. The Roger Ebert review mentions this being akin to a video game; that’s exactly right – Uncharterd again comes to mind, and several sequences feel mirrored by some of those in that game. Equally as important to the relative success of this lengthy section of the film, though, is that it feels more narrative overall: while I can bicker over the need for it, each piece of it felt motivated by some internal storytelling, following the character in frame to find an exit or check on a wounded party or grab a gun and so on. This carries over to the over action setpieces, where we also see more confidence in not going for overkill: the close-quarters grappling and gunshots are pretty quick and clean; we move through environments without dawdling, giving us glory shots we’re waiting for and then moving on; I appreciated how short these non-oner scenes were.

And with the legwork of establishing Rake’s I-abandoned-my-family past in film one, film two’s plot in general can have more forward momentum, as the brother of the incarcerated mobster (Tornike Gogrichiani) swears vengeance on Rake, and pursues him with tons of mobby buddies via various bullet-soaked showdowns; the requisite emotional pangs Rake feels – y’know, to make him a haunted hero – regarding Ketevan’s son’s allegiance to his Uncle are more smoothly integrated into things, although we’re still dealing with a pretty empty-headed flick – some of the final sequences commit some logical flubs just to extend the runtime and body count and allow people to come back shooting guns at the last minute.

This is a carried over weakness from the former flick: Hargraves’ movie start out strong, and are shot well throughout, but the narrative starts spinning its wheels as soon as possible, and the balance between some grounded tensions and ridiculous choreography is lost, with any given good person or bad person soaking up hundreds of bullets without flinching, but then ooh ahh that one to the leg really got me, and also everyone only occasionally seems to realize that no one’s wearing and protection over their faces. It just gets cartoonish too quickly, and so there’s no real sense of stakes to these scenes, just a top-down decision of who lives and dies, and they’ll last through a hailstorm of knife and gunshot wounds until the script says they’re dead. Shed some tears, scream you’ll take revenge, slap a bandage on that gaping gash, and let’s go shoot some more bullets.

But: where Extraction one tipped over into boredom, Extraction 2 manages to stay afloat in the fun zone, and is clearly a more polished effort. Making the inevitable Extraction 3 of more interest…