by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
Having miraculously survived being shot and falling off a bridge in Dhaka, Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) has a call for another mission. In Extraction II, with the help of Niki and Yaz Khan (Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa), once again, Tyler must break his ex-wife’s sister, Ketevan Radiani (Tinatin Dalakishvili), and her two children out of imprisonment, where Ketevan’s husband Davit (Tornike Bziava) is holding them. Meanwhile, he learns a few things about loyalty and being a good father.
To briefly summarize my thoughts on Extraction, from 2020, it’s okay for what it tries to be. It has a paper-thin narrative, enough fun action, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. You’re not going to learn any powerful life lessons watching it, and it’s just a fun time for a little over an hour and a half. I expected Extraction II to be similar, with a step up in action sequences. In comparison, we get the latter, but we also get a slightly deeper narrative.
After a reasonably decent sequence explaining how Tyler survived, and how he made a full recovery, a random guy (Idris Elba) shows up to inform him that his ex-wife’s sister is in trouble. I like the idea that Tyler wasn’t hired just to do a difficult job no one else would do. There is a personal reason why they approach him. To complicate matters further, Ketevan’s husband is the main antagonist, and his son Sandro (Andro Japaridze) is undecided on which parent he is loyal to. It’s a fascinating conflict of interest that gives a bit more emotional weight to the story, which the first one doesn’t have.
Speaking of that first one, while it is a fairly standard action thriller for the most part, one entirely original thing it has is some creative one-shot action sequences. The sequel steps things up considerably, with a one-shot sequence lasting over 20 minutes. It covers a massive shootout, a car chase, and a train fight, all without cutting away. It’s an effective way to showcase the action in real time, and to ensure you never lose track of where the bad guys are in relation to the main characters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car case shot like this before, and they get a good balance of shaky cam to immerse you in the chase, while still allowing you to see everything. Of course, it’s not one single take in reality; some poor CGI effects make it clear there was much post-production work, splicing many takes together. There are even a couple of times when it looks like the camera has fazed through solid glass or metal. It’s a costly experience for the most part, but the impossible nature of some of the shots took me out of the action occasionally.
The second half of the film is certainly not as strong as the first. There’s a much more sluggish pace to the action sequences and the story-related scenes involving Tyler and Sandro, whose arc did continue to interest me as things unfolded. I genuinely wasn’t sure what he would do in the end. However, the scenes where he’s talking about his decision and what he should do are lifeless, and make the character look foolish. There is also a bare-boned arc for Tyler involving his deceased son; it doesn’t play any role in the climax of the story, and its resolution feels very underwhelming and predictable. Possibly, if there is a third installment, there will be more background on this arc, giving it more substance.
There’s not much to discuss regarding performances, as the film is mostly action. However, there are a few emotional scenes where Hemsworth, Farahani, and Japaridze do a relatively good job selling our small, emotional connection with their characters. Japaridze has a difficult job in this. As I said, his character has a bit of an arc. Still, most of the time, as he speaks Georgian, the emotional weight of what he is going through is only apparent in the tone you can hear him using while reading subtitles. But he gets his emotions across well. Elba is by far the most compelling actor in this — there’s just something about his line delivery that sells the drama and importance of what he’s saying. But as he only comes in for a cup of coffee, it doesn’t significantly impact the narrative. Hemsworth feels a little flat in some scenes, which works in the first one, because the idea is that it’s just a job to him, and Tyler has no emotional interest until later. This time, he’s saving a person he knows, so the lack of emotion when he talks threw me off. It’s possible we are supposed to believe he is wholly focused on the job, and is not thinking about the emotional baggage of the situation.
Without spoiling anything, the ending implies this will likely become a franchise in the future. It’s interesting, since the first one gives us every reason to think Tyler is dead (the final shot aside), but now it seems like they might make this into an ongoing summer blockbuster franchise. I wonder why this didn’t get a theatrical release, and I hope any future installments have at least a limited big screen release. There are so many scenes that I would have loved to see on a larger screen with surround sound.
Overall, this second entry into what could be a franchise is a noticeable improvement on the original. The story’s action, cinematography, and substance are all noticeable steps up. The villain and Tyler’s mission are a bit too similar to the original, but maybe you want that from a story like this. Unlike other action stories like John Wick or Mission: Impossible, it doesn’t take itself too seriously with the story it tries to tell. Therefore, it’s easy to sit back and enjoy the mindless chaos that transpires. The money is constantly on screen during the action in location filming and effects, and it’s worth watching just for these parts. Unlike the first one, it overstays its welcome a little towards the end, and the half-hearted attempts to give Tyler a character arc are flimsy. If they make this a franchise, they must start writing more story elements into the events, because things will become repetitive otherwise. However, Extraction II has a good balance — it’s both a potential starting point for a franchise, and it steps up the action from the first one.
Score: 7/10
Extraction II is currently available on Netflix
You can read more from John Tillyard, or follow him on Instagram