Extraction 2 Review: A Forgettable Action Sequel - With One Unforgettable Single Take
- The action sequences always pack a punch, and the 20-minute single take prison break more than lives up to the pre-release hype.
- Unfortunately, everything else here is generic, unimaginative action.
- Joe Russo's screenplay offers very little in the way of unique excitement.
Have any directors stumbled as badly after hitting Hollywood's big leagues as Joe and Anthony Russo? After being responsible for helming a movie that became the highest grossing of all time — a little indie film called "Avengers: Endgame" — their subsequent projects have only served to show the limits of their imagination. They've set up two globe-trotting spy stories, both intended to launch franchises spanning several international spin-offs, at rival streaming services (Netflix's "The Gray Man" and Prime Video's "Citadel") to little enthusiasm. When they attempted to make a smaller-scale indie project (2021's AppleTV+ Tom Holland vehicle "Cherry"), their direction was frequently cited as the worst thing about it.
One thing has become clear: the success of the rousing Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters they directed had little to do with their vision behind the camera. Those movies would always have been hits, but they certainly didn't add anything important to the mix creatively.
With their clear fixation on world-spanning espionage stories, it should probably come as no surprise that the brothers were partially responsible for authoring the graphic novel "Ciudad," a tale of a black-ops mercenary sent to carry out the rescue missions too deadly for anybody else. Back in April 2020, this novel was adapted into a screenplay by Joe that became "Extraction," a movie that became one of Netflix's most-viewed originals of all time, presumably because we were a month into lockdown and we'd finished watching "Tiger King" by that point.
Now, the Russos, director Sam Hargrave, and star Chris Hemsworth return to the streamer with "Extraction 2." Unfortunately, they still don't have a lot of new tricks up their sleeve.
Making the best of a bad screenplay
The highlight of "Extraction" was a relentless one-take chase sequence that the rest of the adventure failed to live up to, which might be why director Sam Hargrave's attempt to do an even bigger and better one is the sole talking point going into "Extraction 2," and it is a commendable effort. It's 20 minutes of ingeniously executed action, escalating the stakes from a prison break to tense chases across several different modes of transportation without breaking a sweat. It's pulled off so commendably, I can overlook some of the choppy CGI explosions which ever so slightly distract from the intensity of the set piece.
Once again working from an uninspired, clichéd action screenplay by Joe Russo, Hargrave shows himself to be a considerable talent within this genre, leaving me pining for material far worthier of his talents than two "Extraction" movies. Much like "John Wick" filmmakers Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, he's a filmmaker who has made the leap from stunt work to directing, having previously collaborated with the Russo brothers on several MCU projects as a stunt coordinator. This is why, as showboating as the very nature of a 20-minute single take may seem, it's deployed for the purposes of artistic integrity: he wants to make you feel every blow, which means a refusal to use any cuts that other directors would cheekily utilize to disguise stunt doubles mid-scene. Nothing about the story of "Extraction 2" is memorable, but Hargrave certainly polishes it up well.
Those who have somehow managed to remember any distinguishing event from the first "Extraction" may be baffled by this movie's premise, as mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) appeared to have been fatally wounded at the end. Thanks to movie magic, he's survived, and the movie zooms through his recovery — which includes needing to learn to walk again from scratch — to get him back to full health as quickly as possible, so we can hit the ground running with a new mission. This time, his assignment comes from a shadowy figure played by Idris Elba, who in his brief cameo appearance offers more charisma than I assumed such a brooding, machismo actioner would allow.
His mission, should he choose to accept it, is to lead his team on a mission to save the family of a Georgian gangster from the prison where he's holding them captive. It's a difficult task considering that the gangster in question is viewed as the most powerful man in the country, with hands in the back pockets of the government and business. What viewers within the Eastern European nation would make of a movie that suggests they're the world's most corrupt country is anybody's guess, as despite the grit and the fact that Georgian actors have been cast, it feels laughably inauthentic even with my limited knowledge of the country's political culture.
Once the action stops, so does the fun
The extraction of Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili) and her two children from her sadistic husband Zurab (Tornike Gogrichiani) segues nicely into the previously referenced sequence: an epic single-take that may be very self-consciously trying to go bigger and better than the one in the first film, but is no less admirable for it. Even as we leave the intricately mapped prison walls in a race for safety that lasts for miles, there is a clear sense of geography. Everything has been tightly choreographed to a fault by the director, but the amount of antagonists who appear on the journey, spawning like video game baddies, still lend it an air of unpredictability. From the moment I first became aware that the hyped-up single take had begun, I had no idea about where it would eventually lead us, or how. It's the most exciting moment in "Extraction 2" for several reasons, but chief among them is that it's the only time I didn't feel like I was watching a generic undercover action-thriller I'd seen countless times before.
Because make no mistake, no matter how effectively Sam Hargrave brings the set pieces to life, he's still working with a screenplay that brings nothing new to this genre's table. This is most apparent in the quieter, character-driven moments, as Tyler Rake's inner torment about his family responsibilities and anxieties about protecting those in his care never add to the stakes; the screenplay feels like it's ticking off generic emotional traumas any action hero must face in their quest for survival.
The entire time, I was left thinking about the many interviews Hemsworth has given recently, expressing regret over some of his film choices in a way that made many assume he was throwing shade at Marvel. Watching "Extraction 2," I couldn't help but think it was projects like this he was taking aim at — ones that understand he's a captivating action performer, but don't give him any serious dramatic meat to chew on once each bruising fight comes to a close.
"Extraction 2" premieres on Netflix on June 16.