Director: Sam Hargrave
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, Tornike Gogrichiani
Year: 2023
The first Extraction was a huge surprise. A Netflix film, a shoot-em-up, Thor as the lead, some first person video game stuff, a million deaths; this didn’t sound like a recipe for success, for fun sure, but not for something solid. When it quickly became apparent that this movie was something special audiences shifted forward in their chairs, and I wonder if even the filmmakers were surprised by what they had on their hands, and how well it was received. They reached into the well again and came up with #2, and it works, on some levels, but the same magic isn’t there, because sometimes you only get lucky once.
Having survived his injuries after his last deadly mission, Tyler Rake sits back to heal and center himself, since he’s not sure what his life should be about, the family he left behind or the jobs he has ahead. Well, they’re about to combine, when his wife’s sister is in trouble and needs rescuing, and he’s the only man for the job. She’s being held in a Georgian prison by ruthless drug lords, men who will not be happy with Tyler’s rescue attempt and will be after the entire party as soon as they pop up on the radar. War is on, and this time it’s about family, where blood may be thick but not infinite.
If the first film was a pleasant surprise, this one is a slightly grimace-inducing attempt to constantly use what worked once, until it gets to be a bit much. Constant action, constant gunfire, constant shaky cam, constant head shots; it’s not that it’s not fun, it sure is pretty cool to watch, it’s that it’s all a little overdone. The film needed reining in, not let loose, although I doubt that most audiences will care much; we like what we like, and we’re violent people by nature. Watch on Netflix one night for some explosive action and some awesome special-ops battles, you’ll get those early and often and maybe too much.
My rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆