2020’s Extraction, which many people watched as it was one of the first movies to release during the pandemic, was fun to watch mainly because of how it was designed as a portfolio for stunt coordinator turned director Sam Hargrave. Even though the story aspect of it was pretty simple, the quality of the action combined with the escalation of drama gave it that narratable structure. But when it comes to Extraction 2, the narrative is chaotic, and the script of this movie would have been as small as a synopsis as the story here is wafer-thin.
So post the events in India, Tyler Rake was rushed to a medical facility in UAE for treatment. And from almost being declared clinically dead, Rake bounces back. Nik and her brother Yaz take him to Austria for a retired life. But a stranger pays a visit to Rake and asks him to rescue Rake’s ex-wife’s sister, who was stuck in prison in Georgia. This new extraction mission and its repercussions are what we see in Sam Hargrave’s Extraction 2.
When creating a franchise based on action, there is always this pressure to deliver something bigger with each film. The main highlight of the first Extraction movie was this seemingly single-shot action sequence featuring Chris Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda. The traffic of Dhaka and the narrow paths all made that whole sequence look pretty natural and brutal. In the second part, Hargrave decides to push the envelope by creating one more such single-shot experiment. And this time, he chooses to cover an entire extraction process in one shot. From locations and vehicles to the whole geography, that action set piece tries too much. But the realness was terribly missing, and one could easily sense the stitching points. While the set piece in the first part created a panic inside you, and sometimes you might even forget the single shot aspect of it, here, it felt more like a gimmick with too much VFX.
There is an effort to make us empathize with the character of Tayler Rake by giving us more details about what really happened in his personal life. But the placement of that sentiment is irregular, and there is nothing new on a writing level that would make us feel for that character. The action that feels less innovative and more chaotic is why you find it difficult to connect with characters on a personal level. The action consumes a considerable part of the film, and like I already said, it didn’t feel as exhilarating as the ones we saw in the first part. The writing tropes are pretty familiar, and hence you are just waiting for the scene that you predicted to happen.
Chris Hemsworth is less cool and more grumpy this time due to the character’s emotional state. With that physique and his style of acting, the portrayal looked convincing. Golshifteh Farahani reprises her role as Nik, and this time she has much more to do than being a commanding officer. Adam Bessa, as Yaz, has got a character with a predictable life expectancy. Tornike Gogrichiani as Zurab is your typical villain with minimal words, a grumpy face, and violent action. Olga Kurylenko, Tinatin Dalakishvili, etc., are also part of the cast, along with Idris Elba, who seems to play a critical role in the franchise’s next installment.
The film ends with the very loud announcement of the third part. It was so bland that I almost felt that Michael Bay had taken over the writing duties from Joe Russo. Sam Hargraves’ Extraction 2 is a tasteless action flick that fails to engage you due to its desperation to be bigger than the first in terms of scale.
Sam Hargraves' Extraction 2 is a tasteless action flick that fails to engage you due to its desperation to be bigger than the first in terms of scale.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
