Sicario: Day Of The Soldado | Movie Review
Good afternoon ladies and gents of the X-Army, it’s been awhile since we last met. I hope you all are doing well and safe. Before the 4th comes around, we want to bring you our review of Sicario: Day of the Soldado. A movie with a crap ton of twists and an intriguing interpretation on the U.S./Mexican relations. So without further ado, and I haven’t said this in so long, let’s dive right into it!
Plot|
The drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro to kidnap one of the top cartel’s children to ignite a war from within their own country.
Cast|
Benicio Del Toro reprises his role as Alejandro, a cold-blooded mercenary. He comes to the aid of his friend to set up a Mexican cartel war with the kidnapping of his most notorious enemy’s daughter. Josh Brolin comes back as the hard-assed agent Matt Graver. He is a man who will literally do anything for the betterment of his country, even leaving his friend for dead. Isabela Moner plays Isabel Reyes in the film. She is the daughter of one of the most infamous cartel leaders in Mexico. Elijah Rodriguez plays Miguel Hernandez, a young kid conflicted with life on the U.S./Mexican border. He aids his cousin smuggle illegals across the border and has aspirations of becoming a Sicario or hitman himself. Finally we have Catherine Keener as Cynthia Foards. She is a special agent who brings Matt in to do the dirty work to resolve the terrorist issue stemming from Mexico.
Set-Pieces|
The first set-piece sees a wave of terrorist attacks, both state side and on the border, and plans to stop them from the source which is the Somalian coast. Matt and his task force infiltrate a Somali camp and captures the leader after eliminating the grunts. Matt tortures the leader and learns where the terrorists are coming through in order to get the U.S. without being noticed, the border. The second set-piece sees Matt returning to his superiors for the next phase in the plan to ease the attacks but also making an impact on the drug trafficking that also takes place. They come up with a kidnapping plot of the most notorious cartel leader’s daughter in hopes it will spark an inner war with the other cartels. Simple enough, but the execution has to be untraceable back to the U.S.
The third set-piece sees Matt recruit Alejandro for the plan in hope it will remove all of Alejandro’s past. The fourth set-piece sees the team attack the bodyguards of the girl, Isabel, making it look like a rival cartel did it and taking the girl back to America. Once there Matt and Alejandro stage events to make it appear she is being rescued by U.S. Soldiers from a rival kidnapping. But watching this girl’s reactions during the whole ordeal, she had her suspicions of what is being taken place around her. Very self-aware and able to read situations. The fifth set-piece sees the team taking Isabel back to the border through Texas. Once close to it, the team gets attacked by dirty cops and are forced to kill them to continue with the original plan. Isabel runs away during the gun fire which results in Alejandro going after her.
The sixth set-piece sees the remaining team being instructed to take out Alejandro because they accidentally killed U.S. police and don’t want information of the plot to be traced back to them. Since Alejandro is just a mercenary for hire, he is considered disposable due to the current circumstances. Matt informs him what he should do in returning the girl to the border which will result in them having to take him out to mind their P’s and Q’s, but that doesn’t work for him and his health. Alejandro decides to smuggle Isabel back to Mexico with the help of the Coyotes. The seventh set-piece sees Miguel identifying Alejandro at the Coyote station and the smuggling boss questions why he has the girl with him. As a result of the information both Alejandro and Isabel tell him, he decides to make one of his minions kill him. Miguel is chosen and shoots Alejandro through in the head. Witnessing everything through a tracking beacon, Matt kills the members of the smuggling group and brings the girl back to the U.S. The final set-piece sees Alejandro amazingly still alive, only being shot through the mouth. He sets out to return back to the U.S. and find Miguel. He subsequently finds him, with the surprise to Miguel, and appears to have taken him under his wing to turn him into a proper Sicario.
Conclusion & Rating|
On the surface this movie is confusing to follow. It is all over the place in terms of consistency, but it is one of the best confusing films I have seen this year. The kills are brutal, the torture is pretty interesting to see, and the plot to take the girl to ignite an all out war in Mexico then make it appear that they saved the girl only to have another plan to return her to Mexico and in the end bring her back to the U.S. when the overall plans fall short was hard to swallow. Seeing how Miguel’s and Isabel’s stories overlap was interesting. Isabel coming from this cartel background to only be a good kid trapped in a world she doesn’t necessarily want to be apart of and Miguel coming from a single mother home to dropping out of school to working as a Coyote in hopes of getting rich fast. It’s like the two were the Yin and Yang of the movie. In the end though Miguel becomes a piece of crap and knowing Alejandro will train him makes me curious to what will become of his overall outlook on life. This movie is a good watch and worth the price of admission.
It’s a solid 4.5 out of 5.
Thank you guys for checking out this review of Sicario: Day of the Soldado. We hope you enjoyed it. Please follow us on here, share out content if you like, and stay tuned for more content. Have a great day and take it easy!
Originally published at xagonspeaks.wordpress.com on July 3, 2018.
