Action heroes never truly die, and despite the ending of the first Extraction film, Chris Hemsworth is back again as Tyler Rake. The world’s greatest expert on getting people out of dangerous places is back. This Rake is smashing his way through a Georgian prison. For fans of the first film, Extraction 2 provides all the same shooting, punches, kicking, and car smashing. Extraction 2 is loaded from start to finish with virtually non-stop top-notch action, although whenever someone pauses for dialogue or plot, you’ll truly wish they hadn’t.
Joe Russo, has found a good enough excuse to get Tyler Rake back in action. This time around, Rake has to rescue his ex-wife’s sister from the aforementioned Georgian prison. It’s an adequately engrossing setup, and the movie doesn’t take too long explaining it before throwing the audience right into the action. There’s a plot here, but it’s pretty thin and very predictable. You can see almost every big story beat coming from a mile away; action fans have seen this kind of writing before. The melodrama the misses the mark, and attempts to conjure true emotion fail.
What is actually new and exciting, is the action. Netflix is aiming to make Extraction their version of the John Wick franchise, and it’s a very good effort. Besides John Wick, the twenty-first century has seen some pretty terrific action films, from the Raid 1&2, to Atomic Blonde, to the revitalized Mission Impossible franchise. The competition here is stiff, and even though the first Extraction had solid sequences, it wasn’t up to the level of the others.
Extraction 2 ups the action game, significantly so, and manages to impress.
Extraction 2 borrows many elements from it’s contemporaries, and cobbles it all into something fun albeit formulaic. From the Raid 2, the film takes a prison yard fight, from Mission Impossible, it echoes rooftop action, and the entire visual style seems inspired by Atomic Blonde’s one take stairway fight. There’s nothing special and new about Extraction’s fighting, but what’s impressive and unique is how they manage to string it all together in an engaging and comprehensible way.
The highlight of this whole style is a twenty minute long action scene covering the prison escape. Starting at the prison and moving outside and into a variety of vehicles, Hemsworth and company fight off an army of baddies amidst an active prison brawl. Director Sam Hargrave expertly choreographs the camerawork to make the action and visuals seamless, and keep the audience involved. There’s hardly a chance to catch a breath as Hemsworth pummels his foes and battles his way through Georgia.
In summary, I think most people are probably coming to Extraction 2 with the expectation of high flying action, and it’s an expectation that Extraction 2 really delivers on, much stronger than in the first movie. The plot is weak and the characters are half baked, but beat for beat the movie excites and dazzles with expertly crafted action sequences. There’s more than ample entertainment to be gained from Hemsworth decimating an army of thugs. Hargrave and Hemsworth delivered a thrilling ride despite a lukewarm script, and I’m hyped to see what they cook up for Extraction 3.
