Time: 122 Minutes
Cast:
Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake
Golshifteh Farahani as Nik Kahn
Adam Bessa as Yaz Kahn
Olga Kurylenko as Mia
Tinatin Dalakishvili as Ketevan
Idris Elba as the unnamed stranger
Director: Sam Hargrave

Back from the brink of death, commando Tyler Rake embarks on a dangerous mission to save a ruthless gangster’s imprisoned family.

Extraction was a decent enough, if unmemorable Netflix action thriller starring Chris Hemsworth. It was successful so predictably; a sequel was greenlit. I really just expected more of the same but the trailers did look surprisingly good, so part of me was actually somewhat excited for it. It’s nothing great, but it is decent, and better than the first one.

The story of the first Extraction is a bit forgettable and that’s the same with the sequel. It has a generic and familiar action plot, with conveniences and an uneven and weak script. That being said, I found it to be more engaging than the first movie. The plot is barebones and really simple, but I think that works for this kind of film.

Chris Hemsworth is once again good as main character protagonist Tyler Rake. He’s not the most memorable or interesting action protagonist, but he’s more fleshed out here. He has a more personal story as well as a redemptive arc, and Hemsworth really sells the physicality and the brief character moments. Some of the other actors are good too. This movie has a lot more of Golshifteh Farahani compared to the first film: she and Adam Bessa get to do a lot of action too. On the other hand, Olga Kurylenko is very underutilized, and the main villain is also pretty generic. There is also kid character, and it felt like he only there to make things worse for the rest of the characters, it gets annoying. I get the point of the character, but he probably could’ve been handled a lot better.

Sam Hargrave returns to direct Extraction 2 after the first one; I liked his work on the first movie and he tops his work here. The biggest reason to watch the movie is the action and it’s an improvement here. The action is well done, clean cut and brutal, from the shootouts to the well choreographed fight scenes. There’s lots of outstanding and creative set prices, and things are on a much larger scale. One of the things most hyped up for the movie’s release was that there would be a 21 minute one take action sequence; it begins in a prison but moves out to multiple different locations. This section does not disappoint and it’s worth watching the movie even just for that. There’s clearly a lot of trickery and clever cuts utilised, but it’s still very impressive.

Extraction 2 improves over the first film in every way, it is larger scale and has great direction and impressive set pieces despite a standard and familiar story. Even if you weren’t a fan of the first movie, I would recommend watching the sequel.