An Exhausting And Dour Return To The World Of Tyler Rake

Hargrave comes from the world of stunt performing, and there’s no doubt plenty of stuntwork even amid the CG in “Extraction 2”. But the combination of his direction, the cinematography from Greg Baldi, and editing by Alex Rodriguez all imply a lack of trust in actually depicting the action being presented at any given moment. Instead of letting the camera back up to allow the audience to get a clear sense of the spatial choreography of a scene, it mirrors the movement of the characters and creates a visually cacophonous experience instead. If Tyler moves his body to the left to take on a bad guy, the camera often feels the urge to do the same, making it so we’re rarely able to have a full view of what’s going on. This is why the oner sequence becomes so exhausting, so quickly. It’s not just the growing sense that so little of what’s depicted in the 21-minute section seems to have occurred practically, it’s that the way each beat is staged feels hampered and limited. 

Even with the knowledge that “Extraction 2” is in keeping with its predecessor, it’s no less frustrating to watch the naturally charismatic and often funny Chris Hemsworth playing a character whose muscles are all very well kept except for those that control his smile. He’s agreeably intense and perfectly believable as a guy who can kick ass with no hesitation, but the dial on his acting is set to Grimdark and it’s not terribly entertaining to behold. It’s not just that Hemsworth is better than this, it’s that Hemsworth has proven he can do lighter takes on action fare such as this … in the Marvel movies whose success enabled the Russos to even make this movie with Netflix. (Elba, to note, is barely in “Extraction 2”, but he is the only actor allowed to show off a personality here and winds up being the most enjoyable performer, even if it amounts to a warped “Thor” reunion. Funny how that works!)

Of course, many of Netflix’s original films are all but pre-built via algorithm to align with what audiences are expected to like. And seeing as the first “Extraction” was — as noted above — immensely popular based on the same algorithm, it tracks that they wouldn’t mess with the formula for the sequel. So whether or not the movie is any good, it is safe to say that if you liked the first one and what it had to offer, the second will not surprise you. That doesn’t make “Extraction 2” any good, though; it just makes it predictable. It’s a fine distillation of the Netflix formula, but they’ve rarely figured out how to make these things entertaining as opposed to just safe.

/Film Rating: 3.5 out of 10