Netflix has a new intellectual property on its hands! The unexpected hit for the streaming service was 2020's "Extraction," starring Chris Hemsworth — and considering they killed him off at the end of the first film, only to retcon it for this sequel, Netflix clearly didn't even know what they had here.
This new action film is available to watch right now, June 16, 2023, and is written by Joe Russo of "The Avengers" fame. What do critics think of this nonstop action thrill ride? They like the action, and not much else.
The premise
You're forgiven if you don't remember much about "Extraction," the 2020 Chris Hemsworth action vehicle which was released very early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, tiding over viewers after "Tiger King" and before "The Last Dance" captured their imaginations. Hemsworth played an unkillable black ops mercenary named Tyler Rake, and stuntman turned filmmaker Sam Hargrave coordinated some rather explosive action sequences around his leading man, who is part John Wick, part Duke Nukem. Now comes the sequel, which is even heavier on action mechanics and even thinner on character, as if that was even possible.
This may come as a surprise to fans of the first "Extraction," since it ended with Tyler taking a bullet in his neck and falling off a bridge deep down into a river, seeming quite definitively dead. But the original's huge streaming success on Netflix — reportedly the service's most-watched original production up to that point — mandated a resurrection. So director Sam Hargrave and writer Joe Russo start the new entry with a reprise of the "death" scene, followed by Tyler washing up ashore and miraculously being revived by a team of medics. To be fair, he is very much the worse for wear, spending months in the hospital and rehab: this gives the story what, in this genre, passes for at least a touch of realism.
Big action deserves a big screen
This one takes Tyler and company through (deep breath) the initial prison break, a bone-crunching one-on-one with the pissed-off Davit, a massive prison yard melee (see: flaming arm), a high-energy car chase (in which many baddies die in quite funny ways), a desperate run through a creaky factory, a nutso train-set sequence (complete with swirling helicopters full of bad guys and plenty of hand-to-hand combat), and an explosive conclusion. This is how the first act of Hargrave's film closes, an instantly iconic sequence that sets the film a cut above both its predecessor and the rest of its Netflix actioner brethren. Mostly, it deserves — hell, it nearly demands — to be seen on the big screen, though precious few Netflix subscribers will get that chance.
It’s an assault on the senses, especially the ears and the nerves, but it's also a satisfyingly merciless action thriller that manages to build on the scale and ambition of the first. Roll on the inevitable threequel.
The original feature had an awe-inducing long take where the camera [traveled] in, out and around buildings, busy streets and moving vehicles with nary a cut spotted. In this chapter, Hargrave, his camera operators and editors Alex Rodríguez and William Hoy outdo themselves during a gloriously gob-smacking 20-minute oner through a prison riot, desolate woods, a working factory and a moving train attacked by helicopters. The appeal is less about finding where the cuts are hidden, and more about the thrilling spectacle of its execution. From its sound design to the superb stuntwork, this cleverly choreographed and constructed segment keeps audiences riveted with its ballistics and crunching car-cophony.
Chris Hemsworth is here to look good and be eye candy
Hemsworth didn't have much to say in the first installment and doesn't here either. He certainly looks good, even when he's beaten up, and he can carry the film when permitted to. But the film needed a center, a home base, and the script doesn't provide much of one. All the same, you've never seen action sequences quite like the ones prominently featured here that could never have been pulled off previously, as the camera essentially travels anywhere it wants to under exceptionally rough and dangerous circumstances. This may not be a particularly good film, but you'll definitely see things here in a way that you've never seen them before.
Chris Hemsworth, the Australian slab of cement who also doubles as an actor, reprises his role as (checks notes) Tyler Rake, a mercenary who specializes in extractions. In the first movie, he rescues a boy from baddies. In this one, he rescues a woman and her two children. (By my math, he's going to have five people next time, so he'd better get a van.)
This movie has one thing: action, and that's it
However, once the oner is over, it's an arduous journey to the next action scene. The film has learned from "Extraction's" iffy white-savior politics and moved the conflict from India to Georgia (the country). The story explores father-son ties and familial loyalty, but it ranges from generally interesting at best to visual Teflon at worst. Chris Hemsworth is giving it his all, but at points, this script is so unsalvagable, no amount of combat medics could save it.
Unfortunately, there's another 90 or so minutes of the film to get through, which are not nearly as thrilling. Yes, there are numerous other exciting action sequences, including a stunner involving a multi-pronged attack on a high-rise building (featuring an episode in which Rake daringly rescues a member of his team who's about to slip unconscious off a sloped roof). But in terms of dialogue and character development, the sequel leaves much to be desired, even if it attempts to fill in some of the emotional blanks of its central character, who makes Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name seem like a chatterbox.
TL;DR
Less an original movie than an assemblage of ideas pulled from other movies.
Feeling inessential and disposable, a cog in a machine rather than something unique, "Extraction 2" is a snapshot of a sequel in this moment, bigger, expanded and even less necessary.
Burdened by its bluster, "Extraction 2" is merely a loud, blithering mess masquerading as fulfilling escapism.
As per sequel rules, everything has to be bigger. But bigger doesn't always equal better, as "Extraction 2" proves.
Watch the trailer:
