‘Extraction 2’ (2023): Fun Yet Frontloaded Violence

Directed by: Sam Hargrave || Produced by: Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Chris Hemsworth, Patrick Newall, Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot, Eric Gitter, Peter Schwerin

Screenplay by: Joe Russo || Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt, Tinatin Dalakishvili, Idris Elba

Music by: Henry Jackman, Alex Belcher || Cinematography: Greg Baldi || Edited by: Alex Rodriguez, William Hoy || Country: United States || Language: English, Georgian

Running Time: 122 minutes

As frustrating as the contemporary theatrical market can feel to this cinephile, dominated almost exclusively by (1) big-budget, special FX-driven blockbusters (e.g. superhero intellectual properties [IPs], 3-D family friendly animation by Pixar, Illumination, et al.), in which I have little interest, or (2) small, independently produced horror pictures (see Blumhouse, A24, etc.), in which I have some interest, I can’t help but temper my free market cynicism because of the success of several exceptional franchises that scratch my particular cinephile itches. My favorite creature-features will live on in some form (e.g. Dan Trachtenberg’s standalone Predator (1987, 1990, 2010) prequel, Prey [2022], Fede Álvarez’s upcoming Alien [1979, 1986, 1992] sequel [2024]) thanks to modern streaming platforms, while the mainstream rehabilitation of hardcore action movies has succeeded thanks to the legwork of everything from Indonesian New Wave Cinema (e.g. The Raid [2011, 2014], Headshot [2016], The Night Comes for Us [2018]) to the last several Mission: Impossible movies (2011, 2015, 2018) to the current billion dollar franchise gross of the John Wick (2014–2023) films. To be sure, broader, blander, more generic “action” movies like The Fast and the Furious (2001-) still hold the masses’ attention more than any of the aforementioned despite the latter’s lack of memorable stunts or blood squibs, but the proliferation of offshoot titles like Atomic Blonde (2017), Nobody (2021), and Netflix’s Extraction (2020) in Western markets may be indicative of at least certain audiences’ interest in more visceral action filmmaking.

Lead Chris Hemsworth and female lead Tinatin Dalakishvili (midground center and right, respectively) fight their way through a prison courtyard in E2’s best sequence.

That latter title, Extraction, released during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, became one of the streaming giant’s most watched Original Films to date. Boasting an action style reminiscent of John Wick but enmeshed within a South Asian urban backdrop, Extraction’s rookie director, Sam Hargrave, took advantage of his extensive stunt coordinator background to orchestrate numerous visceral action set-pieces a la Chad Stahelski and David Leitch’s own transition from stuntwork to feature directing in Wick, including a 12-minute long-take centerpiece stitched together from multiple shorter tracking shots; what surprised me most about Extraction, though, was how well its action style and overall narrative pace meshed with its Indian location-photography in what remains the most effective, organic South Asian shoot by a Western production since Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008); the local backdrop wasn’t tourism advertising but rather integral to that film’s overall look, feel, and intensity.

Fast-forward to 2023 and we have our long awaited (for action fans, anyway) sequel to Hargrave’s rookie feature, Extraction 2 (henceforth, E2). In addition to being an old-fashioned numbered sequel without any dumb subtitles, I looked forward to the followup’s change of diegetic location (Georgia and Austria in the wintertime, with principal photography in the Czech Republic substituting for the former) and much hyped 21-minute long, digitally connected oner that would serve as the spiritual successor to the first Extraction’s best sequence.

Top to bottom, I love the burgeoning Extraction series’ efficient, straightforward premise of a badass action hero (lead Chris Hemsworth) infiltrating a hornet’s nest of violent thugs and then exfiltrating with a civilian target. Most of my problems with E2, in fact, are connected to how much it deviates from that simplicity, specifically how writer-producer Joe Russo plots the story after the first act’s 21-minute oner inside a Georgian prison. The oner itself is immaculate in how it channels controlled chaos: Hemsworth slips into the correctional facility in the dead of night, contacts the target family (Tinatin Dalakishvili, Andro Japaridze, Miriam and Marta Kovziashvili) held captive by their drug kingpin patriarch (Tornike Bziava), and attempts to exfiltrate before all hell breaks loose. Aside from a few questionable moments of computer generated imagery toward the tail end of the long take, the set-piece is awesome, featuring a variety of interconnected action sequences ranging from a one-on-one fistfight to a giant prison brawl to shootouts with prison guards to multiple outdoor vehicle chases.

Once that multipart extravaganza concludes, however, the film inexplicably shifts gears to Vienna and the film’s pace stalls. Russo tries for more intricate characterizations through a conflicted Japaridze (think of your typical marital dissolution with adolescent children torn between competing parental loyalties), but his actions after that glorious prison breakout, which are the sole reason the film doesn’t end after its first act, are suspect at best. An extended Vienna action set-piece is a fun callback to Die Hard (1988) yet can’t circumvent the anticlimactic third act. Other questionable factors like shoehorned supporting characters (e.g. Idris Elba, Olga Kurylenko) and underutilized ones (e.g. Adam Bessa, Golshifteh Farahani) feel like additional missed opportunities.

Costars Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa get more screentime this time around, but their chemistry is underutilized and their dialogue, limited.

The first Extraction remains on my personal Netflix list three years after its premiere, while this sequel may or may not be removed in the coming weeks. The 2023 film is at least 2/3 of an excellent action film and also makes a significant mistake in not keeping its story contained to its Georgian setting. While I applaud how E2 maintained certain qualities of its predecessor (its great stunts, its bloody action, the titular long-take, etc.) without being a carbon copy of the 2020 original, I feel this sort of stripped down genre film let too much unnecessary or ineffective characterization of its supporting cast get in the way of a memorable premise. I never cared much about Chris Hemsworth’s backstory and feel his chemistry with costar Rudhraksh Jaiswal in the first film was superior to any character beats in E2, so I feel like Sam Hargrave overcorrected certain criticisms of his directorial debut to the sequel’s detriment. Still, it’s hard to berate E2 too much when you can enjoy Hemsworth mowing down prisoners with an assault rifle or squashing a terrorist with a leg-press machine; you won’t find that ballsy shit in Fast X (2023).

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Bloody and brutal, E2 showcases that Sam Hargrave’s action direction from 2020 was no fluke, while Chris Hemsworth demonstrates how he may be the lone Marvel Avenger (2012, 2015, 2018, 2019) alum to not be defined by his original franchise IP claim to fame.

— However… E2 doesn’t bolster confidence in the Russo Bros.’ screenwriting abilities, as this sequel emphasizes the wrong supporting castmembers and struggles to justify its third act.

—> RECOMMENDED; I’m satisfied with contemporary Hollywood regaining its action filmmaking testicles on streaming and in theatres, but that doesn’t mean I give a pass to inconsistent screenplays.

? For the record, I meant Georgia the country, not Georgia the state!