Review of 'Extraction 2'

At the end of Extraction mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is last seen hideously wounded and falling off a bridge. He is dragged from the water and taken to the UAE for medical treatment with fellow mercenary Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani) never leaving his side. Following nine months of recovery Nik and her brother Yaz take Tyler to a cabin in Austria for him to recuperate. A stranger, Alcott (Idris Elba), finds the cabin and offers Tyler a job rescuing a family confined against their will in a Georgian jail by their father Davit Radiani (Tornike Bziava), one of the co-founders of the Nagazi the largest crime syndicate in Georgia. The wife is Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili) who is the sister of Tyler's ex-wife Mia (Olga Kurylenko) who is being held along with her two children, Sandro (Andro Japaridze) and Nina (Marta Kovziashvili). Tyler, Yaz and Nik break the family out of the prison and in doing so kill Davit. Sandro is loyal to his father and covertly contacts the Nagazi to arrange his escape when they arrive in Vienna. As Sandro is picked up by the Nagazi things are not looking good for the extraction…

Thankfully we have little of the first person perspective of the first film and quite a bit less of the bloody, brutal violence which leaves us with a fairly straight-forward rescue story sprinkled liberally with massive and imaginative action sequences involving helicopters, tanks, tall buildings, runaway trains, and, oh lots and lots of guns. Often the action is more than a bit far-fetched with our heroes able to survive fire fight after fire fight largely unscathed but it is a bit of silly “fun”. Yes, Tyler has returned from the grave and takes little convincing to return to the life of a mercenary to rescue an innocent family from captivity.

The story is a bit far-fetched and at times difficult to completely follow but you can pick up the general gist of it fairly easily. For example, it is obvious from the start that the son Sanbro would be a bit of a problem which proves very much to be the case, but it is quite watchable nonetheless.

The cast returns in the form of Chris Hemsworth and his love interest (?) Nik Khan who pick up where they left off though toned down a bit slightly from the first film (thankfully). I have to say it was nice to also see a cameo from one of my favourite actors: Idris Elba who, if the series continues (the ending is not entirely clear on this point), promises to be an on-going presence.

Quite a bit less blood and a bit more big action sequences than the first film and quite a lot easier to watch (with less seasickness).

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2024-06-30

Directed by: Sam Hargrave

Studio: AGBO

Year: 2023

Length: 122 minutes

Genre: Action/Adventure

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12263384/

• Extraction (2020)