‘Extraction 2’ Review: “Long Live the Action Hero”

For many years, you expect an action movie to feature a singular action hero. This was certainly true in the 1980s with franchises like Die Hard, RoboCop, and Rambo. However, the trend has shifted to ensembles with the likes of Mission: Impossible and Fast & Furious. So any time we do get an action movie with a bonafide action hero, it’s a cause for celebration. This was the case with 2020’s Extraction, which sees Chris Hemsworth play a hero named Tyler Rake that notably kills someone with a rake. The showy filmmaking combined with the lack of competition led to its success on Netflix, so much so that an Extraction 2 was no doubt inevitable.

Extraction 2 directly follows its predecessor as we see Tyler (Hemsworth) jump into a river and get rescued by his team. We see his recovery and he goes into “retirement.” That is, until he meets Alcott (Idris Elba) and receives word that his ex-wife’s sister Ketevan and her two children Sandro and Nina need to be rescued from a Georgian prison. So he puts his team back together and sends us on another insane action bonanza that’s a pure adrenaline rush.

The story in this film is interesting. Rake has to take this job, and he knows it. The stakes are a tad bit higher, which brings more into how this film moves. Joe Russo adapted this from Ande Park’s Ciudad. The surface of this film is good, but once you get into the woven areas it makes it better. Extraction 2 is about family and the lengths you go to to protect them.

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Extraction 2 is a film for action fans. This felt like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Director Sam Hargrave is back with a vengeance in this film. The action sequences are simply amazing and well put together. The fight choreography may be some of the best recently. There is an attention to detail in this film that has been missing from a few action movies. The cinematography equally matches the masterful action. Greg Baldi puts a masterclass of cinematography on display during each action sequence.

The acting is actually good as well. Tornike Gogrichiani plays an intimidating and menacing villain as Zurab. Goldshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa are back as the brother/sister duo Nik and Yaz. The on-camera chemistry between them and Hemsworth is unmatched. There are many things that make this film move the cast and the action are the two biggest ones.

A sequel to an action film should be bigger and better, and Extraction 2 nailed that. There are several sequences in this film that are big and amazing. The extraction sequence edited as one continuous shot far exceeds anything in the first movie. Hargrave has elevated his style and is in the process of giving Netflix a great franchise. Extraction was good, but Extraction 2 is simply a great action movie.

As action movies have become something that are either comic book epics or mid-tier films, Netflix is looking to give them a boost back to prominence with the Extraction movies. Sam Hargrave and the Russo brothers have brought us a great franchise. It’s got the action, and the camera work, and each film has its own story that develops Rake as a character. This is what action franchises are supposed to be. – Rascal F. Kennedy

Rating: 8/10

Extraction 2 is now streaming on Netflix!

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