I expected the same quality from this movie that we got in the first one. I don't think that is unreasonable. Unfortunately I can't even say that Extraction 2 is a mere shadow of the first one. As it is a cheaply made and badly written attempt at cashing in on the popularity of the first film with a quick sequel.

It lost all the unique appeal of the first film, which was being brutal, gritty, but at the same time fairly realistic when viewing with a reasonable amount of suspension of disbelief.

The second couldn't be further from that. Long pointless CGI chases and other action scenes from which the suspense went on vacation. Bigger is not better when it comes to action, it is the creativity that matters. And this has almost zero creativity in its action scenes. I found one single action scene that I liked. They even wheeled out everyone's favorite the shakycam from the care center to try and mask some of the atrocious CGI. It failed in doing that, it succeeded in reigniting my PTSD about this crap.

Oh, what I'd give for just one minute of a real car chase instead of the boring sterile sequences of the fake CGI stuff we get in movies these days.

I don't know why Hollywood is obsessed with CGI, as it makes everything look cheap and fake. Even the big budget titles fail to produce CGI that doesn't look absolute garbage these days. Are there no good action directors left? Or is it mandated by the studios to do action in post production?

Still, if the CGI car segments were the only issue with the movie it would still be passable. Unfortunately the whole story is meaningless, unengaging, and run of the mill. It could actually be written by chatGPT, hell it might be. It was so bland and dreary.

We start off with a damned montage of how Hemsworth's character survived after the first one. A freaking montage, you never start a movie with a montage. Either show it properly or it is not important enough to start the movie with, because you instantly loose viewers who didn't see or care for the first. Look at me giving movie making advice to Netflix, this one is free, take it or leave it.

The movie is chock full with outlandish unbelievable, outright stupid writing. Like the hero gets from barely walking with leg braces after months of being in a coma to fully combat ready peak physical condition in less than 6 weeks. FFS, have these people ever tried a gym in their lives? In 6 weeks you barely get over the initial dip in strength after starting to exercise regularly, while your body adjusts. No amount of workout, drugs and supplements will get you from zero to hero in 6 weeks. But this is just the first of many baffling plot points.

Also according to the movie in Austria arrestees including foreign citizens are taken directly to regular prison without a trial, or even an interrogation. The lack of imagination here is beyond measure. They are just making shit up and having a laugh. The final confrontation is literally set up by the bad guy calling the good guy on his private phone and arranging to meet for a final battle. F knows how he even knows his name, let alone his number.

We always talk about two dimensional characters, but I think Extraction 2 went beyond that, so far beyond in fact that they probably produced the first dimensionless, or zero dimensional characters. Everybody is a paper mache, they don't even have traits, just a function. The bad guy who gets shot in the back for speaking against the leader, the woman who married an Albanian drug lord, but now we are supposed to feel sorry for.

Not even name redacted for spoiler can make this atrocity any more digestible, who was hired for a cameo and possibly as sequel bait.

The movie left me deflated, and disappointed after watching, my brain was screaming no more please, instead of being engaged in deep thoughts like after the first. A bender in the pub probably kills less brain cells than Extraction 2. What an utter waste of celluloid or more like SSD space.

  • story: 1/10 - Nothing of interest here, just stupid, unbelievable drivel
  • visuals: 2/10 - Bad cgi car chases and shakycam
  • acting: 3/10 - Even the actors seem either bored by or embarrassed by the script.
  • direction / editing: 3/10 - I don't know how they make action this boring

Overall: 3/10

Of course I wouldn't recommend it, but I also know everybody will ignore that advice, so instead I say watch it as catastrophe tourism.