Extraction & Extraction 2

I’d been hearing a lot of good things about EXTRACTION 2 on Netflix. I’d not seen the first one either, so decided to get it out of the way first. EXTRACTION is a good old-fashioned extremely violent, guns blazing, bone-crunching action movie. It feels very much like a modern-day reimagining of classic 80s macho action flicks like COMMANDO, though dosed with just enough nuance to its characters and setting to stop it from feeling completely dumb, hackneyed and pointless *cough* Micheal Bay *cough*.

The action sequences are top-notch, with some incredibly kinetic, flowing long-take camerawork really making you feel a part of the ride. And there’s a meaty, crunchy quality to the fights that made even cynical old me wince a bit on occasion. I had a lot of fun with it. Chris Hemsworth is great as the lead and brings a surprisingly hardcore level of physicality to the action scenes, while still channeling that same fantastic sense of charisma he brought to movies like RUSH and the Marvel flicks. I also really liked Golshifteh Farahani, who plays his agency handler. She shows a great mix of strength, vulnerability and intelligence in the role and also has the virtue of being absolutely stunning too.

The producers/audience obviously agreed too, as she has a hugely expanded role in the mindblowingly-good followup. EXTRACTION 2 is – I kid you not – the best action movie I’ve seen this year so far. And one of the best I’ve seen, full stop. I much preferred it to John Wick 4, which felt a bit tedious in comparison (it’s just endless well-done-but-samey fight scenes) There’s a real sense of aggressively fun inventiveness to the violence and mayhem in this top-tier sequel. If EXTRACTION was a solid 7/10 movie, then EXTRACTION 2 is a 9 or 10. It doesn’t hold back and once it gets going around the 25 minute mark, it’s balls to the wall all the way.

It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a movie adaptation of one of the MODERN WARFARE games and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s exhilarating. From an incredible Prison escape scene, with one of the most intense, chaotic and brutal fight scenes I’ve seen, to a thrilling action setpiece on a moving train being attacked by helicopters and soldiers, it’s all jaw-dropping, incredibly exciting stuff. And that’s just the first 45 minutes of it!

As I said, Golshifteh Farahani’s “Nik” has a much expanded role in this movie and she kicks ass almost as hard as Chris Hemsworth’s “Tyler Rake” does. It’s not a complex story, but again it manages to have just enough interesting drama in there to keep you invested in the characters and want to see them come out of it alive. Well, maybe not all of them – on the villains side 🙂

So yeah, if Action movies are you thing, then this pair come highly recommended. And I look forward to seeing the nigh-inevitable third one too. Good work Netflix. And good work, The Russo Brothers and director Sam Hargrave. If Modern Warfare even gets turned into a Movie or TV series, these guys should absolutely be at the top of the list to adapt it.