‘Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera’: Review

Dir/scr: Christian Gudegast. US. 2024. 144mins 

Author-director Christian Gudegast switches up the components for his follow-up to 2018 heist hit Den Of Thieves, however the modifications finally rob this sequel of the weather that made the primary movie so profitable. Gerard Butler’s tough-guy policeman and O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s wily thief be a part of forces this time for an motion thriller that works on a broader canvas, leaping to Belgium, France and Italy. But these grander ambitions solely amplify the fabric’s macho ludicrousness on the expense of the unique’s excellent set items and drama.

Doesn’t possess its predecessors’ B-movie ingenuity

Pantera opens within the US on January 10, virtually precisely seven years after Den Of Thieves collected $80.5 million worldwide towards a comparatively modest price range. Butler’s 2023 image Aircraft additionally grossed $74.5 million in the identical January slot, and the hopes are that Pantera will attraction to an viewers craving an motion providing within the midst of awards-season status dramas and household flicks. 

Nonetheless seething about being duped by Donnie (Jackson Jr), who was the key architect behind the brazen theft of the Federal Reserve on the centre of Den Of Thieves, Los Angeles detective Nick (Butler) has seen his life hit all-time low. His spouse has left him resulting from his infidelity, and he has been kicked off the pressure. Realising that Donnie escaped the US and is now working in Europe, Nick tracks down the thief, declaring that he’s bored with preventing criminals — and needs to be a part of Donnie’s subsequent massive heist. 

With Den Of Thieves, Gudegast wore his affection for Michael Mann’s Warmth on his sleeve, and the 2018 movie’s stripped-down motion, gritty L.A. settings and swaggering cops-and-robbers plot have been expertly executed, even when the proceedings have been noticeably by-product. For Pantera, although, the writer-director (who additionally labored on the screenplay for Butler’s 2016 movie London Has Fallen) shifts his cinematic reference factors, going for one thing extra within the vein of Mission: Unattainable or James Bond. Den Of Thieves’ white-knuckle automotive chases and ferocious gun battles give technique to a extra cosmopolitan crime drama constructed round Donnie’s plan to interrupt into Good’s seemingly impenetrable World Diamond Heart.  

The European locales might give Pantera a extra worldwide aptitude — the movie really shot on the Spanish island of Tenerife — however they deprive this sequel of Den Of Thieves’ lived-in texture and rugged immediacy. And though it’s initially intriguing to see Nick and Donnie put apart their variations to kind a fragile truce, their cautious partnership doesn’t generate a lot spark.

Butler, who was fairly convincing in Den Of Thieves as an amoral cop who aggressively operates exterior the regulation, is much less galvanising right here as Nick will get seduced by the prison way of life. The actor’s smart-aleck rapport with Jackson, which is supposed to provide the sequel somewhat buddy-comedy, is strained, and Nick’s flirtations with the heist queenpin, the all-business Jovanna (Evin Ahmad), don’t add a lot to the story. What lent Den Of Thieves its electrical energy was Gudegast’s cautious consideration to each the great and unhealthy guys, creating fascinating characters on both sides. However Pantera solely focuses on the criminals, and the thieves and heavies round Nick and Donnie — who will ultimately embody harmful members of the Italian mafia — are largely colourless.

Jackson comes extra to the fore on this sequel, his scheming Donnie now not thought of a lowly getaway driver however, in reality, an excellent prison mastermind. In Pantera, he exudes a much more assured air consistent with his character’s true manner, capably offering the required savoir-faire. The issue is that the heist that Donnie and Jovanna have cooked up is pretty harking back to the type concocted in Mission: Unattainable and Ocean’s footage. Editor Roberth Nordh and composer Kevin Matley — each new to the franchise — do strong, competent work, however Pantera doesn’t possess its predecessors’ B-movie ingenuity or means to remodel a well-known narrative into one thing lean and imply. 

As with the unique movie, Pantera boasts a third-act twist, though this one might be a lot simpler for audiences to guess. What is particularly disappointing is that the revelation may need been extra worthwhile as a central stress all through the movie, slightly than as an anticlimactic ultimate plot level. It’s yet one more disappointment in a sequel to a finely-crafted first characteristic a couple of seemingly excellent heist. Gudegast learns the exhausting method that returning to the proverbial scene of the crime normally spells catastrophe.