‘Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera’: Review

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

Author-director Christian Gudegast switches up the method for his follow-up to 2018 heist hit Den Of Thieves, however the adjustments in the end rob this sequel of the weather that made the primary movie so successful. 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 very good 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 in opposition to a comparatively modest funds. 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 attributable to 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 desires 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 spinoff. 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: Not possible or James Bond. Den Of Thieves’ white-knuckle automobile 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 could 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 outdoors the legislation, is much less galvanising right here as Nick will get seduced by the legal way of life. The actor’s smart-aleck rapport with Jackson, which is supposed to offer 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 nice and unhealthy guys, creating fascinating characters on all sides. However Pantera solely focuses on the criminals, and the thieves and heavies round Nick and Donnie — who will finally embrace 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, the truth is, an excellent legal mastermind. In Pantera, he exudes a much more assured air consistent with his character’s true manner, capably offering the mandatory savoir-faire. The issue is that the heist that Donnie and Jovanna have cooked up is pretty paying homage to the type concocted in Mission: Not possible and Ocean’s footage. Editor Roberth Nordh and composer Kevin Matley — each new to the franchise — do stable, 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 shall be a lot simpler for audiences to guess. What is particularly disappointing is that the revelation might need been extra worthwhile as a central stress all through the movie, slightly than as an anticlimactic closing plot level. It’s yet one more disappointment in a sequel to a finely-crafted first characteristic a few seemingly excellent heist. Gudegast learns the laborious means that returning to the proverbial scene of the crime often spells catastrophe.