MOVIE REVIEW: 'Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera' Is Different Than The Original, But Not In A Bad Way
Big Nick is back on the hunt in Europe and closing in on Donnie, who is embroiled in the treacherous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world's largest diamond exchange.
As a pretty big fan of the original movie, I was pumped for this. I didn't love the idea of going to Europe in the sequel (I thought the gritty tone was a big part of it's identity) but I'd be there front row to see Big Nick O'Brien hunt down some criminals. And when I say front row, I mean front row. I saw it with Klemmer, who booked out seats, and he had us in the literal front row of a Dolby showing.
As always, I'll break it down into pro and con list.
PROS:
- They make a big effort to focus on the chemistry between O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Gerard Butler and it works. They have some really funny back-and-forth moments.
- They shifted the tone from focusing on being badass and pretty serious to being a little more fun. I understand if people would be hesitant about that but I think its better that they tried to do something different successfully than trying to do something serious again unsuccessfully.
- The actual heist is pretty cool. I kind of wish it went longer but I liked what they delivered. Especially since it felt exotic (I know nothing about the World Diamond District).
- I saw people complain about the length but I never really felt it drag. Again, I wish more time was spent on the heist but thats all in retrospect.
CONS:
- Gooch watched the first movie for the first time recently and described it as "Functionally 'Heat' but spiritually 'The Town'" which I think is a great way of describing it. I think they make the mistake of trying harder to be 'Heat' this time around. Some conversation scenes, music, ambiance, motivation speeches etc. Not the right move to me.
- One of the strengths of the first movie was Pablo Schreiber vs Gerard Butler while every other character (including O'Shea to a degree) was a relatively one dimensional character for aesthetics which I think worked. This movie doesn't have a good villain and I didn't love the "crew". I'm not sure what movie should be the standard, but since this movie is similar to 'Ronin', I'd say that.
Overall, I think I liked it about as much as the original movie (72/100) but for different reasons. First movie is a gritty, caveman-brain, badass, and a relatively serious action movie. The second movie is more of a sleek, fun heist movie. I liked it and enjoyed the theater experience (despite my theater not having any captions which makes understanding the decent chunk of foreign-language dialogue).