@Courtesy of Lionsgate
Released in 2018, Den of Thieves proved to be the best robbery-movie since Ben Affleck’s The Town. Built on the shooting sequences’ gritty realism and the cast’s charismatic performances, the action-thriller directed by Christian Gudegast obtained a decent success at the box-office and a wide range of fans all over these years. Developing a sequel however wouldn’t have been the easiest of tasks, for two specific reasons: First, the nel movie would have needed a new setting, far from a stylized and burning Los Angeles; second (SPOILER ALERT!) it would have been difficult to reproduce that tense, poignant cinematic atmosphere without Ray Merrimen, the character portrayed by an impressive Pablo Schreiber, by far the best quality of the previous feature film.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera has accepted these challenges and even if not achieving that first chapter’s cinematic excellence, proves clearly that Gudegast is a smart director. Set almost completely in Southern France, this sequel turns more towards the heist-movie, choosing a more gentle and relaxed approach to story and most specifically tone. In the end, the director uses the remaining characters to realize something that results to be entertaining in a different way: a choice that pays off especially because it was pretty impossible to match what was done before, and Gudegast knows it pretty well.
That said, Den of Thieves: Pantera starts with a remarkable action scene that sets the tone of the entire movie, and then proceeds to develop a quite effective plot which is coherent with the rhythm of the storytelling. When it becomes clear that there isn’t another antagonist as compelling as Merrimen proved to be, the main characters Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler) and Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) start pretty soon that kind of love/hate relationship we’ve seen many times in this kind of heist-movies.
@Courtesy of Lionsgate
The psychological, charismatic, visceral duel set between Gerard Butler and Pablo Schreiber in Den of Thieves can’t be replicated in Pantera, because O’Shea Jackson Jr. doesn’t play that kind of character and doesn’t own the “persona” that Schreiber has. Consequently the new chapter cannot hold the same kind of drama. The screenplay develops the robbery plan and its execution using all the most celebrated coordinates and a couple of twists in the plot that aren’t particularly original, but this doesn’t mean that they don’t work in order to entertain.
Except maybe for the last ten minutes, the action never goes too over the top, setting a basic realism that keeps the viewer into the story and the characters. The action sequences are never unbelievable, there is no violence used just to entertain the audience, and obviously you end up rooting for the criminals when it’s about stealing millions of dollars from someone who can definitely afford to lose them.
Surely there isn’t a great deal of empathy developed through the narrative, but it is pretty clear once again that Pantera prefers to entertain with a more relaxed tone instead of trying to reach the emotional zenith of the first Den of Thieves. This sequel is way less a drama and a character study, but it shows from the very beginning it doesn’t want to be, becoming an honest sequel that moves far away.
Shifting into the more relaxing frame of the heist-movie, Christian Gudegast has decided to explore almost completely different tones in the sequel of his acclaimed first feature film. A choice that isn’t wrong to endorse, because the filmmaker knew from the very beginning that he wouldn’t have been able to achieve the same result of his previous work. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is far from being perfect, but it is entertaining and in a clear way seems to be aware of being sheer entertainment.
@Courtesy of Lionsgate
Rate: C+
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Here’s the trailer for a Den of Thieves 2: Pantera: