Director: Christian Gudegast
Cast: Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel
Where: In theatres.
Rating: 2/5
Rarely does a sequel inspire the nostalgic yearning for the mediocrity of its predecessor, but Den of Thieves 2: Pantera achieves this with an artlessness that borders on parody. Writer-director Christian Gudegast’s attempt to meld the gritty cop drama with European heist glamour falls as flat as an overcooked soufflé. If the original film was a convoluted heist drama, this sequel is a sluggish procedural bore with the occasional shimmer of wit and action drowned in an ocean of tedium.
The story picks up where the first film left off, with Gerard Butler’s bland Sheriff Nick O’Brien hot on the trail of Donnie Wilson, played with reluctant charm by O’Shea Jackson Jr. The chase leads us to Marseilles, where Donnie plans to rob the world’s largest diamond exchange. Nick, never one for nuance, infiltrates the gang by posing as a disgraced cop willing to trade his badge for a taste of criminal glory. What follows is an agonizingly slow build-up to a heist that promises much but delivers little.
While Butler lumbers through the film with a grizzled bravado that seems to mistake mumbling for menace, Jackson is left to do the heavy lifting, injecting occasional charisma into a script that forgets what fun looks like. Unfortunately, their dynamic lacks the spark necessary to elevate the limp narrative. The supporting cast, a revolving door of stereotypical European baddies with accents thicker than their characterizations, only adds to the muddled cacophony. It’s an ensemble that feels plucked from the ‘International Villain Starter Pack,’ Not even the sultry Evin Ahmad, tasked with distracting security guards and audiences alike, can save the proceedings.
The film’s pacing is its most egregious crime. Over an hour is wasted on filler scenes that test even the most patient viewer. Reaction shots, as well as shots of "croissant" pronunciations, overwrought bar brawls, and a disco sequence that feels like it escaped from an entirely different film, clog up the runtime. By the time we arrive at the actual heist, the anticipation has long since curdled into apathy. What should be a tense, high-stakes affair instead feels like a pale imitation of better heist films. The obligatory Mission: Impossible-esque vault scene is so derivative it might as well have been titled "Mission Implausible."
When it finally arrives, the action is serviceable but devoid of innovation. Gudegast relies heavily on tired tropes to pad out an already bloated runtime. Even the supposed twists feel telegraphed, sapping the climax of any real tension.
Ultimately, the film suffers from a fatal lack of self-awareness. It wants to be gritty and stylish, but its attempts at profundity come off as pretentious, and its humour feels misplaced.
For all its loud bravado and convoluted schemes, the film fails to captivate, leaving one to wonder if even the filmmakers lost track of what they were trying to achieve. A diamond heist should dazzle, but here, it barely glimmers.
Ultimately, the film suffers from a fatal lack of self-awareness. It wants to be gritty and stylish, but its attempts at profundity come off as pretentious, and its humour feels misplaced.
For all its loud bravado and convoluted schemes, the film fails to captivate, leaving one to wonder if even the filmmakers lost track of what they were trying to achieve. A diamond heist should dazzle, but here, it barely glimmers.
