'Extraction 2' review: Chris Hemsworth action sequel just as good as original

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Chris Hemsworth returns as the black ops mercenary Tyler Rake in "Extraction 2," the sequel to the Netflix action picture "Extraction" that provided a dose of old-school genre escapism when it was badly needed, at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in April 2020.

This time around, Tyler finds himself in Georgia (the former Soviet republic that is), where he has been tasked with exfiltrating Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili), the wife of a crime boss, and her children from the prison where her dangerous husband has kept them.

The veteran stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave returns as the director. The screenwriter once again is Joe Russo,  half of the Russo Brothers responsible for a bunch of Marvel movies and more.

MY SAY Like most sequels, "Extraction 2" replicates the experience of the first movie. It doesn't expand on the "Extraction" universe by taking the storytelling in new directions, or attempt to draw out any subtleties that might have slipped under the radar amid the wall-to-wall action.

But the filmmakers have hit on an approach that remains strong in its fundamentals. They construct the story around three huge sequences that offer different shades of spectacle in which no expense gets spared.

First, there's the prison rescue, captured in long takes that allow for the thoroughly choreographed stunt work to stand front and center.

Then, after the bad guy — the scary brother-in-law (Tornike Gogrichiani) — tracks down our hero mid-rescue, the filmmakers offer a skyscraper-set battle that includes moments of sweeping danger.

Without giving anything away, suffice it to say that the climactic scene draws in and personalizes the fighting, consolidating the earlier sweeping approach.

Putting together three first-rate set pieces that hold the attention of an easily distracted audience: that's a noteworthy accomplishment. After years of action movies trying to outdo their predecessors by getting bigger and bigger — Tom Cruise will be flying off a cliff on a motorcycle before BASE jumping in the next "Mission: Impossible" installment, for example — it can feel like there's nowhere left to go.

Making it work for even the most jaded of viewers requires the sort of relentless, tight focus Hargrave brings to the movie, which includes an absence of any extraneous scenes. The shreds of backstory added to the narrative enhance the drama and impact, without distracting from the picture's central reason for being.

The success of "Extraction 2" also depends on the first-rate acting that Hemsworth and company deliver, pouring a great deal of character-focused conviction into the drama and never forgetting that these are ostensibly real people engaged in these life-or-death battles, and not movie archetypes.

Netflix could use a hit action franchise; so many of its genre efforts have been serious disappointments, being harmed by lackluster plotting and a sort of overriding cheapness no matter the budget.

But here, they've finally found one that compares favorably with big-screen counterparts. The inevitable "Extraction 3" might not deviate much from the formula, but sometimes there's just no need to do more than deliver the goods and call it a day.

BOTTOM LINE The rare action sequel that works just as well as the original.