Everything that the filmmaker was able to acquire in terms of efficiency and precision on a technical level is conspicuous by its absence in terms of writing…
About halfway to Den of Thieves: Pantera (On Equal Terms 2: Operation Panterain French version), the character of “Big Nick” played by Gerard Butler launches a loud and equally sentimental “F*ck the police” in order to gain the trust of the group of criminals to whom he is trying to stick. The next shot shows us the astonished face of Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube’s son) following this direct quote from one of the most emblematic songs of the rap group NWA (which obviously included his father’s part).
This delicious wink announces the change in tone made by Christian Gudegast for this unexpected sequel to the 2018 heist film. A new opus that no one really anticipated – and probably didn’t hope for either.
In Den of Thievesthe filmmaker did not hesitate to quote extensively the powerful and untouchable Heat by Michael Mann – with a small dose of The Usual Suspects. It’s certainly a good basis on which to build any crime drama involving a team of thieves more skilled than the average bear, and a detective grappling with his demons who isn’t shy about growling and brewing. air.
With this second go-round, Gudegast seems to want to bring into the world an action franchise that could play into the flowerbeds of The Fast and the Furious saga – with a small dose ofOcean’s Twelve -, with all that this implies in terms of ethical gray areas, muscular sequences, luxurious elements, wars of egos, sometimes dubious touches of humor, and stratagems seeming a tad too ambitious.
From the first robbery scene, we see that Gudegast has refined his methods quite a bit, abandoning the uninviting streets of Los Angeles for the charm of the old continent. The much more worked photo direction of Terry Stacey and the dark rhythms of Kevin Matley’s compositions also contribute strongly to giving us confidence.
These escapades quickly attract the attention of Nick, whose divorce has just been finalized. The latter immediately flies to Nice to try to find the man he liked to call “Fräulein”, as well as the millions of dollars that vanished with him at the end of the previous episode.
But when the veteran investigator unexpectedly reappears in the life of the professional thief, the latter is surprised by the offer of his main threat to join his ranks to help him orchestrate a major diamond theft.
-So law and order is good, but crime is better!
Unfortunately, everything that the filmmaker was able to acquire in terms of efficiency and precision on a technical level is conspicuous by its absence in terms of writing.
The entire chapter revolving around Nick’s involvement in Donnie’s plans is thrown in our faces without the slightest attempt to muddy the waters or entertain any moral dilemma. A narrative dynamic that even Rob Cohen was able to take into account when introducing us to Dominic Toretto’s extended family in 2001.
Even the famous heist is much less stunning and elaborate than that of the first film. Certainly, the long sequence creates enough elements of tension to keep you in suspense. But the whole plan ultimately boils down to moving from one room to another as quickly as possible in order to remain in the blind spot of the surveillance system.
That being said, there was probably something of the Vin Diesel-Paul Walker duo to recreate with O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Gerard Butler (who continues to play the badass bears, but in vacation mode). Once we reach the end of the journey, we can only remain perplexed as to the expected results, considering the way in which the feature film does not pay too much attention to several narrative and dramatic elements that are nevertheless essential to this type of proposition.
Den of Thieves: Pantera simply does not have the necessary story material to support and realize its ambitions. Less effort and attention was devoted to the preparation of the scheme, as well as to the highlighting of the different characters, much more incidental and taken for granted this time.
Christian Gudegast hastened to put many elements on the table, but never asking us to look further than the tip of our noses, naively hoping that his audience will be willing to ignore everything he has omitted. to develop along the way.
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