Sony Pictures
After having successfully protected his gold and reminded the Wehrmacht why you do not mess with Finns, Sisu: Road to Revenge sees Finnish commando Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) dismantle his family home in order to remove it from territory ceded to the Soviet Union as part of the post-WWII peace treaty, and heading back to Finnish territory to rebuild it on safe soil.
Alas, the Red Army has other plans for the intrepid Finn, and therefore release the bone-chillingly ruthless Yeagor Draganov (Stephen Lang), who killed Aatami’s family, to track him down and put an end to him once and for all, and Yeagor is more than happy to oblige.
Where Sisu played out like a gritty western embracing contemporary standards of extremely violent and well-choreographed action, Sisu: Road to Revenge is more of the same to an extent, but the sequel also extrapolates on the concept and does what any good sequel should do, namely expand on what made its predecessor work and take it to the next level.
And oh boy, does Sisu: Road to Revenge take it to the next level.
Whenever a film makes a point of dispatching Nazis in gruesome fashion for entertainment, there is a universal rule that this is acceptable because anything you can think of doing to them in a fictionalized setting will never be able to match the horror of the atrocities the Nazis committed in real life during their reign of terror, and Sisu did not hold back when it came to shedding Nazi blood all over the Finnish tundra.
However, entertaining as that may be, it can also become tediously repetitive, and the formula therefore needs to be refreshed, a concept writer and director Jalmari Helander has fully embraced, as Sisu: Road to Revenge aims for the stars with a completely unhinged onslaught of action set pieces that would make even Wile E. Coyote think you were being a bit unrealistic.
Having Lang’s Yeagor as the nemesis to our hero also works exceeding well, as Lang relishes playing the villain, making Yeagor at once both almost cartoonishly evil as well as menacing and clever, which ensures that he fits into the more playful elements of the sequel while still feeling like a sincere threat to Aatami.
As for Tommila’s Aatami, where he did have a few lines in the first film, he delivers a wordless performance here, yet he is also at his most expressive, brimming with such depth of emotion that his presence grips you and enthralls you, whether he is experiencing unfathomable heartbreak or white hot fury.
Sisu introduced the world at large to Finnish intrepidness and determination in a manner that took no prisoners, which deservedly made it a hit among genre fans, but the second film expands on it and elevates it to something else that will still be too gruesome for some, but it does it with such style and dedication that the mayhem is a true spectacle to behold for those who like their action demented, relentless, and so gritty and blood-soaked that you will want to check that your tetanus shot is up to date.
Extras include a featurette.
Verdict: 8 out of 10.
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