SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE (2025)
Time for an unexpected (but welcome) surprise in the form of a sequel to the Finnish action flick Sisu. Was this even advertised? The box office takings, much like 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, suggest not. The theatrical screenings were also limited which doesn't exactly help matters. Maybe they should have just stuck a 'Part 2' on the title and saved themselves some trouble. Still, the immortal, aka Korpi, aka Sisu if you like, he's back! Can the simple race across a 1940s wasteland for a stash of gold be done again? Is the 'same but different' approach always the best idea?
Things have at least been changed up in a few areas. How many of them improve the proceedings on the other hand is debatable. After the war Korpi (Jorma Tomilla) has returned to his homeland, now occupied by the Soviet Union, with a plan to move house. In a literal sense; by taking the logs and moving them across the border on a truck. It's only 120 kilometres away, what could go wrong? The first act also adds some new dimensions to the man himself. He's apparently a bereaved father who had a normal family life. Which is pretty simplistic and doesn't change much in the long run.
Elsewhere we also learn something of his past from the Russian army. Apparently the story of a man who won't die was the result of the actions of war criminal Yeagor Dragunov (Stephen Lang). Does it really matter that this personal connection exists? Again, not really in the long run. Korpi doesn't even know who's coming for him for half of the movie. But when his name is registered at the checkpoint a KGB officer (Richard Brake) releases Dragunov from prison to put an end to the legend. Which means a predictable road map is planned out early on.
The first act is pretty strong. Korpi's mode of transport feels like something from the recent Mad Max films, adding a kind of heightened reality. There's a sense that inspiration has also been drawn from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The vehicular action, and the subsequent bloody carnage, includes jeeps, bikes, planes, and trains, as things unravel. But while the title cards from the first movie remain they also cause some issues with the pacing. There's a stop-start feeling to the mayhem which feels more like a series of short incidents rather than one narrative.
In the previous instalment there was also a sense of Finland as a place. Or at least a post-apocalyptic moonscape where a country had been before so much destruction. Here the world of the story has less reality to it and sometimes feels like a green screen. Forests and roads come across more like stages for each chapter rather than parts of the map. Which isn't helped by the weightless nature of certain set pieces in which planes flip around with ease. There are certainly a lot of fun and entertaining moments packed into a short running time but some of it's a bit too cartoonish.
Korpi carrying a log like Arnold in Commando is a fun reference, but by the end he's turned into Wile E. Coyote and so has Dragunov. Some of the more extreme bloodshed has a gruelling quality to it while other moments lean too far into Kingdom of the Crystal Skull territory. Your mileage will vary of course as both slapstick and stomach-churning elements come thick and and fast. Again this was something that happened in the last movie but it went for longer before using so many visual effects. Two grizzled old guys fighting each other with kitchen utensils is amazing, but other parts aren't so great.
However, when bad guy is named 'Yeagor Dragunov' there's obviously a lot of improbable moments in store. Even if it makes it hard to be invested in a personal story between the mostly silent immortal and his nemesis. Lang does a reasonable job with the material, which isn't exactly high grade, which is to say he puts on a silly accent and gives a few evil monologues. The last one shouldn't have been in English (or with dialogue at all) and the same applies here. But at least moments of dry humour done physically remain, despite them becoming too silly at times (one moment even recalls The Naked Gun).
In the end it's good this exists at all, but the construction feels rickety and lightweight. The truck should have been a character but isn't in it long enough, the situations should have been more grounded and bleak, and the path should have stayed in white-knuckle mode instead of having so many diversions. Even the dog gets less to do this time around. It's fun but could have been better. Director Jalmari Helander is rumoured to be making a First Blood prequel next, which has far less promise. But maybe time in the world of franchises he loves referencing will turn a profit and allow him to get back to making stuff like this.
3/5
