Executed as perfectly as can be considering the story did nothing for me

Rating: 8/10 (29 September 2015)

This movie just screams Denis Villenueve. Its got that same dark, twisted feeling about it that I got from his masterpiece Prisoners and his less brilliant Eh-nemy. Sicario, whilst it doesn't scrape Prisoners altar even a bit, does confirm that he isn't a one-hit wonder and is in fact one of the most talented individuals in the business. He can match Kathryn Bigelow in tension and the Coen brothers in twistedness. He can do dark better than most of the horror directors in the business. He knows how to utilise the techs better than anyone I know – his use of Jóhann Jóhannsson's otherwise unremarkable score is incredible for building tension.
That Roger Deakins hasn't won an Oscar after his career is criminal. I think Sicario might just be his best work yet. This film is BEAUTIFULLY shot. The night sequences are so natural I felt like an observer. The thermal image scenes are incredible. There are some long aerial takes, including one of five black 4WDs crossing a checkpoint that is one of the best takes I've ever seen in a movie. Its Deakins' time, Academy!
Emily Blunt is one of my favourite actresses in the business, and she gives a stripped back and bleak performance that makes it easy to forget that it's the star of Edge of Tomorrow and The Devil Wears Prada. I didn't buy for a second the subplot about her not being able to find a man, even less so when her partner calls her ugly. C'mon man. The casting choice of a woman and a black man as two cops who were out of their depth in a cross-border operation run by white men I thought was subtly clever as well. Daniel Kaluuya's Reggie is a serviceable character but I felt like he popped up more than needed – he was rejected from the taskforce but always seems to be around.
Josh Brolin is my favourite part of the film as the almost playfully unconventional Matt. He's the ultimate boys boy, he likes to sleep on planes and joke around with his teammates. Benicio del Toro received the film's raves, and whilst I have nothing to complain about, to rave about a layered character is a stretch for me. Discovering his backstory was a bit too much of a let down, because we've seen it all before.
The film is almost perfect in execution, but unfortunately the story just did nothing for me. Not one thing happened that I hadn't already seen before or didn't see coming. Two scenes of note include a dalliance between Kate and Ted (always excellent John Bernthal) and a conversation between Alejandro (del Toro) and a lead cartel man. Only Villenueve has the dark guts to pull off the latter the way he did. Other than that, I found it very conventional and sadly predictable. Del Toro's character arc is probably the least difficult since Magneto in X- Men First Class. There's a hugely unnecessary subplot about a cop named Silvio that eventuates to nothing. Even some of the script choices ruined what I was loving – one character icily tells his victim to finish his meal before his death, which I was ready to celebrate as filmmaking genius, then the gunman kills him two seconds later. Maybe don't tease better scenes than you've got, guys.
Sicario should be shown in director's school, or at the very least cinematographer's school. It's a class act on what to do from a technical viewpoint, but for me, Sicario only makes me realise that Villenueve needs to partner back up with a more talented writer like Prisoners scribe Aaron Guzikowski.