Disappointing plot with unfulfilling story

Rating: 6/10 (12 March 2016)

I expected more from Sicario, but was disappointed with both the plot and the fairly empty, shallow story.
I also think Emily Blount was miscast as Kate, the FBI agent who handles kidnappings until she's suddenly recruited to join a Govt anti-drug task force. Enter Josh Brolin as the Govt agent. He was excellent as one of these mysterious Govt types that works for some agency with some kind of authority from somewhere.
But Benicio Del Toro is the star. He turns in a terrific performance as this ultra mysterious Spanish-speaker who has some TBD role helping the US Govt fight against Mexican drug lords.
Kate is supposedly this tough FBI agent, but she seems to bristle at the Govt agents methods, thinking that the law is supposed to be followed. But these guys don't. Really though, drug lords, Mexico, what did she expect? I kept thinking that if she was this righteous, she should not have volunteered.
There are some nice back and forth scenes between Blount and Del Toro as he coaches her on how to absorb what she sees, and well as with Brolin.
But the story suffers because we never learn more about Kate or any of these guys. It would have really helped to learn about Kate's upbringing to more understand he motivation to fight drugs so much. But instead, it's empty. So when she starts bristling, you are left wondering why.
The story gets a bit bogged down with she and her partner smoking cigarettes, and going back and forth to this hotel to meet the teams. It's like, OK, what is the point here? The story also gets a bit hard to figure out what is happening.
The whole movie is pretty bloody and violent, as you'd expect. But it's not a great film by any means. The ending culminates in your learning more, but I'm like, so what, big deal.
Average at best is Sicario. Some great stuff from Del Toro, but otherwise, just average. Enjoy.