So much wasted potential

Rating: 5/10 (15 October 2015)

Let me start by saying that I am well aware my opinion is off the track in this case, and that's something that surprises me more than the people who love this movie. I went in with high hopes and... well:
I didn't enjoy Sicario at all. Bar a handful of well-directed action sequences, it was quite bland and had the clichéd plot mashings of any typical revenge flick slapped on top of a traditional crime thriller. Del Toro was a redeeming factor for sure, and I do understand and appreciate early Oscar shouts for Best Supporting Actor, but I draw the line there.
Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin brought very little to this film between them. Blunt has the spotlight stolen from her by Del Toro in the final third of the movie, and never recovers it back again. But the major problem is that I, as an audience member, preferred it that way. Blunt's character can be seen as a proverbial 'fish-out-of- water' type, one who is strung along by Brolin's intimidating mannerisms and Del Toro's shrouded persona. She is helpless in understanding what is going on, and whilst we can all appreciate that aspect as good story-telling, it gets annoying and boring when the movie abruptly changes gears, heading to its 'revenge-driven' climax. What was the point? Del Toro may as well have been the main character, and Blunt a secondary one who is used and discarded. Given her lack of back- story, which I'll come to in a while, it would have the same impact on the story-line: virtually none.
I suppose I can give the movie credit for setting up its revenge aspect with Del Toro's brutal actions beforehand, but it still wasn't fleshed out to a great-enough extent. True, anyone familiar with 'revenge cinema' will immediately know the clichéd reason for Del Toro's despondency upon first meeting him, but even that is never elaborated on, at least not until the final confrontation with an antagonist who was non-existent beforehand. Brolin said that the man "was like a ghost" and that certainly lived up to its billing, but not in a good way. All we know by the end, when a showdown occurs, is that he's supposed to be a purely black (evil) character, and Del Toro is... grey? He's certainly not the good guy, and it's very hard to sympathise with him when those he lost are never even given names or faces. A flashback would have worked wonders, but the director strangely chose to omit that idea entirely.
Regarding character development, Emily Blunt (Kate) has no back- story whatsoever, save that she is divorced with no children. For a movie with only a few female characters with speaking lines, this really isn't a good indicator of how to handle a main character in an equal manner. The end result is that Benicio Del Toro is given the reins, yet he's still considered a supporting character. Change the label to 'main' and nobody would notice - it's purely bad characterisation and nothing else.
I'll be honest and say there were a few good points. The opening scene is thrilling. The end climax is thrilling. The 'traffic jam' in Juarez was thrilling, although I feel it lacked a chase scene or out-and- out shootout. I'm not an 'action junkie', but for a movie labelled 'Action' by IMDb, Sicario barely delivers until the final fifteen minutes.
Final big paragraph. Here is my main issue with this film: it has a lot of good ideas, but fails to execute them in an original manner. Smokin' Aces, Lucky Number Slevin and Kill Bill all handle similar situations (either convoluted police work or out-and-out vengeance) much better than Sicaro. If Josh Brolin and Emily Blunt were removed, Del Toro's back-story slightly edited to make him a lone CIA agent and other people given supporting roles, you would basically have the same movie, and that is a damning indictment of something that's carrying the baited screams of "Best Picture!" and "Best Actress!" No and no. Neither are deserved. This movie is glaringly unoriginal, Emily Blunt shows no growth as a character and is completely uninteresting (think Edge of Tomorrow, minus most of her venom) and the plot is a bit of a mess. Any movie that splits in half based on thematic and characterised aspects, yet tries not to, has a major problem.
I left disappointed, and can fully understand the current box office stumbling.