Scott Adkins has definitely taken after Jean-Claude Van Damme after a few movies together like Universal Soldier (2012), and The Shepherd. I'm one of his behind-the-scenes fans.
I'm quite impressed that so many features and themes of the first firm are played out in the second: the opening chase scene; the lead actor meets a girl who tags along; the single-load gun wielded by both lead villains, and the human hunt theme. Here, Aldrich and his corrupt minions pick on a 'piece of meat' they can't chew.
I like recurrent the hand-to-hand fights, and the idea of Adkins' survival with little or no use of weapons, it retains Van Damme's style of fighting, including having a favorite (finisher) kick. This is a movie about hunting humans, so I think the villains could do with a little more of gruesome deaths, like Sofia's (remember how Arnold Vosloo was killed in the first film).
I saw Thriller as one of this movie's genres, but frankly it's far from thrilling. The plot was quite predictable. For me the actors are not really to blame for any lags in the plot. The actors were great, but Reiné overlooked certain unrealistic scenarios. The minefield, for instance. The time between Baylor shooting at Tobias Zimling and his getting to a safe distance from the explosion is unrealistic for me. I also think with all the hunters' expertise, high-tech weapons and escorts, they shoulda hit Baylor at least once, that would raise the thriller scale.
It's just another movie by another director on the human hunt theme. I wouldnt dabble into which is better, this or the first movie. Roel Reiné did a fine job nonetheless.
