2015's "Sicario" was a searing look at the battle with Mexican drug cartels, and how police action became increasingly militarised and morality blurred as any-means-necessary battles were fought. The follow up takes this further, for better and sometimes for worse. For one thing, it starts with implications that cartels are now involved in muslim terrorism of types that have been pretty damn rare on US soil, and has the US goverment responding by declaring they're going to treat this like Afghanistan (with very little recognition that Afghanistan isn't exactly a great model for how to run a conflict). The politics in general are unusually suspect and the film doesn't really seem to take the time to properly reflect on this.
Still, the main attractions back from the first film, Josh Brolin as the gung-ho CIA agent and Benicio del Toro as his assistant with a personal grudge against the cartels do well with what they've been given (although del Toro's storyline takes a couple of steps for the ludicrous near the end of the film in scenes that seem chosen more for sequel potential than for logic, and Brolin has an unlikely change-of-heart-right-near-the-end). There's a portrayal of people smuggling wrapped in which could have used a few scenes more of ambiguity (one or two hit exactly the right note, in particular one with a white participant), but in general, this seems to be reaching for smart-blockbuster and falling short into "under-thought" blockbuster instead.
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