“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” Review

The sequel to the heist film Den of Thieves is a film that is all work and no play. It confuses intricacy for intrigue and competency for charisma. For the audience member who complains about how people keep making mistakes in movies, here’s a film where a heist is pulled off with characters who are personally flawed but criminally professional. The monkey’s paw curls for this film that delivers all the intensity and little personality.

The cat-and-mouse game continues between law enforcer Nicholas “Big Nick” O’Brien (Gerard Butler) and the high-stakes thief Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr.). Both of them are down on their luck for different reasons. Nick, still bitter from his divorce, finds himself disillusioned with working within the law. Donnie, still in the heist game, finds himself being targeted by an Italian mafia for his theft of their most precious diamond. The two of them cross paths as Donnie hooks up with a heist crew in France led by the calculative Jovanna (Evin Ahmad), with Nick working undercover in their ranks. They need to pull off a heist and impress their superiors.

Theoretically, this is a good idea for focusing more specifically on connecting the two leads. Some good scenes are built for them, as they get stoned and drunk at a party, leading to them talking about their lives over a midnight meal. So, why does it feel like padding? The first film at least had some dialogue that felt believable for weathered and weary men who grew bitter in the world of crime. Pantera, by comparison, doesn’t have that same level of ease. There’s a half-thought nature to the inclusion of Nick forming a romantic bond with Jovanna, which is approached and then immediately squashed before it gets interesting. This nature makes some of the more chipper scenes, as when Donnie connects with his international crew over their music choices, feel obligatory and hollow.

The devotion to the heist itself is as complex as the first film, but with firmer control of the operation. The calculative nature of how Jovanna times the cameras and Nick fears he may have to kill some guards creates some good tension. But compared to the first Den of Thieves, the same level of seat-grabbing anxiety is not as present. Part of what made me give that first film such a pass was that the shootout in traffic was pretty compelling in the staging of its unfolding violence. The big climax of this sequel is a car chase through the curvy mountain roads. While the staging is ambitious, there’s not as much intensity when one of the pursuing cars is shot and flips off the mountain when the audience has to watch from a distance.

Pantera has the same elaborate nature as Den of Thieves but is lacking in grit. That’s a real shame because the saving grace of the previous movie was the shootouts that were competently staged with a rawness that takes a hard swing toward the levels of Michael Mann’s Heat. While there might’ve been a decent trade-off for favoring more hangout scenes between Butler and Jackson, there’s never enough time for chemistry in those scenes. There’s not even much time to highlight the pursuing Italian mob boss or the nature of the other heist members. Great heist films usually take time to make you care about the criminals. Although Pantera certainly has time to spare in its 2.5 hours, it would rather spend more time with routine brooding and caper plotting, making for a crime picture so by the numbers it’s almost painful to watch its potential squandered. Sometimes you just have to slow down and smell the diamonds you’re stealing to appreciate this genre truly. Pantera is missing those brakes.