It’s as if Jalmari Helander listened to my critiques of 2022’s Sisu. His followup, the explosive Sisu: Road to Revenge, improves on the original in just about every way. An absolute banger from start to finish, Road to Revenge is violent, gory, and utterly satisfying, even if it didn’t need to be as over-the-top ridiculous as it ends up being.
Once again, Jorma Tommila doesn’t say a lot, but he does kick a lot of ass. And once again, the plot is straightforward: following World War II, parts of Finland have been annexed by the Soviet Union. Aatami (Tommila) travels to his old home to relocate it across the border and ends up being targeted by the Soviet killer who butchered his family.
Stephen Lang plays the brutally sadistic villain, a proper pairing to counter Aatami’s seemingly unstoppable abilities.
Unlike the first Sisu, which I liked but didn’t love for its inconsistent pacing, Sisu: Road to Revenge accelerates as it goes, with very few pauses to the action. My review of the first faulted the film for it lacking “sustained escalation to the action, or at least the feeling that things are mounting to something greater than what came before.” Road to Revenge definitely ramps up to an absolutely explosive finale, even if it was my least favorite stretch of the movie.
In the early scenes, writer/director Helander plays this new Sisu almost as if it were a Mad Max movie. Aatami drives his large truck on a mission, fending off all kinds of attacks in glorious displays of gritty violence. I was awestruck.
When the action eventually shifts away from the truck (honestly, I would have loved it if the whole movie had centered around Aatami and his vehicle), Sisu: Road to Revenge loses a step, not in terms of action but believability. Aatami is a near unkillable machine and so the Sisu movies, not unlike the John Wick franchise, require a certain degree of leniency on the realistic front. But there are a couple of silly, outrageously over-the-top moments here that jump the shark. Needlessly so. What’s frustrating is that Road to Revenge would have been a better movie had Tommila kept things more grounded.
Even still, Sisu: Road to Revenge is an epically awesome action movie that keeps you on the edge of the seat the entire time. Best get on the road to see this one immediately.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.
