Aatami Korpi is back, killing Soviets this time around in Jalmari Helander’s gory sequel. Here’s our Sisu: Road To Revenge review. 2022’s Sisu was a surprise hit. Jalmari Helander’s lean, mean and thoroughly entertaining action thriller introduced us to gold digger Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), a man who simply refuses to die and is willing ... Sisu: Road To Revenge review | Bigger, trashier, less reliant on basic laws of physics
Aatami Korpi is back, killing Soviets this time around in Jalmari Helander’s gory sequel. Here’s our Sisu: Road To Revenge review.
2022’s Sisu was a surprise hit. Jalmari Helander’s lean, mean and thoroughly entertaining action thriller introduced us to gold digger Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), a man who simply refuses to die and is willing to mow down all the Nazis in between him and the nearest bank where he can deposit his gold.
Naturally, a sequel was quickly rushed into production and the big question looming over it is whether it can not just match but top the nastiness of the original?
In Sisu: Road To Revenge, Korpi heads back to the region of Karelia to pack up his old house to start anew. As the movie explains to you, Karelia was a region of Finland the Soviets took over and forced thousands of Finns to leave their homes. It’s also something the proud nation has never quite forgiven, so immediately, there’s a bit of national pride on the line here.
As the film’s subtitle suggests, most of the film takes place on the road as Korpi tries to take the logs of his old home back to Finland to rebuild his life. He’s chased by Ivan Draganov (Avatar’s Stephen Lang), the man who killed Korpi’s family and is now looking to finish the job and isn’t afraid to spill a lot of blood on the way.
Road To Revenge runs for less than 90 minutes, even with the end credits, but the time is used smartly and pretty explosively. Helander, who will next helm John Rambo, has an excellent understanding of what we’re buying a ticket for: merciless, bloody action with minimal story. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty going on underneath all the chaos, but we’re really here to watch people get their heads blown off, aren’t we?
And that action doesn’t disappoint. Road To Revenge moves at a brisk pace and someone dies in increasingly gory ways every few minutes. Helander’s film rides on those huge, handsome action sequences but a later sequence set in a train carriage gives the film a nice little change of pace.
Lang’s Draganov is also an interesting foe for Korpi. The two are like two sides of the same coin, complete opposites but ultimately cut from the same cloth. Rather than mowing down a conveyor belt of Nazis like in the first film, Road To Revenge offers Korpi a worthy opponent, successfully raising the stakes.
The film does lack the surprise factor that made the first film so fun, but it makes up for it with the increasingly silly action. The laws of physics aren’t being respected, with planes diverted with a few logs and Korpi surviving completely impossible situations, but thankfully, Tommila’s pure dedication more than makes up for the lack of realism. Again, do we even want a film like this to have an ounce of common sense?
You won’t find any spoilers here, but the film does bring Korpi’s story to a satisfying place. Helander has also implied that if the opportunity arose, he could be persuaded to return again. But much like Toy Story 3 brought the story of our favourite toys to a pitch perfect closure, Korpi’s story is done here and nothing more is needed. That obviously hasn’t stopped film studios from making more films anyway – Toy Story 5 premieres next year! – but if this truly is the end, we’re satisfied.
If you’re looking for a serious action film similar to the adventures of James Bond or Ethan Hunt, you’ll find yourself disappointed. However, if you’re in the market for ridiculous Stephen Lang one-liners and blood practically dripping from the camera lens, you’ll likely have a great time with Sisu: Road To Revenge.
Sisu: Road To Revenge is in cinemas 21st November.
