Have you ever watched a movie where you feel like they didn’t need a sequel? The first movie was so good that a sequel can only ruin it?! But then you’re glad that they made the sequel because not only did it live up to expectations, but surpassed them. The Accountant with Ben Affleck is one of those movies. I was surprised by how much I liked it when it came out years ago and I thought a sequel would only ruin it because it couldn’t be as good. Well, I’m wrong again… the last time I was this wrong was with Top Gun: Maverick. No, I won’t say that The Accountant 2 is as good… It’s not! However, I was completely surprised by how good this movie really is even if it’s not a great movie! It’s a lot of fun despite using familiar tropes that we’ve seen in movies and despite the fact that it’s really just a buddy cop film but with two mercenary brothers, and that’s okay because familiar tropes can still make for entertaining movies. This sequel had everything I needed in a movie, plenty of action, plenty of laughter, some very emotional scenes especially when the main characters rescue innocent children, and great chemistry between its two lead actors, Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal. They play characters that are easy to root for and leave you wanting more.
The story picks up 8 years after the first movie with former Deputy Director of the Treasury Department as a private investigator trying to find someone and ends up getting murdered and leaving an ominous note on his dead body, “find the accountant!” We pick up with his replacement, Agent Medina who does find Christian Wolf and gets his help solving the mystery of Raymond King’s death and what he was looking for. That’s where the mystery starts to unravel and then the characters are off to the races. It’s a familiar trope, but it still works. She plays the straight-laced cop trying to do everything by the book while the two brothers have no problem breaking the law… it doesn’t matter if you see the plot coming a mile away because the results are still good. They teaming up together is what makes the movie. I’m not going to tell you that the mystery surrounding this movie is as entertaining as the first one, but it’s interesting especially when you get to see Christian Wolf’s crew so to speak who work like “Oracle” in DC comics help track people down. But the best part of this movie is not just the action, but it is the chemistry between Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal. It would be easy to believe that they’re actually brothers in real life. The way they work together, from how they get on each other’s nerves, to the camaraderie that they have is what makes this movie a lot of fun to watch. In a lot of ways, it feels like watching an old school detective movie where everybody has a different personality but somehow ends up getting the job done. I could have very easily seen Shane Black write this movie who’s known for using those same tropes perfectly in films as in the Nice Guys and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The overall story is simple and doesn’t get too complicated even if it’s hard to believe in the concept of imposter savant syndrome, but it makes for a fun movie as our main characters save the day.
Have fun as The Accountant 2 might be it’s not a perfect movie and it’s definitely not the best action movie. Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal are great, but one of my biggest complaints is there’s not enough time to really catch up with the characters. One of the best things that the first movie did is gave us enough history about them through flashback scenes and you don’t really get that. With movie is set 8 years after the original so what’s been happening with these characters. We get a few that shows how Christian wolf is using the Harbor Science Institute to basically run his own intelligence agency, yes he’s expanding, but what has he been doing the last eight years except rigging a dating seminar. What has Braxton been doing? The only flash vaccines we get are about the people they’re trying to find that explains what happened to the characters and that’s all well and good, but we as an audience want to know more about the main character. The action is top-notch, but the best scenes are when everybody is working together. The rest of the movie is basically just one long action sequence except with funny moment in a honky-tonk bar. There’s more to this story than what is seen in the movie and I feel like the first movie gave us more of a story. This movie is meant to be a better action flex and that’s okay, but it feels like all we do is catch up with the characters instead of reconnecting with them. It was easier to connect to all the characters in the first movie than it is in the second movie. The second movie feels more like a revenge story that doesn’t have as much emotional weight. The best emotional connections we get are rescuing the kids who are about to be murdered and then getting to know Christian Wolf’s intelligence team at the institute which is cool by the way. Where is the first movie is a great introduction to the past of the brothers and especially Christian wealth along with Agent Medina…. It would be a great pilot to set up a series, the sequel feels more like an episodic episode of TV like I’m watching an episode of Reacher and it just leaves you wanting more. I can easily see this being turned into a series. And the story if it were to continue might be better as a series or even just the limited series. For me as a critic I don’t want just one big action film, I want to emotionally connect to the characters, and I just didn’t do it as much in this movie despite “The odd Couple” relationship between the two brothers. I enjoyed the action, but that emotional connection is lacking.
Overall, The Accountant 2 is a fun movie. It’s a great body cop type of film with lots of good action but doesn’t carry the same emotional weight as the first movie. Now that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t see it because if you’re a fan of the first movie then this is a must-see sequel. It’s very enjoyable but I liken this sequel to Die Hard 2 as compared to Die Hard 1… Not as good, but still a fun movie with characters that we like. It’s highly enjoyable on the big screen and worth the price of a movie ticket. There’s a lot of great moments that will keep you laughing and Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal are good action stars. But I think the biggest tragedy of the sequel…it’s going to leave you wanting more stories and we may just never get a third movie. But I definitely enjoyed it and watching both films will be a great double feature one afternoon. Christian Wolf is one of Ben Affleck’s best characters and I would love to see more. Gavin O’Connor is one of my favorite directors who not only brings a lot of emotional connection to his characters especially in action movies but knows how to flesh out a good story. Sadly, this is not one of his best movies but still good enough. It’s not a great film, but still a film worth seeing. But perhaps the only thing that truly makes this movie great as it does serve a really great epilogue to the first film kind of like Quantum of Solace was to Casino Royale. And that’s okay because even okay movies are still fun to watch. But at this point, we’re going to need a third movie to give us a great trilogy. You already have a fantastic cast, give us another story!
