First one is one of my favourite ever films. This one is horseshit. It's broken in several ways that are unforgivable. - Affleck has adopted an accent that the character didn't have. It's like Canadian mixed with the Peter Thiel-type character from Silicon Valley. He sounds ridiculous and it makes no sense. - They've attempted a comedic streak throughout - usually at the expense of Wolff's asperger's mannerisms. It just fails constantly and makes less sense than the new accent. - There's a line-dancing scene. - There's a 200mph motorbike scene. - They ask Jon Bernthal to do a lot of heavy lifting and make his character a maniac. Let me put it this way... The entire tone, cleverness, appeal and magic of the first film is gone. There's some action. Nowhere near as good as the first due to the change in tone. This is Cobra Kai season 5 versus the original Karate Kid. The link has long been broken. Absolutely destroys the legacy of the first... And I'll go out on a limb and say the planned trilogy idea stops now. This thing will tank. Big time.

It’s not as good as the first one and it’s a bit of a popcorn flick. The brotherhood delivers and most of the action is believable. If they made a third one I am still in.

It’s okay, that’s the problem. It’s just okay…… The first movie was far better and had a story that could be followed, this movie was a bit of a mess when it comes to storyline. It has its entertaining moments and just about keeps you watching, but only just….

Doubles down on everything that didn’t work about the first one, the muddled tone and genres most of all. As a thriller it’s predictable and rote, as a buddy comedy it’s out of place and dull, as action it’s unremarkable. Maybe part of it was seeing this one in a theater, where it sure felt like the audience was laughing at and not with Affleck’s autistic savant. But even then aside Affleck’s restraint from the first feels absent- he’s exaggerated, playing for the big laughs. Berenthal too is sanded down and played broadly, from an emotionally unbalanced psychopath who’s morality ends at who he cares about to a lonely manchild wanting a hug from his brother and a softie for kids and cats, so he’s not so bad. Once again neurotypical people end up writing more relatable neurodivergent characters by accident, when they just think of them as a person and not a selling point or gimmick- Braxton’s impulse control, social confusion, and loneliness reads as a neurodivergent condition in itself, but that and Berenthal in cruise mode isn’t enough to elevate the character or offset the weird morality at play. Invasion of privacy and torture is a okay if you’re neurodivergent and/or minors, and if you’re like ‘uh that’s messed up’ you’re a neurotypical normie who just needs to get over it. Though of course, asking us to buy a federal agent being against those things is the biggest suspension of disbelief in the entire movie. There’s a Charles Xavier school for gifted autists now, and even with Allison Robertson giving the film’s best performance it’s still a lot. Seeing it in theaters just confirmed how much these movies are not for autistic people- they’re for dads to watch to ‘understand’ you instead of talking to you. A silly and wild ass twist doesn’t help, or the ending that pays off every possible line you could think of in the most hackneyed way to pop the audience with a song that feels like it’s straight from the CW playing all the while. Addai-Robinson’s Medina barely does anything but a weak punchline set up earlier will make you laugh enough to pretend her arc actually happened, right? And worst of all, JK Simmons is barely in this one after being the highlight of the first. This series is just not worth checking out.

Disappointing, underwhelming. Not the follow-up the first movie deserved.