‘SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO’

R 2:03

There’s an oppressive bleakness to the brutal action-thriller “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.” But with faces like Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro, what are you going to do?

Amid the dust cloud of violence that settles over the “Sicario” sequel, nothing stands out like the furrowed brow of Brolin’s grimace or the cold, wornout stare of del Toro. Matt Graver (Brolin) and his cartel lawyer turned undercover pal Alejandro Gillick (del Toro) are again called into action in a black-ops operation along the Mexico border, this time without the benefit of Emily Blunt, who starred in Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” (2015). Blunt’s absence leaves “Day of Soldado” without the mounting sense of dread that defined the first one.

It would be easy to view “Day of the Soldado” as a cheaper knockoff. It’s better than that, but not by much. Stefano Sollima (“Gomorrah”) steps in to direct a script by Taylor Sheridan. Sheridan wrote “Sicario,” too, which sought to modernize the drug-war thriller to catch it up to the lethal battles of today’s cartels.

But in its ballet of SUVS sweeping across the border, “Sicario” mostly stood for a ruthless, borderless American power equaling the ultraviolence of a new era. “Day of the Soldado” begins with a similar stab at political relevance. A supermarket in Kansas City is attacked by a swarm of suicide bombers.

It’s believed the bombers were jihadis who infiltrated the country by slipping through the Mexican border. Told that the cartels control the trafficking of migrants over the border, the Secretary of Defense (Matthew Modine) opts to clandestinely prompt a war between two cartels. Graver’s plan is to kidnap the 12-year-old daughter of a cartel kingpin to kick-start the war.

Things go from dark to darker still, as “Day of the Soldado” sets its genre tale against the backdrop of Mexican migrants in a way that sometimes feels topical and sometimes exploitive. As grim as the world of “Sicario” is, there’s also a sentimental stab at redemption by way of the kingpin daughter (played by a very good Isabela Moner), who ends up in a desert trek with Gillick.

Starring: Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Matthew Modine (strong violence, bloody images, and language.) — Jake Coyle, Associated Press