Sisu review: The John Wick for WWII Nazi-killing delivers a mixed bag

The year is 1944. The Nazis have been kicked out of Finland and are using scorched earth tactics to burn everyone on their way out of the country. They destroyed villages and kidnapped young women. After their humiliating defeat, they are looking for more targets to vent their anger on.

Meet Artami Korpi (Jorma Tomira), a legendary grizzled Finnish veteran. winter war with the Soviets. He is trying to mine for gold and doesn’t want to get too involved in the current conflict. But when a small group of Nazis steal his gold and attempt to kill him, Artami unleashes his dormant killing skills and dispatches soldiers in ruthless and brutal abandon.

that is the premise Sith, a new English-language Finnish film looking to capture the hearts of John Wick fans worldwide with its own version of the vengeful “retired killer retires” action. “Sisu” is an untranslatable Finnish concept, explained in the opening text as follows: When all hope is lost, Sisu reveals itself. In this case, Sisu appears through Aatami, a quiet, intense man who doesn’t speak until the film’s final lines. Atami travels through the beautiful landscapes of Lapland and gives a sense of the vastness of the Finnish countryside. Sithemptiness and devastation heightened by the image of a burnt village.

Critical Tonal Clashes Continue Sith back from something like a fun midnight action fare relentless advertisement motion i promise. Tomira’s down-to-earth, quiet performance as Artami takes a rather traditional approach, with director Jalmari Helander, cinematographer Sher Lagerros and editor Juho Virolainen framing the action and making it more serious. It hints at a revenge thriller. Aatami hitchhiking a vehicle to the bottom of a ship, etc.). Placing it more firmly in the realm of ridiculously fun action fare (by putting his prospect’s pick in it when the plane takes off).

Axel Henney’s menacing performance as the main Nazi is appropriately antipathetic — I was eagerly awaiting his explosive death from start to finish. I wish he had a spinning mustache because it fits perfectly the tone he’s going for, the tone he’s aiming for SithHenny has long excelled at playing characters with a sinister edge beneath the surface (head hunter, Journey), and here he goes all out as a menacing Nazi. Sith would have benefited greatly from Helander et al. It brings a similar tone to the rest of the film.

The action scenes are brutal and show different ways to kill Nazis. There is something right about seeing so many of them die in such an instinctive fashion. The action beat at the beginning of the film is punctuated by a deeply satisfying knife slicing through the skull. Many heads and bodies explode. And at one point, Artami is able to slit a man’s throat underwater to suck oxygen out of the victim’s perforated trachea.

But Helander’s camerawork and veteran stuntman Ouri Kitti’s battle choreography are surprisingly restrained in an action movie, and its creatives were clearly happy to find as many ways to kill people as possible. . This holds Sith Resurrection from Cult Action Gorefest project wolf hunting — in that bloody movie, director Kim Hong-sun infamously used 2.5 tons of fake blood, definitively maintaining a breezy B-movie tone throughout Splatterfest — or Finnish “Nazis in Space” something like a cult hit iron skyhas fully embraced its status as a midnight action fare.

Photo: Antti Rastivo/Freezing Point Oy

Sithwas clearly heavily influenced by the John Wick films, especially the myth-making of its heroes.People talk quietly about Artami — a Nazi officer explains that a Russian soldier nicknamed the Finnish fighter ‘Immortal’ for his heroism during the Winter War. almost the same as the scene John Wick When Michael Nyqvist told Dean Winters and Alfie Allen the story of Baba Yaga, the dawning realization of futility (and the gleeful pretentiousness) made the scene so effective and darkly humorous. There were no subtitles).

Sith is aimed at an English-speaking audience and begins with an expository voice-over narration in English for those who may be unfamiliar with the conflict between Finland and Nazi Germany. Oddly enough, even the Nazis speak English. Finnish is not spoken until the end of the film.This eliminates some of the potential for a true Finnish alternate history/revenge story. Sith It gets stuck between two tones without fully committing to either, ultimately promising more than it delivers.

Sith is currently playing in theaters.