THE ACCOUNTANT 2

'The Accountant 2' follows Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, 'Star Trek: Into Darkness', Amazon Prime's 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'). When someone close to her is killed, with note left saying "Find the Accountant", it leads her to Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck, 'Air', 'Justice League') to solve the murder. He brings in his brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal, 'The Many Saints of Newark', 'King Richard') - but as they piece the puzzle together, it leads them to a bigger mystery and in the path of Anaïs (Daniella Pineda, 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom', 'Plane'), a ruthless assassin.

'The Accountant 2' feels like two movies at odds with each other. The script feels like a generic cop murder mystery interrupted by Christian Wolff and Braxton doing side quests. We see Christian go speed dating, line dance and he and his brother have a 20-minute shoot out. Neither film is bad, but they never feel like one complete story. Just making it clearer that this is an odd sequel to exist, you could have either another cop murder mystery film or a buddy film with Affleck and Bernthal, but here neither gets the chance to thrive. It's neither a compelling thriller nor a fun action film, so lacks in both departments.

The first film did face some backlash with how it portrayed autism, so the second time around they both do and don't want to address that. For Christian it's toned down, while still being played for laughs at some points and others it being portrayed as a superpower to solving crime. However, the film adds a strange subplot where Christian uses what is shown to us as a Siri-like British voice to help find out information. This is revealed to be a group of kids on the spectrum who, at a school, work together to hack things and find information. It just came across as an odd inclusion; while great to see more representation, it feels odd that this was done and with essentially child labour.

'The Accountant 2' does have fun moments, especially when Affleck and Bernthal are allowed to riff off each other, but it just doesn't know which direction it wants to go. It's a weird sequel at odds with itself but a fine, forgettable trip to the cinema.