‘Sisu: Road To Revenge’ review: The vengeful Finnish soldier returns in gory, underwhelming sequel

Dir/scr: Jalmari Helander. Finland/US. 2025. 89mins

This sequel to 2022 actioner Sisu proves far less lethal than its savage predecessor, even if Jorma Tommila’s ferocious commando Aatami Korpi remains an unstoppable killing machine. Road To Revenge finds Aatami once again laying waste to his enemies, this time seeking vengeance against the man who slaughtered his family. But despite some clever moments and a similar commitment to gloriously over-the-top violence, the follow-up lacks the inspiration and sheer fun that defined the original.

Lacks the inspiration and sheer fun that defined the original

Rolling out across various territories including the UK and US on November 21 having opened in Finland in October, Road To Revenge will look to build on the success of the low-budget Sisu, which collected $14.3 million worldwide and became a sleeper sensation. Tommila reunites with Finnish writer-director Jalmari Helander, and beloved character actor Stephen Lang stars as Aatami’s merciless nemesis. The sequel has already hit theatres in Finland, and should do modest damage at the box office before enjoying significant attention on streaming.

Set in 1946, roughly two years after the events of Sisu, the new film follows Aatami (Tommila) as he returns to his Finnish village after World War II, only to discover that the land has been annexed by the Soviet Union. Grieving the death of his wife and two children, Aatami meticulously takes apart their log cabin house, tying the individual logs to the back of a truck as he drives in search of a new homestead where he can rebuild. But along the way, he crosses paths with Yeagor Dragunov (Lang), a snarling Soviet commander who personally killed Aatami’s family and battle commences.

As he did with the first film, editor Juho Virolainen does an excellent job cutting these rambunctious action scenes to emphasise their bone-crushing intensity. Perhaps in part because Aatami never says a word, Helander approaches his set pieces almost like silent-comedy sequences, combining brutal, graphic violence with a hint of slapstick. Aatami leaves a trail of corpses in his wake, eliminating dozens of Soviet soldiers while displaying grim creativity along the way. (This veteran warrior knows his way around both a pickaxe and a long-range missile.)

Unfortunately, Road To Revenge suffers from inevitable diminished returns after Sisu’s startling, innovative action. Much of the pleasure of the 2022 film derived from discovering how resourceful a killer Aatami was, with Tommila playing him with silent, grizzled authority. Sisu also benefited from watching Aatami slay loathsome Nazis, which was an undeniably cathartic sight. By comparison, Road To Revenge’s Soviet soldiers simply aren’t as inherently contemptible, and Lang’s performance as the sadistic commander is a tad generic.

Helander tries inserting an emotional undercurrent, focusing on the stoic Aatami’s grief for his dead family members, but this high-octane picture shifts awkwardly into more melancholy terrain whenever our hero gets mournful. Even Road To Revenge’s Estonia locations pale in comparison to the otherworldly beauty of Sisu’s Finnish settings.

Tommila continues to exude the dark-eyed ferocity of a soldier with no war left to fight, except the one within himself. But his appreciably muscular portrayal cannot provide the same spark and surprise that animated Sisu, and Helander rarely provides him with set pieces that improve upon the predecessor’s gleeful carnage. In limited doses, Road To Revenge reminds us of the first film’s inventiveness — especially during an amusing sequence involving Aatami quietly sneaking through a train car filled with sleeping enemy combatants. But too often the sequel resorts to conventional fight and chase scenes.

Those scenes still ripple with energy, although this sequel increases the amount of digital effects, which are often threadbare, rendering the action more cartoonish and less gritty. Road To Revenge repeats the original’s chapter-structure narrative, and it’s still enjoyable that they have grindhouse-worthy titles like ’Motor Mayhem’. But it ladels out the mayhem without the original’s pedal-to-the-metal exuberance of wit; for all the decapitated heads, blown-off fingers and pulverised bodies, Road To Revenge rarely draws blood.