Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025) Review: Christian Gudegast’s Otherwise Refreshing Change of Pace in the Style of a Euro Thriller Resulted in a Tedious Sequel

Seven years of waiting seems like an eternity for the arrival of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, the long-delayed sequel to 2018’s ambitious but half-baked Den of Thieves. The first movie was a rip-off of Michael Mann’s Heat with a dash of The Usual Suspect-like twist ending. I enjoyed Gerard Butler’s rugged charm, yet no-nonsense performance as the relentless LASD (Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department) officer-in-charge Big Nick. And not to forget, O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s sneaky antagonist turn as Donnie Wilson while the action pops with visceral gunfights that open and end the movie.

Returning writer-director Christian Gudegast is again calling the shots here and instead of continuing the same path of Heat-style storytelling, he opts for a stylish Euro thriller for a change. I don’t mind the shifting tone and style as long as the sequel delivers the promise. Well, at least to a certain extent, beginning with the opening nighttime Antwerp diamond heist which takes place in an airport hangar. It’s Donnie again and this time, he’s working with a new crew called the Panthers led by Jovanna (Evin Ahmad).

To fence the stolen gems, he ends up posing himself as a diamond dealer under the name of John-Jacques and relies on his connection, Chavra Falcon (Nazmiya Oral) to help him set up an office within the highly-guarded World Diamond Centre in Nice. But Donnie has an ulterior motive as he and the Panthers are looking for a bigger score to steal the valuable goods stored in the deposit boxes.

Meanwhile, Big Nick in Los Angeles is having a bad day after his recent divorce but his determination to catch Donnie remains intact. But with Donnie now in Europe, he doesn’t have the international authority to bring him in. So, what does he do? Gets an expired marshal’s badge, which grants him a global jurisdiction to fly over to Nice and decides to take matters into his own hands.

But that’s before he meets up with the local police chief, Hugo (Yasen Zates Atour) in the station, leading to Gudegast’s attempt to inject some sense of humour related to the proper pronunciation of “croissant”. The jokes are a hit-and-miss affair here but Butler, who reprises his role as Big Nick continues to make quite an impression playing a brash cop like he did in the first movie.

So far, so good until Big Nick breaks into Donnie’s place, claiming he’s broke and wants to join him for the heist. What should have been an intriguing test of trust and loyalty to see whether Big Nick’s words are true ends up with a simple oh-I-believe-you kind of naivety, where the otherwise smart and measured Donnie actually buys his story.

With the sequel running an epic 144-minute length, what’s with the narrative oversight anyway? Long story short, they turn from enemies to unexpected friends. Like a buddy-movie chemistry and while seeing them two bickering and throwing quips at each other is fun to watch, I was expecting Gudegast to play around with Big Nick and Donnie’s motivations trying to outsmart each other beyond pretending to be friends working together to pull off a heist.

Gudegast also takes his sweet time getting to the point by meandering a lot in the sluggish midsection. I admit it’s a test of patience watching a series of protracted moments that seemingly go around circles instead of pushing the momentum forward. It doesn’t help either when the supporting cast and I mean all the newcomers to the franchise including the Panthers gang of thieves are forgettable characters, even though Evin Ahmad oozes seductive charm in her role as Jovanna.

Those who are expecting Gudegast to embrace the same propulsive flair in the action department seen in the first movie may likely be disappointed by his restrained direction here. The eventual heist sequence isn’t as exciting as I thought, especially after a tedious build-up with the dimly-lit cinematography making it more annoying than generating a sense of intrigue. Later, the car chase-and-shootout scene is competently staged and yet, I can’t help but feel the action set piece lacking the much-needed wow factor.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera again concludes with another cliffhanger and frankly, I wish Gudegast was better off wrapping up the story for good instead of forcing it to become a franchise.