Red Notice 2 has the potential to improve upon the first movie thanks to its predecessor getting the setup and character twists out of the way. While reviews for Red Notice sequels back-to-back, with Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds all expected to return under the direction of the original writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber. While this report has not been confirmed by Netflix, a sequel or pair of sequels could certainly allow the filmmakers to improve upon the first film.
Red Notice is currently Netflix's most expensive movie ever made, with the streaming titan spending over $200 million on the action-adventure. Its 364 million watch hours within 28 days of release also make it their most-watched movie. Notwithstanding this, the film itself doesn't live up to its enormous budget or commercial achievements, being less than the sum of its parts. Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds have good chemistry and are fun together, but Gal Gadot has little to do, and the action is bland and hampered by greenscreen. The plot meanwhile is clichéd, being derivative of countless other better movies.
While Red Notice was disappointing considering its potential, Red Notice 2 can be a much better sequel now that the first movie has got the setup out of the way. The world has been established, the characters have all double-crossed one another, and the twist-within-a-twist reveals have been well and truly played out. There is little point in trying to repeat these tired heist movie clichés and bad plot twists in Red Notice 2, which hopefully allows for better cohesion between the movie's lead characters. While they can still squabble and banter on their globe-trotting adventures, working more efficiently together as a team can offer the sequel a better grounding for a more interesting story that isn't so concerned over who is going to double-cross who.
Having all three leads together plays to the burgeoning franchise's strength, which is its A-list cast. Johnson's John Hartley and Reynolds’ Nolan Booth were clearly the main characters in the first film, but working as a trio can also give Gal Gadot's Sarah Black/The Bishop much more to do. Her unequal screentime compared to her male co-stars in Red Notice was a missed opportunity, and having her be more intricately involved in Red Notice 2 could offer some much-needed character development.
Red Notice was trying (and failing) to be The Rock's version of Indiana Jones, heavily leaning on the tried-and-tested heist formula. In order for the sequel to be better than the original, it needs to look at what makes the Indy movies so beloved, and focus on character rather than another twist-filled plot. Audiences are far more likely to embrace a movie with well-developed characters they love rather than the generic ones offered the first time around. When and if Red Notice 2 becomes a reality, hopefully the filmmakers will have learned from the creative failures of the first movie and produced a much better sequel.
