Den of Thieves wasn’t without its faults but despite them, it found an audience thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations that garnered the film a little cult following. Now, seven years later, the first sequel has been unleashed. But Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is a very different animal than the first one, so much so that I wonder if fans of the original may feel a bit put off by the movie.

That’s not per se a slight on the movie, just one needs to check expectations. While the original was definitely riffing hard-on-action heist films such as Michael Mann’s Heat, Pantera has almost no action at all and is more of a pure heist film in the vein of 2001’s The Score starring DeNiro and Norton. There’s one car chase sequence near the end of the film, but it’s otherwise a much slower and methodical movie.

After robbing a diamond shipment in Antwerp, Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr) sets in motion a chain of events that will see him and a new crew attempt to rob the World Diamond Council in Nice, France. Basically, they stole the diamonds in the opening in order to fence them and open the door to the real prize in France. Everything is going more or less as planned until Gerard Butler’s tough guy Nick O’Brien comes knocking. With no family left and fired from the LASD, Nick has nothing left to lose and makes a play to join Donnie on his next job, citing being tired of hunting down villains and having nothing to show for it while people like Donnie enjoy their riches while disobeying the rule of law. While all this is happening, the Italian mafia gets wind of the robbery in Antwerp, as their Don’s own diamond was stolen and he’s not very happy about that.

Den of Thieves: Pantera feels very different than its predecessor, so much so that it’s hard to compare them. Where the first one had this grit to it, the second one feels very ornate and performative in a way. It was also heavily inspired by the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, which remains the largest diamond heist in history with over $100 million in goods taken. When comparing the historical events to the movie, it’s pretty interesting to see the parallels. Something that I did notice was that we, the audience, aren’t as informed about the heist going into the scene as we were in the first one, where Merriman was filling us in on each step in advance. This time, we got passing commentary about certain aspects of the job, but I didn’t feel as informed as to how the job would unfold. It also didn’t help that a lot of the planning was told via thick Serbian accents, as Donnie’s crew is largely made up of people from that neck of the woods. Who the rest of the crew are doesn’t really matter either, I couldn’t tell you most of their names, but they’re not as interesting as the original crew.

I also found Pantera wasn’t as clever as the first one, which had a decent twist and a smarter heist. This one is a classic break-in and get-out kind of movie. The robbery itself is really well shot and there’s great timing with the editing, as the crew sync their movements with the blindspots in the CCTV footage. So from a technical level, it was entertaining and much like the first one, surprisingly well-shot with great sound design to boot. You’re just watching it with a sense of unknown, as opposed to fully understanding the plan from the get-go and there’s less of a creative angle, as breaking into a vault is far more familiar than the heist in the first film.

Pantera also has some pacing issues. While it starts off strong, it does lose some steam midway through the movie once Nick is joined up properly with the crew. An extended scene at a club overstayed its welcome and I would’ve preferred more emphasis on the planning and practicing, rather than scenes with charterers who are not that interesting. There are attempts at levity, such as members trying to work to their respective favourite types of music, but it doesn’t feel essential to the plot other than a light distraction. The script does aim to redeem Nick in a way. He was a complete skeezebag in the first Den of Thieves, but he’s mellowed a bit in the sequel as he tries to find his new place in the world. It’s commendable that the movie didn’t just repeat Nick’s arc from the first film and I did like his conflict, but I did miss his grit and standoffness from the first one.

In the end, I don’t think Den of Thieves: Pantera is quite as good as the first one, but it should be a decent outing if you like these kinds of movies. For a January release, it’s certainly of a higher calibre and is entertaining enough to have me wondering what the inevitable third will be like (which is set up in this movie). I just hope that the next entry is a bit more focused and a bit more detail-orientated.