Force of Nature: The Dry 2

This "The Dry" sequel comes up wet.

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I hadn’t seen the Eric Bana-starring Australian mystery-thriller “The Dry” until agreeing to review its sequel “Force of Nature: The Dry 2” (in select theaters including Emagine Noblesville in Noblesville, Ind. beginning Friday, May 10). The first film is well-made and well-regarded and took place in the drought-plagued fictional town of Kiewarra, Victoria (subbing for Beulah). Its sequel is set primarily in the fictional rainforest-dotted Giralang Ranges (subbing for the Dandenong Ranges) and probably should’ve been titled “The Wet” … both conditionally and qualitatively.

Bana again stars as federal agent Aaron Falk. He and his partner Carmen Cooper (Jacqueline McKenzie, she was chum in Renny Harlin’s “Deep Blue Sea”) are running an informant named Alice (Anna Torv) who’s an employee at a corrupt company owned by Daniel (Richard Roxburgh) and Jill Bailey (former Mrs. Hugh Jackman Deborra-Lee Furness). The Baileys are involved in a money laundering scheme and Falk and Cooper are hoping to bust them.

Jill takes her female employees including Alice, Alice’s childhood friend and co-worker Lauren (Robin McLeavy) and sisters Beth (Sisi Stringer) and Bree (Lucy Ansell) on a corporate hiking retreat through the Giralang Ranges. Five women enter the rainforest – only four emerge and all are worse for wear.

Falk and Cooper must get to the bottom of what took place in the Giralangs. Much like the first movie Falk is tackling two different mysteries and we flashback to his childhood (where he’s played by Archie Thomson) where he and his father Eric (a returning Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) searched the same grounds for his missing mother Jennifer (Ash Ricardo).

“Force of Nature” is once again based on a novel by Jane Harper and directed by Robert Connolly, who solo scripts this time out. The story isn’t nearly as gripping as its predecessor and plays too long despite being five minutes shorter than its forebear. I definitely wasn’t as emotionally engaged by the proceedings despite another bravura bit of subdued acting by Bana and a lot of lush scenery. Speaking of Bana – the dude’s hugely underrated. He terrified in Andrew Dominik’s “Chopper,” wholesale stole Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” and Wolfgang Peterson’s “Troy” and was the emotional anchor of Steven Spielberg’s also underrated “Munich.”

“Force of Nature” probably would’ve played better at an hour and a half or an hour and 45 minutes as opposed to two hours. Its simple story is stretched to its very limits by this lengthy runtime. I could have gone for less Furness (who comes across as a crazed Olivia Newton-John and can’t hold a candle to Jackman as an actor) and more of Roxburgh (he’s an old hand at playing heels in movies such as “Mission: Impossible II,” “Moulin Rouge!” and “Van Helsing” and his smarm charms).

You don’t need to see “The Dry” in order to understand “Force of Nature.” If you haven’t seen either and have interest check out the former and skip the latter. This new one’s pretty much for hardcore Bana backers only … of which I’m one.