Ben Affleck is in full furrow-browed golden retriever mode in “The Accountant 2,” a convoluted, overcomplicated follow-up to the 2016 action drama that, when it became an unexpected hit, seemed to bode well for the theatrical fortunes of original movies aimed at grown-up audiences attracted to violence and arcane techno-speak in equal measure.
Those qualities are already wearing thin nearly 10 years later, when those same filmgoers might have to refresh their memories: What exactly is the backstory of Christian Wolff, Affleck’s autistic forensic accountant who helps bad guys launder their money while wheeling around in an Airstream-cum-armamentarium? Did he end up on good terms or not-so-good terms with Ray King and Marybeth Medina (J.K. Simmons, Cynthia Addai-Robinson), of the U.S. government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network? Was his brawny, easygoing brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) a security consultant or a straight-up hit man? And remind us again why we should care?
Director Gavin O’Connor and screenwriter Bill Dubuque do their best to answer the last question by way of time-honored — and shameless — narrative tricks, wrapping up their otherwise off-putting, casually brutal protagonists in all sorts of adorable bows to prove how likable they are. I-love-you-man badinage, kids in jeopardy and a line dance set to Steve Earle are just some of the most brazen attempts to recruit the audience in a film that is little more than a delivery system for supercool knife fights, really awesome fistfights and, of course, magically survivable gunfights. The perpetually wounded-looking Christian is still a loner but is trying his hand at the speed-dating scene, here played — unsuccessfully — for laughs. When Brax is introduced in “The Accountant 2,” it’s in his underwear, arguing about an impending adoption of a corgi. In truth, no amount of puppies, kitty cats or “Copperhead Road” can mask the fact that underneath all the cute mannerisms and bro-downs, these guys aren’t all that likable, much less heroic.
But the fundamentals of character are merely a quibble within a plot that is so busy and overpopulated that it bears only the briefest synopsis: Someone is killed in the opening scene, and Christian’s services are desperately needed to solve that murder, which in turn leads to a human trafficking plot and a windy explanation of acquired savant syndrome, by which a traumatic injury can suddenly impart brand-new skills and talents. Despite its reliable stream of action-movie beats, “The Accountant 2” is a tediously talky movie, as heavy on exposition as it is on explanation: At one point, two characters have what seems to be an extraordinarily sensitive encounter while yelling loudly at each other in a parking garage, presumably in an attempt to liven up yet one more conversational interlude. As he did in the last film, Christian receives help from Justine (Allison Robertson), whose messages — typed from Christian’s alma mater, the Harbor Neuroscience Academy, and translated by a British-accented AI avatar — are only slightly more interesting than watching a protracted Google search.
Taking its cues from “Knight Rider” one moment and “Killing Eve” the next, “The Accountant 2” fits neatly into the burgeoning genre dominated by quirky-slash-annoying crime-solving geniuses, as seen in “Monk,” “Professor T” and “Ludwig.” Neurodivergence is a superpower in this world, which … take that, RFK Jr.! But between Affleck’s clipped, purposely wooden performance (there’s a fine line between affectless and Affleck-less) and Justine’s team of IT-savvy Indigo children whose hacking skills continually save the day, the conceit starts to feel less empowering than patronizing.
When it comes to the estranged brotherhood of Brax and Christian, the most obvious photo on “The Accountant 2’s” mood board is “Rain Man”; squarely taking on the alpha Tom Cruise role in the setup, Bernthal leans into his character’s extroverted bonhomie with infectious glee, providing genuine comic relief amid a storyline that feels both preposterously overcooked and tiresomely uninvolving. Brax’s knuckles may be perpetually bared, but his heart’s always in the right place, which “The Accountant 2” spares nothing to remind us, even while the mayhem escalates into sheer outlandishness. On a continuum defined by sweetness on one end and pugilistic pulp on the other, it’s a movie that insists on occupying the entire spectrum, whether the audience believes it or not.
R. At area theaters. Contains strong violence and profanity. 125 minutes.
