Not so long ago, when one considered which recent films might parlay nicely into a franchise, Sicario probably didn’t spring to mind. Fortunately, the film’s writer, Taylor Sheridan, was not of this persuasion. Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 original remains an aptly bleak look at the condescendingly authoritarian means employed by its cast of U.S. Drug Enforcement agents as they operate in Mexico. Though well received and masterfully shot, Sicario is also a bit unsure of itself, insomuch as which of its three characters it favors, or where it’s headed. The first Sicario bore an unrelentingly dour score by the late Johann Johansson, music that could be mistook for the sound of doom raining down in an industrial garage. An appropriate creative decision, if not...

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