There’s a scene somewhere in Nischal Basnet’s new Loot 2—sequel to 2012’s box-office-breaking Loot—where four of our crime-inclined protagonists are whooshing along on a pair of motorcycles, trying to elude someone or the other trailing behind them. In the midst of this seemingly high-stakes chase—one of many, many chases in the film, by the way—taking place on what looks to be perfectly even terrain, one of the riders decides to go ahead and pop a wheelie, for no clear reason, except that it might, well, look cool on screen. Minor though the quibble might seem, that one scene basically encapsulates how I felt throughout the entire viewing: Loot 2 is very much the sort of project wherein the aspiration to “coolness”, or a specific loutish understanding of the same anyway, overrides everything, from plot to performance, culminating in an over-the-top, overlong and overindulgent film that I, for one, couldn’t have been happier to see coming to an end.

It’s some years since the events of the first film, sometime after the 2015 earthquake, with a blockade ongoing in the country’s south, and Haku Kale (Saugat Malla)—who, if you recall, we had last seen making off with the spoils of a “master plan” to rob a bank, leaving his associates to take the fall—is living the good life. At the helm of a lucrative blackmarketing business designed to thrive in circumstances exactly as those the country presently finds itself in, he’s raking it in and squeezing out the competition one by one. But Haku, being Haku, is restless, and isn’t content until he has another robbery lined up with the help of his two trusty lackeys (played by Beepin Karki and Praween Khatiwada).

Also in Kathmandu are the four young delinquents Haku had once betrayed—Gofle (Dayahang Rai), Nare (Karma Shakya), Khatri (Prateek Raj Neupane) and Pandey (Sushil Raj Pandey)—whose yearning for vengeance has only been sharpened by their time behind bars following the last heist. But bluster though they might about the various ways in which they will exact painful revenge upon the man who wrecked their lives and prospects, whether this ragtag group of miscreants is actually ready to deal with the fallout of poking the bear, particularly one as wily and slippery as Haku, is questionable.

One of the joys of watching Loot had been in witnessing the camaraderie among cast members, the way they bounced off of one another so convincingly. It had reminded viewers that dialogues didn’t always have to sound like Dialogues with a capital D—the kind of stilted, unnatural stuff we still hear in a lot of films—but could be made to simulate the tones and rhythms of actual conversation. Loot 2, however, appears to have forgotten its own lesson. While it tries to recreate the sort of easy banter between characters and succeeds in a few places, for the most part, it tries too hard to cue in dramatic one-liners and witty zingers that it musses up the flow.

Better banter and overall chemistry might have also distracted somewhat from the exceedingly messy plotline, cluttered as it is with unnecessary detours into irrelevant sub-plots, whether that be flirty phone calls extended to gratuitous lengths or a meeting with an ex, or a date in an amusement park, all of which are of scant value to the overall narrative. Very little actually happens even until the halfway point of the film, except for a whole lot of yakking and posturing; the pace does pick up towards the end, but you’re so exhausted by then that you just want to get it over with—especially since the belated “twist” is something you’ll probably already have spotted a mile away. Ultimately, the basic story itself is so flimsy to begin with that it becomes practically see-through when stretched over an almost three-hour running time.

Moreover, and this came as a surprise considering the leaps many local films have made in this regard of late, and never something that stuck out in any of Basnet’s own previous films, one finds the production quality here to be rather subpar. Sets are fairly unimaginative, and the lighting tends to be very hit and miss, often veering into stagey and rendering the proceedings even more difficult to become immersed in. Same goes for the costumes and make-up: I ask you, is it absolutely necessary to dress characters in crime dramas in such caricaturish outfits and hairdos? Do they need to scream “underworld” quite so loud on each count? Loot 2 also overdoes the shaky handheld camerawork, trying hard to infuse scenes with a sense of urgency that the script fails to summon, but using the device so often and so indiscriminately—particularly during those interminable, repetitive chase scenes through alleys and homes that have practically become a trope onto themselves—that I found myself having to look away every now and then just to give the eyes a break.

And although Loot 2 brings together the original cast, the performances feel far more contrive this time around. Malla and Rai are given much of the screen time, but neither is all too compelling, like they’re simply relying on what worked before and are happy to phone that in to the point of tedium rather than delving any deeper into these one-dimensional characters, or indeed, trying anything different. If Haku’s exaggerated Newari accent, as an accompaniment to his demented enthusiasm, had been the source of much of the laughs in the previous film, it’s absolutely mined to death in the sequel, too forced to be funny.

One can’t deny the kind of pressure Basnet must have been under in these last few years to replicate the extraordinary splash he made with his directorial debut, a film that played an immense role in ushering Nepali cinema and audiences into a veritable new era. His second venture, the Khagendra Lamichhane-starrer Talakjung Vs Tulke, had not let expectations down, allaying the suspicion that Basnet might have been something of a one-hit wonder. It is precisely that knowledge, of what we’ve seen the director to be capable of, that makes Loot 2’s ham-fistedness so surprising and doubly disappointing. There’s a sense of complacency—even, I’m sorry to say, a degree of laziness—visible here, almost as though in realising that viewers would almost certainly flock to a sequel, those behind the film thought it would suffice to throw the same characters, similar plotlines, and more of the same jokes into a bowl, mix it up and call it a day. It’s a real headscratcher as to why, given all the time they’ve had, and the potential in the material—not to mention the enviable fanbase that has been drummed up since the original’s release—Basnet and his collaborators couldn’t put up something a notch more substantial than this.