Den of Thieves 2: Pantera debuts in the US theaters today, January 10. Review scores for the sequel have now started to come in and have surpassed those of the original, with the movie getting strong ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. While the original film didn’t get an overall positive rating from critics on either website, the user review scores were much more enthusiastic about the crime thriller. Here’s what critics have said about the sequel so far.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera reviews call it ‘a fun sequel’
Chris Bumbray of JoBlo’s Movie Network called Den of Thieves 2: Pantera a “fun sequel that improves on the original.” Bumbray added that the second movie has a “unique, Euro-style vibe” that he feels is “fresh in the way that its predecessor didn’t.”
Deadline Hollywood’s Pete Hammond praised returning star Gerard Butler and called Den of Thieves 2 the “ideal action vehicle for the always watchable and rugged Butler, and a worthy enough sequel to an original that wasn’t all that original to begin with.” Hammond states that the movie is “effortlessly entertaining” due to the actors and its filming locations. Notably, a considerable portion of the movie was shot in the United Kindom and the Canary Islands.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety lauded the director, Christian Gudegast, who helmed the first movie as well, as an “energizing filmmaker” despite the film’s “casualness toward plausibility.” Gleiberman writes that Gudegast maintains the “humming” of the “mano-a-mano standoffs” and has “a sixth sense for how to showcase Butler.”
Indie Wire’s Christian Zilko wrote that Den of Thieves 2: Pantera “defies all odds en route to becoming one of the most entertaining new releases of the first 240 hours of 2025.”
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera has garnered a 72% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes after 18 reviews and a score of 60 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 13 reviews, denoting a “mixed or average” response. These numbers will likely change as more reviews come in, but they are considerably better than the 41% Rotten Tomatoes score and 49 Metacritic score that the first movie received. Despite the mixed to negative responses from the critics, the original 2018 film became a commercial hit with a strong fan following. Den of Thieves 2 now appears to have good odds of replicating the original’s success.
