Che 2 is a grindingly dull conclusion to an ambitious biopic, writes MICHAEL DWYER

THE FIRST part of Chestopped abruptly in 1959, when the rebels were 186 miles away from Havana and getting ready to replace the Batista dictatorship. Steven Soderbergh resisted following their triumphant entry into the Cuban capital, even though his $65 million budget surely could have accommodated such a crowd scene.

Soderbergh makes some other omissions in the second part, such as Guevara’s role in the execution of Batista loyalists and his subsequent misadventures in west Africa. The two parts of the movie are shot in different aspect ratios, but one crucial aspect that doesn’t change is Soderbergh’s depiction of Ernesto Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) as a selfless socialist who doesn’t let his chronic asthma get in the way of his principles.

The second part begins in 1965 with a prologue in which Fidel Castro learns of Guevara’s resignation from the leadership and the party. It jumps forward a year, when Guevara, in the guise of an Uruguayan businessman, arrives in La Paz on another mission, “to liberate Bolivia through Communism”. He reiterates his belief that a popular uprising has to be through “armed struggle”.

This time it proves much easier said than done. The tough mountain terrain is injurious to Guevara’s failing health. The media are used to discredit the revolutionaries. Guevara is distrusted by the uneducated peasants. And he’s abandoned by the Bolivian Communist Party – whose leader is played by Lou Diamond Phillips in a cameo almost as distracting as Matt Damon’s fleeting appearance as a priest.

While the first part of Che was leisurely in exposition, it was quite engrossingly complex and propelled by spurts of energy. The second part, by contrast, is grindingly dull and dramatically inert. Its recreation of guerrilla warfare tactics from a bygone era is laborious; building to an ambush at one point, it’s so erratically shot that the action is heard but not seen.

Soderbergh's Cheproject is commendably serious in intent and in eschewing folk-hero mythology, yet frustratingly minimalist over more than four hours. Its consistent air of detachment becomes infectious to the viewer in the second half, when even Del Toro's magnetism is diluted through muted understatement.

Guevara is so blandly sketched that he registers as substantially less interesting than the figure he must have been as a catalyst in two socialist revolutions – one of which caused his early demise – or even as a face that has sold millions of T-shirts.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring Benicio Del Toro, Franka Potente, Joaquin de Almeida, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Jordi Mollá, Lou Diamond Phillips 15A cert, lim release, 127 min★