State of the Union (known as The Next Level outside of America) is a direct sequel to the first XXX but doesn't star Vin Diesel, instead, his character Xander Cage died offscreen and a new XXX known as Darius Stone is introduced. The plot is less out-there as the first film but everything else about State of the Union is poor and pales in comparison to the original. Darius is shown to have more attitude but that just makes the character unlikeable. He lacks all the charm and personality to make a good lead character and the whole cast feels like they're stereotypes. State of the Union starts off being a bit more realistic, with a noticeable lack of action sequences and stunts, it eventually devolves into a mess of CGI explosions and crashes, and unrealistic scenarios during the climax that you'll turn away in disappointment. The plot is muddled until it reveals to be a treason plot but it is not clever and illogical at times. Overall, while State of the Union into a terrible film or boring, it does just enough things wrong to make it less than ideal.
