John Wick 2

The first John Wick film took me by surprise; it was a cartoonish action film that was surprisingly brutal in its content, cruel in its delivery, and had a real punch to it. All of it existed inside a world that convinced in its own logic, even if it was clearly fantasy. John Wick 2 doesn't have the ability to sneak up on me unannounced, which does work against it, but this is not what hurts it the most.

The second chapter of what at least looks like being a trilogy, is slick and very well put together. The locations are brilliant (whether a roof garden or a larger location), the fight scenes have great choreography, and after a slow first 20 minutes it does have a great pace. But yet I found myself watching it much more passively than I had with the first film. This sense of being detached came from a couple of places. The first was that the plot did not seem as organic as the first – the violence that draws Wick deeper seems to occur just for the sake of making the film happen (which is of course true, but it doesn't try to hide it). This reduces the investment and stakes, so rather than being drawn in, I just sort of accepted it because I know where it was going.

The second thing that kept me out of it was related to this lack of investment – which is that the film's lack of realism is all the stark. I do not mean that the film needed to be a kitchen-sink drama, but rather that the film cannot sell this world to the viewer. In the first I could go with this shadowy world on the edges of ours, with the idea that it developed its own rules and norms; here though it seems everyone is a hired killer, and those in charge have total power and huge organizational skills. The use of this doesn't seem worth the cost of doing such things – for instance suggesting everyone in a massive crowd is in the employment of one person and can act with the slightest nod just seemed silly and not to add value. This excess infects the action – it is overblown but could have been strong enough to engage had it not been that the majority of the film is so silly in how it works. I read Theo Robertson's user comment on this one and I think he nailed it when he said that the film could easily be in the Matrix universe – at least this would make the nonsense here ring true.

This limits the film, but doesn't stop it being enjoyable. The action is slick and consistent, the style and gloss of all the moments are enjoyable, and the starry cast are mostly pretty good. Reeves is good value and does great physical work, and the supporting cast has plenty of famous faces – although some of them are distracted by their volume, or by virtue of not being well used (Fishburne is probably the one that we could have done without). So JW2 is a slick action flick, but not as good as the first film, nor as good as everyone tells you it is. The ending suggests the third film will be on an even bigger scale, with Wick literally taking on the whole world, which will probably only serve to remind me how good the first one was when it was one man seeking revenge on another for the death of his dog.

I mean. This literally is what is says on the tin. It's jam packed with action and I love it.

The plot is easy to understand and the action shots are brilliant. So much bloodshed, guns, fighting, killing and more guns. Did I mention guns? It's just a nice, easy and fun watch. I recommend watching the first if you haven't already, but yeah I'm impressed by the sequel.

Usually with action sequels it can be a bit dull and repetitive, but this ramps up the action from the first film.

But yeah, 8/10 from me today. Enjoyed my time watching this, I'm going to jump into the third one now.

Iosef's uncle still has John Wick's car. Wick comes after it and the uncle accepts his offer of peace. He hopes to return to his peaceful retirement but crime lord Santino D'Antonio calls in his Marker. He faces deadly assassins, numerous killers, and countless thugs as Santino uses him to gain power even offering a $7 million contract.

Gun Fu is loads of fun and the addition of Pencil Fu is glorious. What makes the original great is the simple, powerful, and poetic motivation of John Wick. The sequel could not possibly repeat that. They can't kill off another dog. This one delivers what it could. Keanu Reeves remains the same and there is more fighting. The plot is almost meaningless. It is all action and all Wick.

Just as I was late to the first part, it took me a while to watch this second one.

They always say sequels are never good, and that's generally true. In the case of "John Wick 2," let's just say, not so much.

It's a good sequel; it's not better than the first. I think it's the weakest of the four so far, but it still stands out and shines.

It's in this film that the lore of the saga expands greatly with the concepts of blood debts, the "High Table," and concepts like "Ex-communiqué" at the end.

It also introduces new and interesting characters like Xantino, who drives the entire plot, and especially Lawrence Fishburne as The Bowery King, who will become a recurring character in this saga.

There's no shortage of action; here, a great improvement in the choreography is noticeable, although I feel the plot and script are more simplistic.

The intention here was clear: to generate more and more "John Wick" and exploit the franchise to the fullest, the latter undoubtedly very successfully.

In short, a transitional film, weaker than its predecessor but still with very high points and concepts.

A film with more head-shots than words spoken, John Wick: Chapter 2 is just about the most violent film I've seen in quite some time. But it knows exactly what it wants to do, and succeeds immensely.

Keanu Reeves isn't one of the best actors working today, and I don't think he would disagree with that statement. But he's no doubt one of the most committed actors out there. There's no more than a few pages of total spoken dialogue throughout 'Chapter 2', and Reeves has probably a maximum of 30 lines, all of which aren't necessarily delivered as well as they should be. But it doesn't ultimately matter. Sure, John Wick could be a better franchise if the scripts were of the same caliber as say a Bond or a Bourne movie, but that's not really why you go see one of these movies. You go to see Keanu Reeves kick some butt amidst some of the best choreographed action in cinema.

Chapter 2 picks up not too long after the first film ends as Wick is somewhat enjoying his life as a "retired" assassin. If the first film was about him coming back to seek revenge, this film is Wick reluctantly coming back because he owes a debt to another assassin. I don't think the filmmakers truly could have imagined this would be a franchise off the bat, but it's sure shaping up to be quite the intriguing universe. The one thing that has always struck me as appealing in this series is the way they portray the world Wick lives in. Yes, it's present day, but the world that surrounds Wick is heightened to make for more exciting action (it's essentially a world full of super assassins). But at the same time, the films are incredibly grounded with reality. It's that balance that so few films can accomplish to this particular level.

Taking the famous Liam Neeson line "I will kill you" to a whole new level, Wick claims "I will kill them all". And that's pretty much your movie. Wick doesn't want to come back, he owes a debt and is forced to return for one more kill, and then the bounty on his head reaches just about everyone linked to The Continental's database. The rest of the movie is Wick delivering killing blows to just about anyone who stands in his way in the most creative ways possible. Isn't it about time people leave this guy alone? Overall, John Wick: Chapter 2 promised visceral action (all impressively in camera- yeah, I'm looking at you Resident Evil) and we got just that. Even if the dialogue can be clunky and the performances are over the top, it doesn't really matter. What matters is this series continues to be a pleasant surprise in an age where great action movies are too few and far between.

+Insanely well-done action

+Tops the first film's scope

+The universe Derek Kolstad has built

-Some dialogue is bland and even lazy

8.6/10