In 2014, the neo-noir action film “John Wick,” starring Keanu Reeves, became a surprise hit. The campy action with its cartoonishly large body count has become a cult classic and earned itself a sequel.
STARS: 5/5
“John Wick: Chapter 2” is a bigger surprise, as pulling off a successful sequel is a rare feat. In fact, “John Wick 2” has a good chance of holding up as my favorite action movie of 2017.
“John Wick 2” is so good because it builds on the solid foundations that made “John Wick” such a fresh movie — world building and self-awareness.
The first movie dropped us into this vastly thought-out world and treated us like we should already know what’s going on. The franchise starts with the titular character having already retired as the greatest assassin who ever lived, and we slowly discover the assassin society he was a part of.
“John Wick” gracefully introduced new story elements and background where it was needed and never let the audience feel overwhelmed by being in a world they have no knowledge of.
The sequel continues this by picking up immediately after the events from the first movie, taking the same world-building approach of treating the movie as if it’s already in an established franchise.
In “John Wick 2,” we learn more about The Continental, the hotel from the first movie. We find out there are more of these hotels all around the world, specifically in Rome, where John Wick travels for a job. Here we see Wick interacting with more people than in the first movie, such as the hotel’s sommelier, a weapons dealer who provides a fun scene of talking about guns as if they were fine wines.
The movie shows us the process of placing contracts, which includes a room full of heavily tattooed women dressed in ’50s attire who operate a switchboard to take phone calls, write contracts with typewriters and use ’80s style terminals to send out the contracts.
Then, all the assassins receive texts informing them of the contract, but for some reason they all have Nokia brick cell phones from the ’90s.
This world building style of introducing such strange plot details with no explanation is extremely difficult to make work, but “John Wick 2” pulls it off, making for a much more interesting story than your normal action flick.
“John Wick 2” is one of the most self-aware movies from recent memory. This movie, straying from the current trend, doesn’t try to be a dark and brooding action movie. Viewers can see this in its dialogue, which has many genuinely funny moments.
The comedy comes from the film ackowledging its ridiculousness, but it doesn’t draw in laughs in a corny way like in ’80s action movies.
Other modern movies deliver lines in such exaggerated ways as an attempt to be serious and tough, whereas “John Wick” does the same thing knowing how humourous it will be but not treating it as comedy.
No other movie could pull off having large, colored subtitles to accentuate one-liners and get away with it — except for “John Wick.”
Viewers can also see this self-awareness in the cinematography, most notably in a shot where John Wick brutally shoots a man to death on a concert stage while the crowd cheers him on, thinking it’s all part of the show.
Speaking of the cinematography, “John Wick 2” is a beautiful movie. The contrast between darkness and neon creates an intriguing neo-noir feel and the action sequences’ editing is wonderfully smooth.
The action scenes have terrific choreography and execution. However, it begins to wear thin toward the end of the movie.
In a movie with such a high body count, I’m not sure exactly how to avoid this problem, but “John Wick 2” does try. For example, a gun fight scene between John Wick and Cassian, played by Common, has one of the cleverest, most enjoyable gun fights I’ve ever seen.
The movie tries to switch up the final action sequence by setting it in a room full of mirrors. However, James Bond’s “The Man with the Golden Gun” did this better back in 1974.
The ending of “John Wick 2” implies there will be exponentially more enemies gunning for Mr. Wick, but I’m concerned about a third movie staying fresh.
Fans of the first movie will not be disappointed as “John Wick: Chapter 2” takes every element to a whole new level. The hammy performances, adrenaline-filled action sequences and specific neo-noir style all come together in what is one of the most enjoyable theatrical experiences in years.
Keanu Reeves’s passion for creating this type of movie shines through, and if you let yourself enjoy the movie for what it is, you’ll be in for a fun ride.