*Directed by Chad Stahelski
*Starring Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ruby Rose, Laurence Fishburne, Common, and John Leguizamo
THE PLOT: After taking care of some unfinished business revolving around his past, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) decides to retire from this chaotic life as a hitman. Then, all of a sudden, a former ally forcefully persuades him to go off on assignment, which leads him back into the life he deemed himself to walk away from. However, this assignment has repercussions, which causes Wick to fight for his life in light of some very unexpected troubles.
I have written a review for the first John Wick film and it took me a little while to finally see it, but to sum up my thoughts I really loved that movie. I thought it was an action film done right with a story that you could be really invested in and there was a very solid lead performance in Keanu Reeves. Seeing that film felt incredibly refreshing to see an action film done with such care in the production with events that mattered and really the same can be said about the sequel. John Wick Chapter 2 was a great companion piece to the first film and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I say Keanu Reeves was a solid lead in the first film and in this film he was just as good if not better in this installment. Is his performance gonna win him an Oscar and tons of acting awards? No, but to see him have these brilliant action chops and play this different type of action hero was nothing short of amazing. He really has the screen presence and commits so hard to the action that it just doesn’t make his character come off as paper thin and that’s a very big compliment I can give about this movie.
Like the first, the action sequences are showcased in the best quality. Very well filmed and vibrant. There was none of that jarring editing to make these action scenes confusing to follow. It was very well choreographed by the actors and stunt performers, but also captured and edited together in a fantastic way. Not only is the action well-done from a filmmaking perspective, but the entire movie had a great vision behind it as well. It’s a very well directed action film that doesn’t stride away from telling a decent story that incorporates said action. I actually really like that this film made the effort of telling a decent story. With visually well-done action, it’s not like the film was focusing more on being fun and entertaining, which it is, yet it had great substance and you could lock into this story. I really liked where this film went with its story, but that’s also one of the problems I had with the film.
Don’t get me wrong the story is very good and fits the tone of this movie, but there was an aspect of the story that I found a bit predictable. Like to me, this aspect of the story came off to me as a sort of twist in the story. However, there was an event that happens in the first act that I didn’t see coming, but what happens after that is where it seemed a little obvious and I knew where the story would proceed. Luckily certain events happen over the course of the film that kinda makes up for that flaw, but it’s still a flaw I couldn’t help ignore. Another issue I had is that as the story is developing in the first act, it does kinda take a little while for things to get doing. I will take some of the slow pacing as build-up, but some of it still took me out of it. Overall, this was a great action movie that comes to a hair short of being close to the quality of the first. The action’s presented well, Reeves was excellent and there was a nice solid plot that moved events along nicely.
Verdict: A-
Also worth noting that seeing Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne on screen together was perfect! As a fan of the first Matrix that was too good to be true seeing that on the big screen. Thank you guys for reading my review of John Wick Chapter 2. Please go out and see it! These types of action films need all the attention they can get and it was a great one at that. As far as upcoming plans for the blog go I do have an X-Men Retrospective underway in time for the release of Logan. More updates will be posted soon on my social media pages. Links are down below. Also, if you want to know my thoughts on the first John Wick there's a link down below as well:
Twitter and Instagram: @alexjcorey
facebook.com/thealexcoreyJohn Wick Review - https://alexcoreyfilm.blogspot.com/2017/02/john-wick-movie-review.html
Thank you all for reading and be sure to see some movies and all that good stuff.
Take care. :-)
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