Written by: Derek Kolstad
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane
John Wick (2014) was one of the better action films released in the last few years. The sequel exemplifies all that was good about the first without being a total rerun while building on what was established about the world the films exist in.
*Warning: Potential Spoilers Ahead*
John Wick 2 picks up where the first movie left off; he still needs to get his car back. The opener sees him go through car chases, collisions, and fist fights to get what was taken from him. The film starts here essentially so that it can re-establish the awesomeness of John Wick's character and tie up any potential loose ends from the first film; after getting his car back, Wick makes peace with the Russians and tries to return to a simple life with his new dog. Unfortunately for John, he is called upon to answer a sworn blood oath he made that originally aided him in leaving his assassin life. With barely a chance to breathe, John must once again return to the world he left in order to complete a contract. The extended details of why he has to do it and who he has to do it for and who he has to do it to feel a little convoluted as they get in the way of the action that everyone came to see, but they at least hint at more of John's backstory and past ties.
After being... "convinced"... to answer his oath, John returns to the world we saw in the first film, a hidden global society of highly-paid hitmen, where everything is either decadent or neon. The world was seemingly intricate in the first film, and John Wick 2 does well to extend on what we already know to reveal some of those intricacies amid the persistent action scenes that permeate the film's run time. While some details are revealed a little awkwardly through dialogue, there is still much that is shown rather than told in the same style of the first film.
The action itself is the best I've seen in an action film this year. Shootouts and fist fights toe that line between gritty realism and stylised silliness, brutal enough to be tense and almost believable, but at times leaning heavily on its own sheer coolness to avoid seeming ridiculous. John Wick 2 also sets the mood of every scene with its music perfectly, loud and proud when it wants to be, mute when it needs to be; slow guitar building tension to a crescendo of drum and bass, or cutting out entirely in moments where the film chooses to let the tension of a fight speak for itself.
The Verdict: John Wick 2 does exactly what you expect it to as a n excellent sequel to a very good action film; an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride from start to finish as the tragedy of John Wick continues and the world in which he works is expanded. While the handling of the latter is a little clunky at times, the film never fails to entertain with its constant stream of gritty yet stylised shootouts and fist fights. If you like action, go see it.
Rating: 7.5/10
Published May 18th, 2017
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