REVIEW: John Wick: Chapter 2

Should you have been someone who was ensconced in action movies of the eighties, you will very well know the 'one man army' sub-genre.  These movies would feature a muscled up star, whose glistening pipes would be shown off at every opportunity.  Or, if the action hero didn't have massive muscles, they would be seen doing things like the splits or training in their martial art on the beach.  Or, if you didn't have that, you had Steven Seagal, and there was much mourning throughout the land.  These heroes would most likely be too cool for school, with a perfect example being Sylvester Stallone's Marion Cobretti, who was so cool that he kept a match in his mouth, fully reflective aviators, and a propensity to eat his pizza with scissors (yes, that is totally a real thing).

In 2014, Keanu Reeves starred in John Wick, a movie that was a wonderfully modernized love letter to these action flicks of the past.  Three years later, we have the sequel, John Wick: Chapter 2.  Keanu Reeves is back as the hitman that can't be killed, once again finding that just when he thinks he's out, they pull him back in.  The glimpse of the world that was established in the first film is evolved, with hotels specifically for hitmen, tailors for hitmen (they need to look sharp), and a firearms sommelier.  There is the very bland talk between Wick and a local police man named Jimmy, who we sense is a regular figure in Wick's life, needing to show up when Wick's antics cause noise complaints and explosions.  This, while being extremely funny, felt to be a comment on the fact that these action heroes cause such a disturbance and rarely face repercussions from authorities.

While the template may be something from the past, this is a film that is updated, with fresh feeling action sequences, full of imaginative shots from director Chad Stahelski.  Every battle feels different from each previous encounter, with a style of choreography that can be mesmerizing.  We get plenty of hand to hand action, as well as well constructed gun fu.  I remember when someone came to me praising the 'awesome' fights in Underworld, only for me to scoff when those sequences were merely same-old gun battles.  John Wick: Chapter 2 never settles for the ordinary.  Into the mix we get tight editing, as well as some longer single shots, and a side-scrolling nature at times that reminds me of an epic fight scene from Old Boy.  No longer does the action hero fire an automatic weapon wildly from the hip, managing to take out hordes of villains who were unable to aim back (Commando, I'm looking squarely at you).

In this film we have a direct continuation to the first movie.  John Wick is all about getting his car back, and avenging the death of his dog.  After the customary opening fight sequence, Wick finds that his past has caught up with him.  A criminal named Santonio D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) appears, reminding John Wick that he helped him get out of the assassin life, and a debt is owed.  Wick, who just wants to live out his life in peace, honours the debt before finding out that D'Antonio screwed him over.  You never screw over John Wick.  You don't steal his car.  And, by all means, you don't kill his dog.  Speaking of the dog, suddenly in the sequel, which apparently takes place mere days after the original, Wick has a mature dog.  While some might think this is a plot hole, I saw it as an ode to how sequels sometimes changed elements from the first movie to the second.  I thought it pretty smart.

The mere mention of John Wick's name in this world is enough to spark fear into the hearts of even the most hardened of criminals.  Rumour has it that he once killed three men in a bar with only a pencil.  This dates back to the first film, and it is super exciting in the sequel when we get to finally get to witness him doling out the pain in the form of an HB pencil.  There is much in the film that gets set up with proper pay off, something that makes the world that is created more alive and flexing.  It should be noted that while the movie ends with a definite setup for a third film, it is still a completely satisfying experience of itself.

Showing up in the movie is Laurence Fishburne, an all seeing and all knowing (obvious call back to his roll as Morpheus in the Matrix movies where he starred opposite Reeves) king of homeless hitmen.  The entire idea is absurd, but, in this world, you take everything and just go with it.  If there is a gun sommelier, why not some fantastic monarch of killers that spend their time laying under pieces of cardboard in subway stations?  This is just one of the many ways that this fictional universe is developed.  The fact that director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad aim to grow the environment adds new layers from the first movie.  While it is the same setting, it becomes its own thing, growing in a way that makes me so desperate to see what more is revealed in the upcoming third movie.

Keanu Reeves may have once been seen as a joke for playing Ted Theodore Logan (founding member of The Wild Stallions) in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but he showed in Point Break and then Speed that he could pull of action adventure.  His role as Neo in The Matrix showed that Reeves was down with learning skills and performing choreographed action sequences.  As we may have forgotten him for a number of years, he reminds us of his depth of ability in playing an action protagonist.  This is someone who is game for aiming for excellence, and his role as John Wick has kept him as relevant as ever.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars