Review: John Wick: Chapter 2
I very much enjoyed the first John Wick movie and since I had only finally gotten around to seeing it at the end of December it was still pretty fresh in my mind. John Wick: Chapter 2 basically takes the premise of the first movie and shoves more dead bodies into it – which for me made it very entertaining.
John Wick: Chapter 2 is filled with a glorious amount of violence so if you are not into seeing an overabundance of people getting shot in the face you probably will not enjoy this movie. I found the seemingly never ending fight scenes to be action packed as well as amusing in some cases. The escalation in the amount of confrontations led to dynamic fight scenarios that kept the movie well-paced and interesting. There was one fight scene with Common however that felt mostly comical and completely unrealistic. It didn’t really spoil the movie and I laughed many times throughout but it just didn’t fit with the more serious fight scenes.
John Wick is an unstoppable force that survives a ton of punishment to the point that if he wasn’t bleeding on occasion I’d be sure he is secretly an immortal god. Story-wise this is a bit of a letdown because you never feel that John Wick is ever really in any true danger of dying and to me it makes the movie less impactful than the first. Maybe I was the only one but there was a part of me when watching the first one that felt like he could die (I knew about the sequel however). Sequels often don’t have a strong story since they are usually thrown together after the success of the first movie so this is a bit expected. Additionally, this movie teases a trilogy and leaves the movie on a cliff hanger – which I tend to hate in movies. A decision made right towards the end of the film to lead to this cliff hanger seems totally out of character for John Wick and also furthers my opinion of the weaker story in this movie.
Visually this movie was great with the exception of a few scenes in my opinion. The opening fight felt overly choppy and I wish it had less fast edits. The scene involved some car stunts so I can imagine why some quick cuts were needed but it doesn’t mean I have to like it! I remember having a few other problems with some editing but I cannot remember anything specific so it clearly couldn’t have been that bad!
Additionally, the acting felt superb. All of the main characters (not the fodder) felt real and believable for the most part. Ruby Rose’s character was probably the weakest but that was likely because she was playing a mute character she had to rely heavily on mean looks. Having a mute (possibly deaf – it was never explained) character was an interesting choice. While it slowed the dialogue it allowed for more cool subtitles which I was a fan of from the first installment. Hopefully the inclusion is seen as a good thing from the deaf/mute community. As a side note, I really like Lance Reddick! I always get excited when John Wick goes to the hotel to talk to him and I can’t quite figure out what he does that is so fantastic!
Overall, I give this movie 3 flights of stairs out of 5.
Also, check out this amazing infographic that breaks down every kill by John Wick in the movie. Warning that this is a bit of a spoiler but it doesn’t explicitly show the kills happening or anything.