John Wick: Chapter 2 – Film Review

The first John Wick film I did not see in theaters. I caught it later on after I heard the buzz about the first one. I’m not one to like First Person Shooter films, or films with excessive violence. After seeing Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2015, that changed and this film is in the same fun vain of making action fun and bloody without it being detesting. This franchise has such a rich mythology built out from the same capacity as a comic book character. The Continental has such a rich network of stories that could be told across the world. This film picks up right after the first one, which makes this series feel like a slow burn book.

The character of John Wick slowly evolves more over the course of the film. He begins his new relationship with the dog he acquired at the end of the first film. The action in this one felt more real time paced and didn’t feel like it was a movie. There felt to be more actual consequences to fights. I appreciated the realism that Chad Stahelski was able to improve upon. His directing partner, David Leitch, wasn’t missed. He felt like he was still apart of the process of making this second entry. I felt the problems with the entry were mainly with the script and some of the editing. A couple of the action sequences could have been tightened up a bit with making them shorter. The script could have used a bit of polishing with the dialogue. The overall plot worked for me, it just needed better dialogue in certain spots.

Is this a formal event or a social affair? Social.

Ruby Rose and Common are up and coming actors. Common has been in a fair amount of projects over the past 5 years. He is slowly building up his acting career. He does a solid job. For Ruby Rose, they decided to make her mute. I liked her in “Orange is the New Black”, she was charming and looks great. I hope that she is able to improve with her opportunities over the next couple of years. John Wick is Keanu’s best role. He is able to sell the emotion and the pain the character suffers without using excessive amounts of dialogue or exposition. He’s a relatable assassin that doesn’t kill people who don’t deserve it.

I’m looking forward to the next Chapter in this series. There’s so much rich mythology that I’m interested in seeing where it goes next. I hope the story is tighter next time as compared to this film. This ended up feeling like a bridge film that will set up a climactic third entry.

8/10