Director: Chad Stahelski
Writer: Derek Kolstad (Screenplay)
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Common, Claudia Gerini, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne
Plot: After returning to the criminal underworld to repay a debt, John Wick discovers that a large bounty has been put on his life.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Great Sequel
Story: John Wick Chapter 2 starts as we see John Wick (Reeves) continuing he revenge mission against Abram (Stormare) the brother of Viggo from the first film, Abram only has his car but Wick the ruthless hitman cleans out his operation in the style on John Wick can do. This opening sequences fills in blanks if you missed the first one and show just how deadly John can be.
Continuing the story John wants to put this life behind him for good now and enjoy the retirement once more. Just when John thinks he is out, Santino (Scamarcio) visits him requesting him to do a job for him now John refuses the marker for the job, leading to Santino to push John back out of retirement as a hitman is never allowed to reject a marker. John must travel to Italy to eliminate Santino’s own sister because only the ghost like abilities of John Wick can get the job done.
When John gets this job done he finds himself betrayed and now Santino has placed a bounty on his head with all of the best hitmen coming to kill John Wick.
Thoughts on John Wick Chapter 2
Characters/Performance – John Wick is the character that took the world by storm first time around and now he is just as emotionally broken and deadly with a weapon as ever. Santino is a similar villain to the first one, but this time Santino did know what he was getting into which was good. Ares is a very interesting hitwoman that I think we would have liked to have seen a lot more from. Winston does return in a similar vein as last time too.
Performance wise this is what Keanu was born to be as he shines once again as this ruthless, emotionless killer. Ricardo does a good job in the villainous role and doesn’t play the character over the top like he o could have. Ruby Rose once again this year I playing a bad ass character and is worryingly becoming the new Michelle Rodriguez because of this. Everyone else fits the film perfectly.
Story – The story does continue from the first one with the idea now John has resurfaced he can be hired once more. The story works well because John just wants out of this life but he just keeps getting dragged deeper into the world he is trying to escape. Being a sequel a lot of people could worry the story will be flat, but this time we go bigger learning more about the overall world of the hitmen living among us.
Action/Crime/Thriller – The action does feel similar but you can’t really take the style of John in another direction without taking away from the character, he just isn’t going to be jumping from helicopters or planes in action sequences, he is going to shoot people in the head. We are kept wondering how big this crime world is and that plays into the crime and thriller side of this film.
Settings – We have some action in Rome the rest in New York and of course we do like to see the iconic locations being used to the most which I feel they do because the look of the hotels the hitmen can stay in always make for an interesting setting in these big cities.
Special Effects – The special effects are mainly used to show the effects of the gunshots which all look brutally real.
Final Thoughts – Sequels can go either way in action with Taken is went bad, with John Wick it went well, great watch for all.
Overall: Great sequel you can truly just enjoy if you are an action film fan.
Rating
