If Reeves is actually doing his own stunts here it's damned impressive. Actors performing stunts is something I really appreciate. Heck, the only reason I remain a fan of Tom Cruise's movies is because of this, so Keanu being much more likable, knowing that he did most or all of the stunts is awesome.
The problem is that while all of the physicality of the fights and the gun-foo is cool, there's not much of a story. The number of people getting shot in the head is disconcerting too, and loses it's impact when the thirtieth person takes one in the forehead. I could have used a little more of Wick just petting his dog. The ending is pretty neat but when you mull it over for a second, it's nothing more than a sequel setup.
There is a sequence when Wick goes gun shopping that is so out of place. Hollywood leads the charge on gun control yet glorifies them in scenes like this one. I guess it's okay if we use guns to sell movie tickets. I'm not stating any position I personally hold, I just found the scene ironic. Maybe these particular filmmakers don't hold the same position that the film industry constantly pats itself on the back over.
This is a movie that I like just fine but it's almost solely based on Keanu just being a really good action movie guy.
Not a single thing has an actual or coherent meaning, everything is done only to gratify the viewer: the story, fights, characters.
Aesthetically pleasant, the script is made of bits, videogame levels. A grocery list with all the parts from the former chapter that they wished to re-present, inserted as a muddle around which the movie is built.
I don't watch action movies for a sophisticated philosophical plot, but Chapter 1 had a structure and you could tag along John's reasons. Here they wanted to get rid of the pretext as quickly as possible to get back to the main course, with the result that everything gets dumbed down by an order of magnitude.
Most of John's choices don't make any sense if not to create cool fighting moments. Infinite ammo, endless injuries and hits creating no lasting damage, waves after waves of henchmen falling like dominoes, rough-edged characters who speak in catchphrases
Saying "fights are dope" should be an added value of a solid action flick with a simple yet mostly believable plot, not the only purpose to which the storyline itself, characters and dialogues are sacrificed.
Those praising it as one of the best sequels ever make me once more question the sanity of some viewers
Exact same as the first one, so it lost a little freshness. Pretty good action scenes, and the whole way the underworld works, the most - only ? - original bit of the series, is still interesting. John can't enjoy his retirement and is brought back into more mass killings. Although wtf with the intro scene ? OK on the first movie for the dog, but he still go massacring people for the car, even chasing the fleeing ones. All for a car that he voluntarily destroy one minute after getting it back. He's not a desperate hero wanting out, he's a psychopath addicted to murder.
Action is still ok though it abuses on cut and mixed scenes making some sequences just random exchanges of punches and bullets with no coherence whatsoever instead of interesting intelligible fights. Scenario is all "you have no choice but to kill, but then I have no choice to try to kill you and so you have no choice but to try to kill me but then because of that a whole bunch of other people have to kill you". That's life, nobody can do anything about that, so let's just all kill each other. Except for the kill in the hotel. He clearly had the capacity to do it otherwise. Why choose to lose his only safe ally and have the whole underworld after him ? Unless he's a psychopath addicted to murder of course.
The whole Laurence Fishburne sequence is totally useless, all that to get a gun ? Like he didn't had 3000 other possibilities ? Clearly just to add a name to the cast.
I was really hoping I would like this movie. I so enjoyed the first one. However, when the credits started to roll at the end I found myself wondering “What the fuck happened?”.
Be warned that the rest of this review might contain a spoiler or two.
One thing I really liked about the first movie was, as you can read in my review about that one, that it was a no bullshit, kill the bad guys and no emotional regrets, kind of movie. John Wick went all out for revenge and at the same time we got introduced into this cool world of assassins, safe havens, hidden “shops” for guns, classy tailors providing bullet proof costumes etc. etc.
In this movie he is forced onto a job by a real asshole. He is constantly reluctant and walks around with a sad puppy face all the time. Of course said asshole screws him halfway through the movie and that would have been a good time to start get back on track with some decent payback story but unfortunately the script writers thought otherwise. After some more of the same shit no one really wins in the end (although one of the two adversaries suffer a more “permanent” setback than the other).
Worse is that, in my opinion, in their eager to put together some crap drama this movie essentially screwed up the possibilities for a John Wick 3 unless they pull some rather big surprise rabbit out of the hat for that one.
There are plenty of action in the movie of course but also her I feel that it was a bit too over the top. No one, absolutely no one, seems to be able to shoot straight except for John Wick. This makes the action feel more like a parody a’la Kill Bill than a more serious action, revenge movie. Yes it is cool to watch but only up to a point. Heck, if this would have been a Star Trek (TOS) episode Hollywood’s entire supply of red shirts would have been used up on a single movie. While I am bitching I should perhaps also mention that the amount of beating that John Wick seems to be able to absorb is … unbelievable.
I did enjoy the movie but not at all as much as I hoped I would. To me it has a completely different spirit than what I remember from the first one and the ending is, again to me at least, not a happy one.
Having said that the action sequences are as cool, crazy but cool, and violent as they are unbelievable. I found it a bit sad that they wrecked his nice car though.
Overall a enjoyable movie but no match for the first chapter and I cannot bring myself to give it more than 3 out of 5 stars.
"You don't f**k with the devil then act surprised when he turns up."
John Wick: Chapter 2 is one of best and most exciting action movie I've seen in awhile. It accomplished everything it needed to do and much more. I mean, any action movie that starts with a Buster Keaton homage is always a sign of something great. A squeal that's bigger, more violent, and plenty more head shots.
Not as emotionally engaging as the first movie and it doesn't need to. In all honestly, I liked this more than it's predecessor. It expands the universe of assassins and making tension a lot higher for John. While it dose come off a bit ridiculous, but it's self aware of what it is and it's not trying to be very serious.
This movie is a prime example of how action should be done. Outstanding gunfights and every action sequences is filmed with delicate care, making every shot and kick almost into a rhyme. Nothing shaky or quick cutting. Just the right balance and mixture that delivers a thrilling ride.
Can I just say that Keanu Reeves is a nature treasure. Seriously, this guy is on is way of being the greatest action star of are time. He is John Wick and no one can top that. A legend in the assassin world. Just by uttering his name can send chills down hitman backs. But he isn't all invincible, as he dose get beaten up pretty badly in this movie. Blood, sweat, and struggling for breath. You get the feeling that this could be his last mission, but it's the thing deep inside of him that drives him forward. It makes him an interesting and compelling action movie character.
The villains have something quite unique about them. At first I thought Ruby Rose was going to give John Wick a true fight, but that was not the case. Instead she was mysterious. Riccardo Scamarcio crossing John Wick life and him later regretting it, making everything worse. They not the best or the most in depth bad guys, but it dose separates them from being boring villains.
That's what I like about John Wick Chapter 2. It's not just a dumb action movie like The Fast & Furious series. There's never a scene where John Wick goes through three buildings with his car and jumps out just in time. I'm not saying this movie is realistic or anything, but it's grounded enough for you to care of whats going on.
Overall rating: I can be very picky when it comes to action, but this surpass my exceptions. I enjoyed it for what it was and I will be looking forward to Chapter 3.
Oh and that pencil scene was freaking amazing.
Picking almost right where the previous film ended, "John Wick Chapter 2" deals with the consequences of Wick's return to the assassin life and how he got out to begin with.
As expected, it expands on the mythology hinted at in the first movie, with the revelation that there's a high council of sorts, other Continental hotels around the world, and a very widespread network of assassins.
Also as expected, it ups the ante with bigger action sequences, and a much higher body count. We get to know more about some rival assassins played quite brilliantly by Common and Ruby Rose (whose character communicates solely through sign language; in many cases, this kind of thing is used as a gimmick to make the audience remember a character when they have nothing else to distinguish them, but it's not the case here and is used only as an aspect of the character; smartly done). Keanu Reeves...let's the Reeves of old come through a couple times, with a couple of bizarre and inappropriate inflections. Ian McShane's Winston expands a little bit, although he still refers to John as Jonathan, which is just wrong. If it's supposed to be some kind of an in-joke with them, they don't reveal anything about it. Again, I think there's more going on with Lance Reddick's hotel manager than they're letting on. And I was a little disappointed that Peter Stormare wasn't in more of the film, as he's always fun.
Again, the world is very wide, and almost seems like everyone is involved with this underworld. There is an indication that that's not the case here and there, but we never get to meet anyone who doesn't know what's going on, which keeps some of that suspicion up.
The plot follows a pretty basic structure. Actually, it follows a pretty rigid structure. In a two hour movie, it can be broken down almost exactly into half-hour sequences, something that struck me as a little odd. There are some minor plot twist. Nothing major or out of the blue, but at least there was an attempt.
So now we come down to it. Is it better or worse than the first movie? Well, I would have to say "yes". It definitely ups the ante and is a much bigger film than the first movie, expanding on the mythology and the characters. At the same time, it falls into the trap that a lot of these bigger, badder sequels fall into, which is that with the bigger scope, it feels like they have to use a bigger yoke on everything in order to keep in reined in and from going off the rails on its own. In fact, they may have expanded the world too quickly, going from a city in the first movie to the entire globe in the second. That rapid expansion makes that bigger yoke much more percpetible and, while the ambition is admirable, at times I wondered if they may have bitten off more than they could chew.
Still an enjoyable action film, and if you liked the first film, you'll most likely enjoy this one.
At first I have doubts because of the shaky start and the uninspiring fights with the grunts, especially in the catacombs tunnel: flashy gun-kata choreography that is not sufficiently captured by bad camera works (why the continous wide shot?) that cannot capture the kinetic action and typical cliched henchmen who bring fist to a gunfight (and chasing Wick in an open space - at least the henchmen in the first film had reasons not to injure the crowds). Such a missed opportunity when other films that focused on flashy gun-kata-esque action can provide dynamic camera works better (i.e. The Raid, Equilibrium).
The action with other assassins however are more well-filmed, especially with Cassian. Camera tries to capture the speed nicely, with occassional zooming out to break the tense. Despite of that, like the henchmen fights, the fast-paced, skull-crushing action still lacks impact--lacks the "oomph" that makes each blow feels painful to the audience.
Punches, stabs, and cracks were designed (through sound and camera and I guess choreography) in a rapid succession, that when the ultimate killing blow finally strikes, it doesn't feel sastisfyingly impactful. It feels like just bodies after bodies to get rid off; which may represent what Wick has in mind as he murders the seemingly endless assassins, but for the audience, it makes Wick's struggle for survival feels trivial. Particularly so since the film decides to give supposedly grievance injuries to Wick for handicap - cracking bones, deep wounds - but Wick's fast and easy recovery as the plot progresses make those handicaps feel trivial.
That said, John Wick films are still one of the better ones in gun-kata(-esque) department, an action genre not many filmmakers seem to want to tackle. The universe is also interesting as a comic book film. But Chapter 2 doesn't live its full potential. Hopefully the setup for next sequel can spice it up much better.
John Wick was a success, albeit violent and silly, due to a slightly different take on the tried and trusted bestest hitman in the world that everyone knows about, surely the worst thing for that job but that’s another conversation and the perfect casting of Keanu Reeves in the role. Therefore it really hurts me to say but all of the above reasons for the first film being so good seem to be the same reasons for the ‘Chapter 2′ being so bad.
You can only assume it’s the direction that does this. Chad Stahelski appears to have been the director this film on his own, rather than in tandem with another as in the first film, he is a top stunt coordinator and this film shows exactly that.
What we have here appears to be a film made for the shoot-’em-up, beat-em-up video game generation. People who want no character development, no real peril, no proper story, just stunts, action, death, blood, guns and disposable henchmen over and over again until the end credits roll.
Just because John Wick is visceral, kinetic and action orientated it doesn’t mean if you stuff all of that into the running time with little attention paid to anything else you’ll get entertainment guaranteed.
The plot holes and idiotic logic in this film were so large and prominent they could be seen from the surface of the moon without a telescope and then throw into the mix the unrealistic bullet-proof suit and an armoury the average nation would be envious of and you have just got rid of a strong point of the first film. Fighting, shooting and killing people is difficult and it hurts. In this film it doesn’t. In fact, it’s a bit like a hard work out at the gym, leaves you feeling tired, makes your legs ache but you get over it fairly quickly. For the number of people John Wick kills in Chapter 2 the criminal world should have run out of heavies to hire by now. Who hires them, why do they work for any of these mobs, why are they so useless? Questions asked by Austin Powers that are re-enforced by John Wick Chapter 2 without even blushing.
John Wick in the first film was an ‘impossible’ hitman but he got hurt and had a motive. In this film he is a super-human and Reeves, so good in the first film, is on coasting mode throughout most of it. He is ably backed by the ever-reliable Ian McShane and ‘war-horse’ like Lance Riddick and Laurence Fishburne but even their experience and talent can’t throw a lifeline to the utter tosh that is up on the screen.
This film is mind-numbing, insulting to the intelligence, violent for violence sake and has a ‘hero’ who is impossible to best, beat or even hurt, you certainly will not kill him.
Worst of all, it is boring.
"You don't f**k with the devil then act surprised when he turns up."
John Wick: Chapter 2 is one of best and most exciting action movie I've seen in awhile. It accomplished everything it needed to do and much more. I mean, any action movie that starts with a Buster Keaton homage is always a sign of something great. A squeal that's bigger, more violent, and plenty more head shots.
Not as emotionally engaging as the first movie and it doesn't need to. In all honestly, I liked this more than it's predecessor. It expands the universe of assassins and making tension a lot higher for John. While it dose come off a bit ridiculous, but it's self aware of what it is and it's not trying to be very serious.
This movie is a prime example of how action should be done. Outstanding gunfights and every action sequences is filmed with delicate care, making every shot and kick almost into a rhyme. Nothing shaky or quick cutting. Just the right balance and mixture that delivers a thrilling ride.
Can I just say that Keanu Reeves is a nature treasure. Seriously, this guy is on is way of being the greatest action star of are time. He is John Wick and no one can top that. A legend in the assassin world. Just by uttering his name can send chills down hitman backs. But he isn't all invincible, as he dose get beaten up pretty badly in this movie. Blood, sweat, and struggling for breath. You get the feeling that this could be his last mission, but it's the thing deep inside of him that drives him forward. It makes him an interesting and compelling action movie character.
The villains have something quite unique about them. At first I thought Ruby Rose was going to give John Wick a true fight, but that was not the case. Instead she was mysterious. Riccardo Scamarcio crossing John Wick life and him later regretting it, making everything worse. They not the best or the most in depth bad guys, but it dose separates them from being boring villains.
That's what I like about John Wick Chapter 2. It's not just a dumb action movie like The Fast & Furious series. There's never a scene where John Wick goes through three buildings with his car and jumps out just in time. I'm not saying this movie is realistic or anything, but it's grounded enough for you to care of whats going on.
Overall rating: I can be very picky when it comes to action, but this surpass my exceptions. I enjoyed it for what it was and I will be looking forward to Chapter 3.
Oh and that pencil scene was freaking amazing.
I didn't love the first John Wick movie because it lacked substance. The so called "gun-fu" gimmick wasn't enough to earn my praise and the few action scenes in the movie were so brief and overrated. But this movie on the other hand really felt like a true action adventure movie. The universe was really fleshed out and many interesting characters and concepts where introduced, even John Wick himself had a lot more character development in this movie compared to the last which was simply "he killed my dog, gotta kill him".
The action scenes were WAY better since they weren't confined to small buildings and were actually spread across multiple locations in large public areas. The only thing i didn't like was how most of these public areas were completely void of civilians, and it seemed that 90% of New York's population was comprised of assassins which looked pretty ridiculous. The police should've gotten involved at least once and there needed to be way more civilians running around, screaming, taking pictures etc.
Still, the action sequences were extremely slick with great choreography, especially the one on one fight scenes between Keanu and Common. I hope they make a third (and final) film.
Review by JessBlockedParent2017-02-19T11:29:27Z
Watched it last night and his coolness is still fresh in my mind. John is just Wicked sick... LOL i had to say that. Storyline was pretty good, action packed all the way. It can get a little exaggerated cause he killed most of them with headshots but i guess that's what assassin's are trained to do, ruthless and deadly. There's just no room for them to f*** up their kills unless he wants to. The lady assassin looked pretty tough but sadly, it wasn't a long fight before he could end her. Of course i wasn't THAT surprised since the only one who was on par with John was Cassian and even he lost the fight.. I feel sad for John tbh, he left that kinda life, was forced to re-join it cause of the mark and now he gets f***ed over, and has to live a life in exile being targetted with a huge bounty on his head T-T. All in all, a really good show, has it's little funny moments on and off, serious moments, sad moments and of course the action part. I am looking forward to a part 3 cause i can't imagine how his life is gonna be after that ending. Love John Wick! :D