The confidence and quiet swagger of this film to come out of nowhere and to create such a universe;

Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2020)

John Wick is a superpowered revenge art-house action ballet, but it's the barbs of dry wit, and the little affectations and knowing detail that enrich this film as it is clearly made by lovers of the genre.
A graphic novel adaptation of a Greek tragedy. Perhaps the perfect example of its genre. Easily a film that should have been bad but against all odds and including all tropes is an absolute delight.
The cinema I saw it with cringed with every headshot and laughed at every sparsely applied line of cutting dialogue. It was a cracking, knee-slapping, riveting ballet written and directed by Max Payne.
With reverence for comics, video-games, mythology, the creative team's history of action and their desire to create sequences both classic and totally fresh, John Wick is a true piece of art, an opera made of neon light, judo flips and gun-fu.
When I heard about John Wick, a well shot, well choreographed, storyless action flick I thought, who cares. I already saw The Raid, fight scenes were good, Hummingbird was a pile of crap. I like gun-fu, and I love Keanu Reeves but how many strobing EDM-fuelled shootouts do I need to see?
Turns out I could stand to see one more.
The music fits every fight scene, providing a different tone to each one. The directors are fans of action flicks and they know what makes them tick in the mind of an audience member which is why there's about 10 smile-inducing beats a second. They're not here to get a quick buck, they want to make the right type of action-fuelled neo-noir.
It's neither too generic or too outlandish, too swift or too laborious. It just totally works. Some nice beats exist, the fact that the father of the son knows he's an idiot, or two actors ripped from The Wire make an appearance, or a hitman hotel (something that is a such an simple and effective idea it's a wonder that it hasn't been done before). And Nykvist makes for a charismatic non-shouty bad guy which is refreshing.
Like John Wick himself, the movie is relentless, sharp, brisk, terse, thoughtful and creative. If they made a thousand of these I would be a happy man to find out how they creatively diversified each time.