Some of the best cinema fighting seen in a while

Rating: Null/10 (2 December 2015)

Keanu Reeves has clearly found his niche as a brilliant martial arts actor, playing the role of various action heroes executing flawless and beautiful fight choreographies, taking names, shooting bad guys, breaking a few necks, et cetera. Absolutely nothing wrong with that and this, his most recent action film, is definitely worth a watch for the visuals alone.
John Wick (Reeves) is a retired assassin and hired gun, who has recently gone through an immense loss and is just getting back to his feet. Enter the son of a Russian mobster, young enough that he doesn't recognize this dark legend of the underworld. After an insult gone too far, John Wick once again feels the blood boiling within him and the rest of the film is pretty much nothing else but his one man war against the Russian mafia. And you know what? I don't really need anything else from the story. These kinds of revenge action films work because of their style and because of their characters. Sure, it's nice if the story has some surprising twists, but they don't really need it.
In this case the movie definitely has style, bucket loads of it. The fight scenes are phenomenally well-shot, well-choreographed and well-executed. Especially the first few. The film also manages to build nice mythos around its world. Like the gold coins these assassins use to pay for everything, or the whole code of conduct they all seem to operate under. Wick is a legend in the underworld and it's great to see him casually nodding to other killers and having them lift their hats in return. Small things like that really deepen the world considerably and make it interesting to follow.
Unfortunately, where the film falters a bit is the cast of characters. None of them are bad and most of them are played by talented actors, but they are pretty much text book as far as the writing goes. Stereotypical, failing to surprise and mainly there to move the plot from one action scene to another. Plus, while the actors are not bad by any means, none of them are what you would call A-list, with the exception of Reeves, and even he's a bit debatable nowadays. Well, okay, there's Willem Dafoe, but he's in a minor role.
All in all John Wick is definitely worth a watch for all fans of action, especially if you're into the martial arts and gun-fu subgenres.