Ruthlessly efficient action that still left me wanting

Rating: 6/10 (25 July 2015)

Word-of-mouth can be very useful in gauging if a film is worth seeing or not, but it can also lead to erroneous expectations. I went into this thinking it would be this absolutely awesome action romp, and to a degree that's true. I just thought it would also be a little more fun. JOHN WICK is by no means a bad film, but one that seems satisfied with a cool soundtrack and brutal, well-choreographed action while having a rather weak foundation of a story. The setup is that John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is an ex-hit-man who gets dragged back into the life after a Russian gangster's upstart son foolishly steals his car and murders his dog. That's it. I wasn't expecting anything deep, mind you, but I would have liked a little more complexity and intrigue. It was straight-forward almost to the point of being boring at times, and without a lot of the production and character design that fleshed out something like MAD MAX FURY ROAD, or the manic humor of KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE. To the film's credit, the action goes against the current trend of flashy camera-work and tricky editing, so one is able to comprehend and appreciate the brutality and choreography. And even though a lot of it takes place at night, geography is never in question and you can tell where people are in relation to each other. These elements were also well-supported by some good special effects, bullet hits, etc. In terms of the world of the film, there were a few nice touches that hinted at a complex criminal underworld, one where assassins have their own hotel and criminals use their own currency. The film was also well-acted for the most part, despite the characters being so shallow apart from Keanu Reeves' John Wick. To me, the film largely wasted talented actors like Ian McShane, Michael Nyqvist and Willem Dafoe by not really giving them anything fun or interesting to do. When it comes down to it, all the film really has is Keanu Reeves' charisma and some admittedly good action, and that wasn't really enough for me. Bringing this back full-circle, expectations can make or break a film and I think I went into this expecting a little too much. For the die-hard action fan who doesn't really care how much story goes along the beatings and bullets, JOHN WICK will do just fine. For those who expect a little more from a film, there's plenty of others to choose from.