John Wick's pursuit of solace and other things

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2015)

John Wick is the tale of an angry Keanu Reeves hunting the men that supposedly took everything from him.
The film has a surprisingly strong start by relaying what happened to Mr. Wick to cause him so much distress. In a way it's a very clichéd story about a man seeking vengeance that has been done an uncountable number of times. However, when the action picks up it only slows down for cleanup(literally) and a little bit of exposition. One thing I will note is that this is probably Keanu Reeves's best performance in a long while(however you want to take that) he is actually capable of emoting for a few sparse moments throughout the film, but I digress. Unfortunately, he really can't carry the weight to make this an amazing film. This movie suffers from an often pretentious style that really tries to shove it in your face. The smooth, gentleman-like assassin world is interesting but when the film is done through and through you'll realize that there was so much potential wasted for the sake of clichéd theatrics and situations that were obviously contrived. The one thing that the creators did manage to do perfectly was the soundtrack, it always hit the "badass" note and felt appropriate. The fight scenes were mostly superb with Keanu moving swiftly like he dropped a few years, but a few(and trust me you'll know which ones) were way too "hollywood".
If you're looking for an enjoyable action flick that isn't overly thoughtful(which is what I was in the mood for when I watched it) I'd recommend John Wick
7/10-It's Average