A sequel, for better or worse

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2017)

When making a sequel, the rule of thumb around Hollywood is to push the action, the blood quantities and the speed up a notch or two. So John Wick 2 follows this rule to the letter, it also follows the first chapter in style, namely the unlikely action scenes are made to look as real as possible. Not synthetic ballet like action but gory bloody fights in which everyone get hurt. That is everyone who's not an innocent bystander. No matter how crowded the scene is, there won't be any collateral damage here. Which means that no matter how real it does look, it's still a movie. But the gritty real appearance does make up for the small plot holes. Keanu Reeves is still within the limited borders of his range and most of the other roles are performed superbly. Ian McShane, is as first class as ever, even if I've seen him doing this role many times before. Common, Laurence Fishburne, Riccardo Scamarcio, and almost everybody else on screen are performing at the highest quality possible.
But the worst thing that could happened to John Wick is that it will make it big in the box office, since they're already working on chapter 3. And obviously, it'll be bloodier, faster, grittier. It'll make even less sense, but people will die here by the truckload, so who cares, let us all have action galore.