Alien or Aliens?

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2019)

13 February 2017. This movie has some comparisons to those people who loved the sequel to Ridley Scott's original 1979 sci fi classic Alien better than James Cameron's Aliens (1986). However in Ridley Scott's movie Alien, it won out by just a bit. Nevertheless, John Wick: Chapter 2 suggesting a Chapter 3, offers up bigger stakes, bigger death totals, and a nice wrap around to references to shall we say Chapter 1. The audience gets to see deeper into the "professional" assassins supposed subculture of rules, loyalty, and integrity like a voyeuristic treat and often with dry humorous effect. John Wick in this case, seems to reprise his horror movie character role of Constantine (2005) and its own salacious but compelling underbelly of demons and Satan all the way to the darker and nasty world of martial arts where Keanu Reeves directed and played a sinister darknet master in Man of Tai Chi (2013).
Unlike the almost stylized and slick death scenes from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 where Uma Thurman slices, dices and chops assassins up, director Chad Stahelski who appears to come from a stunts man background seems to up the ante in the physical fighting arena, with plenty of apparent judo moves, karate chops, and head shots, but not always with the Tarantino finesse. Like Aliens (1986), the bigger bang approach is not always the most emotionally riveting for those who prefer Alien's (1979) where the original focused on the personal emotive psychology and authentic experience of a space monster with more of a covert Hitchcockian style. With Chapter 2, there is more emphasis on the overt action and bloodshed of Aliens.
Chapter 2 while good, there will be a continuing likely unresolved debate whether it is better or worse than its original.