Ripping off others - equally dumb - action movies

Rating: 1/10 (6 August 2017)

Just when I thought that John Wick was a decent movie for its genre, here comes the curse of the franchise. Chapter 2, or how to ruin a self-standing movie with an irrelevant sequel that requires a third chapter to tie loose ends (sort of what happened with The Matrix).
In this chapter, John is once more forced out of "retirement" to fulfill his debt of honor with Italian mobster D'Antonio. But Italians being notoriously double-crossing cowards, Wick ends up in deep s**t.
However, Wick is now the superhuman anti-hero. Despite being beaten, stabbed, run over, etc... he still stands with very little need for repair. Not only that, but he manages to kill enemies by the hundreds, while none of his adversaries seems able to aim or to just get a gun instead of engaging in body contact. Whatever little "realism' was in chapter 1, it's completely gone here.
We also discover that the "underworld" is run as if we were in the 50s, apart from excessive tattooing, and that there is honor among some thieves - and if you believe that, you'll believe anything.
But the capital sin of chapter 2 is that despite ultra violence, silly premises, car chasing and fights, it is boring as a video game, rather than cool as a superhero cartoon. After each fight, Wick gets a few moments to recharge an then starts again. I would give it one point for the photography and one because I like Keanu Reeves, but I shall deduct one point, because all the assassins wearing black is really TOO cliché....
PS the opening scene is a total rip off of Bond movies: action sequence almost unrelated to the rest of the plot; the taylor scene is a rip off of Kingsmen; Wick himself is a rip off of Neo, minus leather coat and sunglasses, but still mainly dressed in black.