Wick 2 Goes Hard but Lacks the Emotional Connection of the First

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2017)

John Wick 2 goes hard in the paint. It broadens the universe of Wick and pierces the veil of a shadowy assassin world. The plot is fairly cliché but let's face it, you came here to see Neo, I mean John Wick, kick some butt and take names. And this he does, over and over and over. To the point where it actually undermines this movie because he kills so many people and yet all these dozens of men and assassins fail to shoot him even when they have the drop on him. The massive of amount of killing without police being anywhere present is irksome. What's the point of an assassassin and everyone is an assassin and there is one cop in the known world named Jimmy?
Classic action movie in that regard? Yes, but what made Wick 1 so cool was Wicks' personal hurt- this was the film taking a moment to build Wick's deep down good nature and build his character. This makes us connect with him. Wick 1 was brilliant in the idea of the dead wife giving Wick back his humanity in her death through the gift of an innocent puppy that's then viciously murdered. Not here. In this movie Wick just says no honoring a past commitment. He breaks the rules himself. So you lose that emotional connection. Heck, the movie opens up with him creating massive havoc for his car. Not indicative of any retirement which the movie tries to shove down your throat as to why Wick is a victim to this. He's a brilliant and deadly assassin and he can't see a clear double cross coming? Also the double cross is simply a silly plot device. It's not explained well and the double cross only serves to suggest these people are dumb. In fact, there's no reason for the double cross but it's done anyway for a silly reason that makes no sense in light of the known likely consequences. See it and you'll see.
Also, in this movie the universe becomes way more comic bookish- seems like they are interested in licensing Wick to lesser mediums. Wick would be so much cooler if they scaled down the world, made the assassins rare and assassinations rarer. This would increase Wicks' appeal. Seems now everyone in the Wick universe is an assassin. From random subway violin players to garbage men and beggars- all assassins and every single person's phone rings in New York at the same time. So if everyone is an assassin then why do we have assassains? Since there is no fear of death apparently, how do these people live for even 10 minutes? Who exactly do they assassinate when everyone is an assassin? The end of the movie had me shaking my head. I see they are trying to build a Wick universe for further media product development and thus lucrative IP deals.
So, Wick 2's action is TOP PAR. Keanu is on his game, no doubt. But it's not as intimate as the first and tend to become silly and redundant. The story is simply starting to become a Marvel property which is a shame. The end is silly. A lot of silly stuff here and way too much of it. It definitely lacks the intimate, hard hitting emotional punch that Wick 1 had.
There are so many incompetent assassins everywhere that the whole things becomes unbelievable. A contract goes out on Wick and then all of a sudden everybody is an assassin. This just limits the emotional visceral feeling the first one gave you in favor of all action.
However, I can't say enough about the movie that the action is top notch and I highly recommend it.