The action sequences are great, but it lacks the heart of the first film and the story is also messy and muddled

Rating: 4/10 (8 July 2017)

John Wick is reluctantly forced out of retirement to take on a job on behalf of Santino D'Antonio (Riccardio Scamarcio). Wick is tasked with killing D'Antonio's sister so that D'Antonio can take her place at the high table. Wick's acceptance of this task is merely the tip of the iceberg and it seems that D'Antonio has other plans in mind for Wick...
Despite the fact that it was derivative, clichéd and a tad predictable I did actually enjoy the first John Wick film. It had a very basic story, but one with heart and some emotion to it and despite the familiarity it was an easy film to get lost and swept up in. Regrettably, the same cannot be said for the sequel...
Perhaps the filmmakers felt that the first film was a tad too simplistic and therefore they may have decided to give several layers to the narrative, but the layered approach that is employed here just doesn't work...
First of all, Wick is tasked with killing D'Antonio's sister, but when he reaches her she kills herself with Wick merely 'finishing the job off.' This aspect of the plot is dealt with after about 45 minutes so the next hour and a bit focuses on Wick trying to escape some bad guys and D'Antonio putting out a $7,000,000 contract out on Wick which means that every mercenary, hit-man/woman and contract killer comes out of the woodwork to get their hands on the $7,000,000 bounty. This in itself raises a few questions; 1) How do all these contract killers manage to find John Wick so quickly?? 2) How is John Wick able to identify all of them before they even make a move on him? 3) If D'Antonio wanted his sister dead then why not just pay someone to kill his sister and then put a separate bounty on John Wick? Why get John Wick to kill her and then send every contract killer after him?? None of this made sense to me.
The messy and muddled story mean that this sequel doesn't have the same flow about it as the first film and it actually adds as a distraction in this film. It doesn't help that the sequel has no heart to it (Wick had lost his wife and thugs killed his dog in the first film meaning it was easier to become emotionally invested in). It's impossible to get invested in Wick or his cause in this film due to the way the story is set up which clearly becomes a big failing.
Reeves isn't a brilliant actor but I thought he put in a decent turn in the first film, but in retrospect that's probably because he had more to work with in the first film. Here, he looks bored and generally doesn't seem interested - he was probably more interested in his pay cheque. This extends to the film itself which strikes of laziness and has the feel of a film that has been made purely for money more than anything else.Peter Stormare is the best thing about this film, but he's only in the film for about the first 10 minutes.
The action sequences are the saving grace and are on a par with those that we witnessed in the first film - although they do seem to come more infrequently. All in all, it's a disappointing follow-up which is only redeemed slightly by some of its impressive action scenes.