A bit disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (27 August 2017)

I was excited for John Wick: Chapter 2. The first 2014 film was a action film for people who don't like action films, or at least what they've turned into in recent years. The story was reminiscent of a Clint Eastwood western: A man has something taken from him by some bad men, and now it's time for him to take something from them (probably their lives). It was stripped down and minimalistic, while also managing to pull off some epic, bone-crunching action scenes that were, mercifully, spared of the shaky cam treatment. John Wick: Chapter 2 has many of these things. The action scenes are arguably better. Keanu Reeves brings the same energy and force that made him the perfect protagonist in the first film. The stylistic influences range from the films of Jean Pierre Melville to Westerns to Enter the Dragon and even Buster Keaton (a couple of frames into the film you'll understand what I mean). All of this and yet it's so much more disjointed. The first film knew what it was. It was a lean, mean, stylish, gritty action thriller. The world building wasn't heaped on. It didn't feel necessary to the plot but instead it felt like the icing on an already tasty cake. Chapter 2 takes the world of John Wick and makes expanding on it one of the key issues of the film. Admittedly, the world is pretty interesting (but do I really need to know where John Wick gets his suits tailored, though?), but the story is lacking because of it. In the first film, no spoilers here, but anybody who saw that movie knows that John had a clear motivation for doing what he was doing. In Chapter 2, the motivation feels lackluster. Therefore, even if the action sequences are the reason why the word "epic" was invented, you feel less involved in his revenge. One of the first things a revenge film has to do is get you on the side of the avenger. With the added problem of a weak villain, John Wick: Chapter 2 has a rough time doing that. The film's other major problem is a lack of character drive. Wick seems to be stumbling through the scenarios, figuratively of course (he could eat a bowl of Fruit Loops and make it look slick), but we never see a clear vision of what he wants and what inside of him he's fighting against to get there. We see the external problems: he's being roped into something he doesn't want to do under threat of death, Common is gunning for him, he needs to convince Laurence Fishburne and his hobo-assassin league to help him. But we don't have that same drive from the first movie. He doesn't want to get out of retirement, but he has to have his revenge, and in the end, does he really want to be retired? In a way, Chapter 2, as over-bloated as it is, is more stripped down the the first film, as Wick barely grapples with any of the internal dilemmas that were the undercurrent to his character in the first film. In the end, Chapter 2 is a stylish and entertaining film, and comparatively with most sequels, it's more than we could have possibly wished for. Just be aware, it works almost entirely on the surface level. Imagine Bret Easton Ellis and John Woo teamed up to make a James Bond film and somehow it turned out to be a sequel to John Wick. Fun, but no so much fun.