JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2
- Feb 11, 2017
- 3 min read
The thing that really worked about JOHN WICK, other than the action sequences which played out like a violent ballet not seen since the early works of John Woo, was the world building. It showed a world which exists amongst ours, but is whole unto itself. It has its own laws, its own governments, trade pacts, and even its own currency. It showed us something we had not seen before, and not only did we buy into it entirely, we wanted more. Unfortunately, the follow-up does not build on its universe in an interesting way, and offers nothing new. Choosing instead to focus more on the wonderfully choreographed violence the first film is famous for, missing an opportunity to create a solid foundation on which more films could be created from, and establishing a genuine intellectual property.
JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2 begins shortly after where the first film left off. Wick
(Keanu Reeves) has not recovered his stolen car which started the entire saga, and that business needs to be resolved. Once it is, Wick thinks he can go back to his life as a brooding widower with his new dog, which has no name. But, it is not to be. We discover Wick was able to buy his way out of the life of organized crime to begin with by giving a “marker” to the son of a crime boss by the name of Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio); essentially a blood oath which allows the holder of the marker to call upon you to do a favor at some point in the future, and that favor cannot be refused. Wick does refuse, however, firm on his commitment to retire. His temporary return was about avenging the death of his dog, and recovering his stolen car.
But, alas, he ultimately has no choice but to honor his marker, and reluctantly takes the job, which happens to be to kill Santino’s sister who has inherited their father’s seat on the council of crime families, basically the U.N. of organized crime. If she dies, the seat transfers to Santino. Of course, anybody who has seen an organized crime film involving a hitman doing a controversial job can see the double cross coming a mile away, as does John Wick, and from that point the film becomes a rather standard shoot-em-up that never delivers on the promise of the premise the first film offered – to show us something we have not seen before. In fact, the plot feels very much borrowed from the aforementioned John Woo’s 1986 film THE KILLER, minus the love story. Hit man does a job for a crime boss, tasked with killing a family member so he can become the big boss, crime boss now big boss decides to eliminate loose ends by putting out a contract on the hitman he hired. Sadly, there is nothing new or original here. While the first offered the rather unusual premise of a man avenging the death of a beloved canine companion given to him by his dying wife so he would not be lonely once she was gone, JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2 offers an all too familiar plot that never offers a surprise or twist. It’s A to B from beginning to end, which is disappointing. While the first film fell into the A to B Plot category, it was able to present that story on the canvas of a world we had not seen before. Not so here. There is nothing for the thin story to hide behind.
Despite the shortcomings, the film is enjoyable to watch. The action is top notch, and it’s nice to see a little more of the world created in the first film, it just would have been better to see even more of it. Too much frosting, not enough cake.
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