John Wick (2014)

I have mixed feelings about “John Wick.” On the one hand, the action is a bloody ballet of incredibly stylised, glossy and kinetic fight sequences. On the other hand, I wasn’t crazy about the pacing in the first 30 minutes and the plot is less compelling than the plot of “John Wick: Chapter 2.”

In my opinion, “John Wick” is a very good action thriller with an excellent central performance by Keanu Reeves that leaves a lot of possibilities open for later films, but I don’t think this is a top tier action movie. This is a great B movie, I definitely enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t compare it to “Skyfall” or “Mission: Impossible-Fallout”, which I believe are perfect 21st Century action movies.

As I just mentioned, Keanu Reeves is fantastic as the titular hitman in “John Wick.” I’ve always been a fan of Keanu Reeves and this is easily one of his greatest performances. Reeves pours his heart and soul into the film, he’s fantastic in the more intense and emotional moments, conveying depth that he’s rarely shown in his previous movies. The action sequences are made more exciting because it’s clear that Reeves is performing all of the death-defying stunts and action beats.

The action sequences in “John Wick” are spectacular, they’re all shot in a clear and fluid way that allows the audience to follow what Wick is doing in each scene without resorting to quick cuts and shaky cam. Each one feels distinctly different to the next, from the house invasion to the nightclub shoot-out and the Car-Fu battle, each set-piece in “John Wick” is absolutely amazing. It’s brutal, break-neck paced and stunningly shot!

I could not review “John Wick” without mentioning how jaw-dropping the cinematography and lighting are, the film oozes style with its combination of grimy New York Streets and the neon-lit Red Circle club. The vibrant look of the “John Wick” films gives them a unique personality and flavour that cannot be found in many other films in the genre.

One stellar aspect of “John Wick” was its world-building. The filmmakers did a great job of creating a mysterious world within the movie that you want to learn more about. I loved the scene with the disposal crew removing the corpses from John Wick’s house, it was a funny and subtle way of expanding the universe that the characters inhabit and informing the audience that they have a history, without beating the viewer over the head with blatant dialogue.

The plot of “John Wick” is very efficient, but it’s not particularly ambitious (admittedly, it’s not attempting to be as intricate and thought-provoking as “The Matrix” for example.) The simple premise that an ex-assassin goes on a violent journey to seek revenge on the people who killed his puppy (that his recently deceased wife gave him) is an extremely effective way to make the audience hate the antagonists and route for Wick. I appreciated this storyline, although it was a little bit too by-the-numbers for my liking.

Probably my single biggest issue with “John Wick” is that the film takes too long to get going. The scenes in which Wick mourns the loss of his wife and tries to move on our brilliant, but I was less happy with the scenes where a stereotypical Russian mobster dumps exposition on the audience, outlining how dangerous John Wick is and that he is a force to be reckoned with. Don’t get me wrong, the acting in these moments was decent, but they feel dragged out in hindsight because as soon as we see Wick dispatch the gunmen in his house, we see that he is a dangerous force to be reckoned with, so explaining that to us at length beforehand feels unnecessary.

Overall, I like “John Wick”, but I don’t love it. As I haven’t seen “John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum” yet I can’t compare all of the movies in the trilogy to each other, but I can safely say that I prefer “John Wick: Chapter 2” to the original. This is mainly because that film’s plot was more engaging, it delved more deeply into the assassin underworld and, despite the darker moments you’d expect from a gory action movie, “Chapter 2” has more entertainment value than the original “John Wick.” I would recommend “John Wick” to action movie fans, it’s a solid start to the series, but in my opinion, it leaves the door open for more interesting, and better, stories to be told.