John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

John Wick may not have been the most creative movie but it was a lot of fun and it played to Keanu Reeves's strengths.  Little dialogue, lots of physical action and stylized violence, all set in a hyperviolent alternate world where Wick is a member of an underground society of hitpeople, the movie, written by Derek Kolstad and directed by Chad Stahelski at least established one of the few original properties to grace the big screen in a long time.  

Stahelski and Kolstad wisely made the choice to make the first movie a contained story, with Wick taking revenge against a Russian mob boss after the boss's son steals his car and kills his dog.  In a rare turn of events Wick's main targets were not overpowered experts in military tactics or martial arts, but weak men who used waves of henchmen to try to keep Wick, whose reputation is that of a legendary Boogeyman, at bay.  They fail miserably and, though beaten and bloodied at the end, Wick finds a new canine companion and it is hinted that he returned to retirement.  Despite Reeves's involvement there was a risk that the movie would sink like a lot of other action films at the time. Instead, it became a surprise hit. 

After the events of the first film there was another thing John had to do, which was get his car back, and that's where we join him at the beginning of John Wick: Chapter 2.  It happens to be in possession of Abram Tarasov (Peter Stormare), the brother of Viggo, the main antagonist of the previous film.  Wick retrieves it and intends to return to his retirement, but that night he is visited by Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scarmacio), calling in a marker for a favor he did for Wick in the past.  Wick initially refuses, resulting in Santino burning down Wick's house.  After consulting with Continental manager Winston (Ian McShane), Wick decides the best course of action is to clear the marker.

What Santino wants is for Wick to kill his sister Gianna (Claudia Gerrini), who has been willed their father's seat representing the Camorra on the worldwide High Council of mafia leaders.  Instead of clearing the marker Santino sends one of his own - a deaf assassin named Ares (Ruby Rose) - to kill Wick.  When she fails an open contract is put on John's life, one that both Ares and Gianna's former bodyguard Cassian (Common) hope to collect on.  With the help of the shadowy Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) he hopes to finish off Santino once and for all and resume a life of peace.

I have to give a lot of credit to Stahelski and Kolstad for not treading the same old ground in the sequel.  Many of the fights and action scenes are similar, but the budget is up due to the original's success - enough to do location filming in Rome, although some of the New York scenes had to be done in Montreal - but this time around there is more world-building.  The revenge plot is still central, and Santino is definitely a more despicable villain than Viggo was, but how deep the entire organization goes features into the story.  It also leads to a number of great fight scenes.

One of the best is the finale in a mirrored art exhibit that recalls the classic end fight between Lee and Mr. Han in Enter the Dragon.  It was largely the intention of the makers of the movie to work toward doing their own homage to one of the most famous fight sequences of all time and they truly make it work, albeit with less martial arts and more gun play.  

I have seen criticisms of both this and the first movie being nothing but loud and stupid.  I beg to differ, since, other than that Dredd and Nobody, the latter also written by Kolstad, this is as close as any American film series has approached to a straight-up stylized action film like The Raid 2.  It may not have as complex a plot as that movie did, but the pure creativity of the action when compared to the bland PG-13 films that dominate the action genre now recalls some of the great set-ups in both of the Raid films.  The attempts on Wick's life in the subway and the entire battle in the art museum are almost their equal, and when the whole comic book feel of the plot of the world they live in is thrown on top of it, the surprises keep coming.  

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Time: 122 minutes

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scarmacio, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Common, Claudia Gerini

Director: Chad Stahelski