The secret to John Wick's success is largely down to it telling the most ridiculous story with the straightest possible face. John Wick Chapter 2 tells the story of a retired assassin who gets obligated to carry out one last hit, owing to the tightly prescribed rules of his absurdly bureaucratic assassin firm (one that operates as a hotel chain and pays people in gold coins). The first film suckered you in with a touching story about a killer and cute puppy, but soon revealed itself to be this ever expanding action movie fantasy land where anything can happen.
I think my favourite scene in John Wick 2 is when John is having a secret gunfight with another assassin, the two exchanging cheeky shots with their silenced pistols hidden under their coats, in the middle of a crowded subway station. It's a fantastically stupid idea, but Wick 2 gets away with it by showing it so sincerely. I have lots of favourite bits like that, from the awesome "fist fight using cars" opening scene to the "everyone's trying to murder me on my home commute" scene in the last half. These are well choreographed, glossy, exciting and cool scenes. So the question then, is why was I so bored by a lot of this movie?
Ah, it's because as well as these stand out action scenes, there are lots of not-stand-out action scenes. The previous movie established that Wick is an unstoppable killing machine. This gets re-established in the opener for Wick 2, but then also gets re-established again. And again. And again. Wick dispatches so many faceless mooks (who just appear out of nowhere as a constant stream), that they're practically pointless. None of these guys are ever going to pose a credible threat to "The Boogieman", so it just feels a bit routine after a while. The movie doesn't really pick up until, in a dramatic twist, Wick finds himself on the run from his own colleagues - these have a bit more character to them (and faces as well), injecting some much needed variety and story stakes.
On top of that, there are a few things in the movie that managed to get on my nerves. There's a terrible bit of product placement early on where Peter Serafinowicz, cameo-ing as a Sommelier/gun salesman, practically turns to the NRA members in the movie audience to describe which model of AR 15 and glock they should go out and buy. Also there is a problem in just how easy the villain of the story finds it to game the overly-rigid rules of the assassin firm. I get I'm supposed to accept the silly premise, but after a point it gets a bit implausible how the villain seems to find obvious loopholes that the firm never found reason to iron out.
John Wick 2 is okay, but not as good as the first. All it took was a puppy to inject a ton of character and drama into the first movie, and Wick 2 doesn't have a puppy .It doesn't even really have characters, just some flat figures who follow exacting rules and take turns to kill each other, like chess pieces.
All the Action, None of the Characters
The secret to John Wick's success is largely down to it telling the most ridiculous story with the straightest possible face. John Wick Chapter 2 tells the story of a retired assassin who gets obligated to carry out one last hit, owing to the tightly prescribed rules of his absurdly bureaucratic assassin firm (one that operates as a hotel chain and pays people in gold coins). The first film suckered you in with a touching story about a killer and cute puppy, but soon revealed itself to be this ever expanding action movie fantasy land where anything can happen.
I think my favourite scene in John Wick 2 is when John is having a secret gunfight with another assassin, the two exchanging cheeky shots with their silenced pistols hidden under their coats, in the middle of a crowded subway station. It's a fantastically stupid idea, but Wick 2 gets away with it by showing it so sincerely. I have lots of favourite bits like that, from the awesome "fist fight using cars" opening scene to the "everyone's trying to murder me on my home commute" scene in the last half. These are well choreographed, glossy, exciting and cool scenes. So the question then, is why was I so bored by a lot of this movie?
Ah, it's because as well as these stand out action scenes, there are lots of not-stand-out action scenes. The previous movie established that Wick is an unstoppable killing machine. This gets re-established in the opener for Wick 2, but then also gets re-established again. And again. And again. Wick dispatches so many faceless mooks (who just appear out of nowhere as a constant stream), that they're practically pointless. None of these guys are ever going to pose a credible threat to "The Boogieman", so it just feels a bit routine after a while. The movie doesn't really pick up until, in a dramatic twist, Wick finds himself on the run from his own colleagues - these have a bit more character to them (and faces as well), injecting some much needed variety and story stakes.
On top of that, there are a few things in the movie that managed to get on my nerves. There's a terrible bit of product placement early on where Peter Serafinowicz, cameo-ing as a Sommelier/gun salesman, practically turns to the NRA members in the movie audience to describe which model of AR 15 and glock they should go out and buy. Also there is a problem in just how easy the villain of the story finds it to game the overly-rigid rules of the assassin firm. I get I'm supposed to accept the silly premise, but after a point it gets a bit implausible how the villain seems to find obvious loopholes that the firm never found reason to iron out.
John Wick 2 is okay, but not as good as the first. All it took was a puppy to inject a ton of character and drama into the first movie, and Wick 2 doesn't have a puppy .It doesn't even really have characters, just some flat figures who follow exacting rules and take turns to kill each other, like chess pieces.