John Wick (2015) - Review
Originally published February 2016John Wick is something of a surprise when it comes to action movies. I heard almost nothing about it prior to its release and I saw it only get a small amount of attention once the film hit theaters. Yet the attention it seemed to get was mostly positive, with one critic's opinion being that the film skirts the line between painful cheese and self-aware action reminiscent of the ‘80s. Sounds like my type of movie.
Having finally seen it myself, I'm definitely inclined to agree with that criticism/praise. John Wick is an action film that is about a man who is getting revenge on the Russian mafia for the death of his dog. That premise should tell you all you need to know about the tone of the film. The question is whether or not it's any good.
Image: Lionsgate
Pros
Action scenes where Wick is using some Equilibrium gun kata martial arts are cool
Reeves does a lot of his own stunts and uses his experience with martial arts, which makes the action look very good as a result
Movie just starts to skirt the line of taking itself too seriously but manages to keep from going too far in that direction
Solid actors are scattered throughout the film in brief, but entertaining roles
Surprisingly deep sub-culture of hitmen and mobsters written for the film
They build up Wick as a character with some Rambo-style characterization, but he still manages to be human and gets pretty banged up throughout the film
Some catchy songs on the soundtrack
Cons
All the sentimental stuff is pretty flat; thankfully, it's over quickly
Keanu Reeves still has trouble portraying these elusive things called "emotions"
The soundtrack is too loud during scenes with dialogue
Arbitrary fight sequence in arbitrary rain storm leads back to arbitrary opening scene to somehow make it come full-circle, arbitrarily
Loses a little steam at the end of the second act
Plot & Thoughts
Keanu Reeves has never been a great actor. I don't even dare to say that he's a good actor, because he's always had trouble playing the role of anyone who isn't supposed to be clueless. Nonetheless, he's starred in some classic action movies like Speed or The Matrix and looked cool doing so, much of the time. So there's no denying his chops as an action star. Considering he hasn't done much acting in the past decade and is not getting any younger, it's nice to see that he's still willing to take an action role and that he can still look cool doing it as John Wick.
Image: Lionsgate
The movie starts with an unnecessary flash-forward, then quickly jumps into an UP-like opening sequence where John Wick experiences the death of his wife. His wife, who died of an unnamed illness, was aware of her own impending end and had a delivery service bring him a puppy after she died because I guess there's a UPS for pets. Anyways, Reeves has to pretend to care about his dead wife for a bit, takes his fancy car and dog out for the day, and runs into some punks who speak Russian. Unintimidated by the wannabe thugs, he takes his car and dog home for the day only to be assaulted later by the same punks. They beat him, steal his car, and kill his dog. It turns out, the main Russian thug is the son of a mafia boss, but that's not going to stop Wick from getting revenge for his puppy, and Wick is not someone to trifle with.
Image: Lionsgate
They build up Wick a lot as this former hitman who was the best of the best—similar to how they build up Rambo in any of his movies. Yet, throughout the movie, Wick gets pretty banged up. This helps and hurts the movie a little bit because it manages to keep him human and keep the movie tense, but it also undermines this persona they built. I think if they hadn't built up our expectations of him so much, it might have worked a little better. Regardless, by the time the premise has been established, Wick's character has been fully inflated, and the first action sequence has taken place, we're only about 20 minutes into the movie.
John Wick wastes little time getting to the point, and once it's there, it manages to stay pretty interesting for the remainder. I was actually surprised how interesting the film managed to be because I wasn't expecting them to put as much effort as they did into establishing this dense world that Wick is part of. There's a big organized crime sub-culture that exists in this movie, with its own economy and dialect of euphemisms, which helps keep things interesting in the downtime of the film.
Image: Lionsgate
As for the moments when action is taking place, it's quite satisfying because the sequences are well-shot and the camera is pulled back enough for us to see everything that's going on. John Wick is not the amazing spectacle that you'll see in a movie like Mad Max Fury Road or something from the Transformers franchise. Instead, the action manages to stay small and simple, but slick and cool.
TL;DR (Conclusion)
John Wick is a surprisingly good movie that kind of came out of nowhere. It's a smaller-budget movie that has well-shot action sequences that manage to make it exciting and tense. There are times when the tone of the film starts to get a little too serious for its own good and the final confrontation with the antagonist doesn't really work, but it manages to keep things fun through a majority of it.
Image: Lionsgate