John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski)

[Irish]

The first movie stood wonderfully on its own, and this movie appears to have no real clue as to what actually made the first one such a good movie in the first place. And seeing as this one sets up a third installment in the end, it looks like we're in for even more of this crap after this. But why can't we just have a good stand alone anymore? Why does everything have to be a damn series?

Not to go all scorpion and the frog on you, but what did you expect, exactly?

(Selfishly, I'll add: If more sequels mean more in-depth posts like yours and 8's, well, I don't mind them so much.)

[TGM]

Not to go all scorpion and the frog on you, but what did you expect, exactly?

(Selfishly, I'll add: If more sequels mean more in-depth posts like yours and 8's, well, I don't mind them so much.)

Well, I guess the difference here is between what I expected and what I hoped for. Because honestly, the movie as is is more or less what I expected, however, there was a part of me that was hoping to be surprised by this anyways and see them either somehow manage to recapture the magic of the first, or find a whole new way to wow me all over again. And, well, the movie sorta failed in that particular regard for me.

That said, in regards to 8's post, I do like your take on the "closing of one chapter, opening of another" aspect. Honestly, when the retread-ish stuff was happening in the beginning (the repeat joke in particular), I found myself silently groaning, like, "really, we're doing this, movie?" But I think looking at it the way you described definitely does work, as the closing of one part of his life and beginning of a next stage, so I can appreciate the beginning of the movie for that aspect with that in mind. That said, even with that in mind, I still just didn't find this next stage in the story of John Wick to be all that interesting all the same, for the reasons I've already outlined.