John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski)

[TGM]

My thoughts on John Wick: Chapter 2 are the same as before I saw it: a sequel was entirely unnecessary.

This movie is sorely lacking in the charm that made the first one work so well. The first movie had a great contrast. After spending as much time as we did with all of the building up of the mythology behind this guy and his reputation, we find out later on that, while he's certainly skilled, in action he is still very much human. He's vulnerable, and half the time he only survives because he has backup helping him out from the shadows.

Here, though, he's just fucking superman. Sure, he gets beat up a little, but he never felt truly vulnerable the way that he did in the first movie. It reminds me of the comparison between the first movie and The Equalizer, which only came out about a month prior, in how those two movies were so alike to one another in terms of concept, yet in terms of execution, John Wick stood out, due both to its style, and the fact that Wick as a character felt human, where as in The Equalizer, Denzel Washington's character was more or less indestructible and absolutely perfect in every way. Here, in John Wick: Chapter 2, the character has evolved into Denzel's status, and as was the case with The Equalizer, it makes for a mostly boring movie.

90% of this movie is that gun-fu action that we loved so much from the first, but with that aforementioned super-human element in mind (and the fact that there's just so much of it this time), it really becomes pretty tiring pretty quickly. Sure, I can appreciate an action movie in this day and age with seamless filmmaking and choreography so that you can actually see all of the action, but if the character feels as impenetrable as he does here, then it quickly gets to a point where I ask myself, what exactly is the point? And my mind begins to start wandering as a result.

Story wise, they expand on all of the world building of the first movie, yet it reaches a point where it begins to feel overly silly. It was neat the first go around, but the real drawing point was Wick's personal vendetta on account of the bad guys killing his dog, which helped really ground the movie and not let its silliness get out of hand. Here though, his conflict doesn't feel nearly as personal, or at least not as relatable. It's just a simple plot where someone forces him to take on a job, then turns on him (shocking), and all shit breaks loose, giving us our excuse to see all of the cool action. Except that that action begins to wear thin and overstay its welcome this go around, and isn't nearly so impressive by the end of it anymore.

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?

This movie serves as a prime example of why I never want them to make a sequel to Dredd.

[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.