It’s the flourishes.
Well, the flourishes and the rock solid filmmaking on virtually every level.
It’s the flourishes and the rock solid filmmaking that make John Wick: Chapter 2 an action film that puts most others to shame and delivers one of the best nights at the movies 2017 is likely to offer.
Chapter 2 picks up mid-car chase and delivers jaw dropping action set pieces (yes multiple) before the opening credits even drop. The Baba Yaga needs his car back because of the memories the car represents of his former life of peace with his deceased wife. John Wick, much like the classic cinematic anti-heroes of the past, is a man of principles. That car is personal, and he needs it back. After retrieving the car, he once again stows his arsenal beneath the concrete of his beautiful home. Humorously (and this movie is loaded with solid gold knowing humor), his doorbell rings before the cement is even dry, and we all know that John Wick will not be allowed to stay “out” of the crime game for long.
The flourishes come in a variety of ways all intended to delight. There’s an indulgent “suiting up” montage in which Wick encounters a Q-like armorer known as the “sommelier”, and a tailor who provides him a bullet proof suit, for instance. It’s playful, it normalizes the concept that Wick can be shot in the chest and walk away, and it therefore expands the possibilities of the many gun battles to come. Or there’s the way Wick discards empty magazines with a flick of the gun that launches them into the air. It just looks calm and cool. Much of the film’s humor comes through these flourishes, such as the playful subtitles whenever a character speaks another language, or the fact that Wick literally knows every single other language that is spoken, including sign language. There are whole set pieces, and even editing beats, designed to make us laugh. These flourishes project confidence and come at the same breakneck pace as the headshots. They’re what elevate this franchise above their breathtaking action sequences into action cinema all-timer status.
In a doubling down on the wonderful, cartoonish mythology of the first film, Wick is presented with a “marker”, a talisman which requires him to complete a task assigned by the holder of the marker. Strict rules govern the world of criminals and assassins that John Wick inhabits, and while those strict rules allow us viewers many simple pleasures such as watching gunfights occur in luxurious fitted bulletproof suits that seem impractical for the occasion, these rules put our hero into many a bind. One mark of greatness that the John Wick series possesses is this unique mythological aspect that makes “universe-building” look easy and natural when every other franchise is tripping over itself to do something similar and cash in on those Marvel dollars. The alternative currency and customs and Continental safe zones of John Wick work so marvelously because they draw a distinction between the real world (which these movies otherwise seem to take place in), and this alternative shadow world of principled assassins. This provides just the layer of fantasy needed in order to make all those glorious headshots and dick stabs so palatable. But the mythology also adds much needed humor, and most importantly… it doesn’t feel like a forced attempt at an expanded universe. These movies are called John Wick. They’re about John Wick. Even as colorful new characters are introduced (and oft played by iconic actors whose mere presence evokes instantaneous joy), one never gets the sense that they’re trying to set that character up for their own new spin-off franchise. All the layers and decorum… all the flourishes… are there to better entertain, and to better vaunt Keanu Reeves’ iconic character as the star of the show.
And don’t get me wrong: there’s not a whole lot of nuance and depth to that character, or to any of them for that matter. I’m here to argue, however, that John Wick: Chapter 2 doesn’t require a whole lot of nuance in order to be a prime example of exemplary action filmmaking and big screen entertainment. A lack of character dimensionality isn’t even particularly a flaw of the film… it just isn’t a priority. Director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad (both returning from the last film) know exactly what they have with the John Wick franchise, and they craft this film with the confidence and cleverness of filmmakers with a clear vision. No matter how top notch the action direction and choreography here are (and top notch is putting it mildly), none of it would hold together without Kolstad’s knowing script. While the characters of this world interact with a formality and dignity not often found in the real world, that doesn’t mean the film takes itself seriously. The humor punctuates the bloodshed. The quirky rules and decorum of this underworld dictate the plot. And this screenplay puts Wick on the defensive for most of the runtime of the movie, hooking us in not with the sense that the Boogeyman actually will be stopped, but rather keeping us curious about how he’s going to get out of each new mess he finds himself in.
John Wick 2 is just a delight from beginning to end. The 55 year old Reeves has found a muse in Stahelski, who constructs jaw dropping fight sequences, films them with an unparalleled proficiency, and gives Reeves a spotlight to display his remarkable on screen fighting skills. The screenplay plays clever in between action sequences we might never even have dreamt of a decade ago. The film is unapologetically hard-R, but at no point forgets to be fun. It’s a breath of fresh air to see a movie treating old school action this seriously and being released to thousands of screens. So enjoyable and stylish and self-aware is John Wick: Chapter 2, it doesn’t even feel cynical that the film ends on a relative cliffhanger promising a third chapter. It tells a full and expanded and raucous tale of vengeance and decorum, and then leaves you desperate for more.
And I’m Out.