John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is back, but not because he wants to be. When a fellow assassin calls in a favor, Wick finds himself in a heap of trouble after he turns the task down. If the movie stumbles, it's only slightly as a result of questionable pacing in the beginning. Once it puts its foot back on the gas John Wick: Chapter 2 never lets up.
I have to begin with the man of the hour himself, Mr. John Wick. He has a way of dominating the screen by being seemingly everywhere at once. He embodies what a true contract killer looks like with his ruthless precision and attention to detail. You watch him and you can tell as he guns down enemy after enemy that he is thinking three steps ahead which is probably what I appreciate most about his character. For example, instead of gunning down an enemy that would be at point blank range, he wraps them up and puts them in a hold they can't get out of. Why does he opt to do that? Because there are more enemies coming and he has to make sure he has enough bullets to take them all down. Wick knows he can take out the guy he has in a hold with his bare hands if he needs to. Like I said: Ruthless precision.
Amidst some of the most amazing action I've seen in a movie without CGI, there are a few funny moments sprinkled in that I don't want to ruin (and thankfully the trailers didn't either). The level of fear that this seedy underworld has towards Wick is comical in and of itself. His stories follow him everywhere he goes, yet the bad guys still expect to get a piece of him.
Along with the action and the funny, I appreciate what the film did from a stylistic standpoint. Whereas the first film has darker tones, the scenes in the sequel offer vibrant colors that pop and add flare even while the blood is spraying everywhere. There are some cool scenes here (one in particular that really stands out) that feel fresh in a genre that seems to suffer from unoriginality.
I'm happy to say that John Wick: Chapter 2 is a movie where the trailer doesn't do nearly as much justice as the movie deserves. As a viewer, you will embrace that detail that went into this work about an underworld of assassins. I give it a well-deserved 95.
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