REVIEW: John Wick: Chapter 2By Quinn OxleyFebruary 9, 2017I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Some of my sources pan John Wick as a melodramatic attempt at a thriller; IMDb and Metascore ratings, however, reflect a high-quality film.  John Wick: Chapter 2 lands somewhere in between.

John Wick, purportedly the world’s greatest hitman, is fresh off the hot vengeance streak that is the first film and ready to leave it all behind when he finds himself bound by a blood oath to murder once again.  Things go south, and suddenly he’s a seven-million-dollar man.

The structure of the film loses you.  If you know anything about the film going in, it’ll feel like it takes a good long while to get started (after an initial ten minutes of kicking butt and not bothering to take names).  Several scenes start off with thrilling promise, but halfway through you think to yourself, “Wow… I’ve been watching this gunfight for, like, fifteen minutes.”  Sure, it’s expected to be action-heavy, but my attention span is only so long.

I’m not sure this is common knowledge, but acting is not Keanu Reeves’ strong suit.  (He does wear a strong suit, though, if you catch my drift.)  He settles for grunting his lines and staring confusedly in different directions, hoping the camera picks up his delivery.  Though, modern audiences don’t expect much more from him than his signature furrowed-brow charm.  He’s not a great actor.  But we love him anyway.  Especially when he’s wearing a strong suit and wielding whatever weapon he can find.

Much of the action, before it gets old, does provide a stylish, sexy film - a film that can get brutal to the point of cringing on occasions, but… mostly stylish, and a little sexy.  John Wick: Chapter 2 also manages to feature a third act that surpasses the two that came before it.  (No spoiler talk, but it’s got an epic climax.  Seriously.)

Is it good, though?

Yeah.  It’s not amazing, but it’s not bad, either.  It was a decent way to spend two hours, and that’s more than I can say for a lot of films.

Rating: 6/10

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