Movie Review: John Wick Chapter 2

A balletic murder-opera, John Wick Chapter 2 ups the ante and expands the universe of the original sleeper hit. Deliver us Chapter 3 immediately, Keanu.

We criticise movie sequels for their unoriginality, but John Wick Chapter 2 reveals the joy in ceaseless repetition.

It stars Keanu Reeves again as unstoppable hitman John Wick. Set mere days after its predecessor, Chapter 2 sees John go on another death-spree, roused from his retirement by shady underworld figures. Last time, they were Russian. Now, they’re Italian. The search and replace function in Final Draft is handy that way.

The reasons behind John’s orgy of gore (gorgy?) are inconsequential. In the first picture, he was seeking revenge for his dead dog. Now, crime lord Santino (Ricardo Scarmacio) is cashing in a favour, insisting John eliminate Santino’s sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini) as part of an interfamilial power grab. I’m Italian and can confirm this pettiness is par for the course.

If John doesn’t agree, he’ll be betraying the code of an international organisation of assassins whose tentacles stretch across the globe, headquartered in refined hotels. Such a transgression will cost him his life. But if he pulls off the job—and, come on, of course he would—he’ll become the target of Gianna’s equally-vengeful bodyman Cassian (Common), not to mention Santino’s own cronies, led by silent Ares (Ruby Rose), hoping to tie up the hit’s loose ends. There’s only one solution to this pickle: John will have to kill his way out.

John Wick Chapter 2

If the explanation for how John comes to be trapped in his role as grim reaper is unsatisfactory, the execution—don’t pardon the pun; I have no regrets—by director Chad Stahelski goes above and beyond what we’ve come to expect from action cinema.

The original John Wick felt very much like America’s answer to Indonesia’s extremely satisfying, endlessly vicious The Raid franchise: It was all expertly-choreographed violence, all the time. And yet, it came up short when compared with The Raid. If screenwriter Derek Kolstad keeps things simple on his second go around, Stahelski—a former stuntman—ingeniously complicates and upgrades the non-stop fight sequences. John Wick’s enemies are more numerous, but at least their bones break louder; Reeves absorbs more blows, and he somehow becomes more superhuman while getting bloodier. This is where Keanu’s trademark blankness works in his favour. Just what is that dude thinking?

Chapter 2 does the unthinkable; it actually makes you crave escalating sequels, even if that means the further corruption of our tortured hero. By the end, Wick almost literally descends into a hell of his own making, trapped by an Enter the Dragon-inspired cluster of mirrors. Cinematographer Dan Lausten also calls on modern cues from The Great Beauty, Collateral and, yes, The Matrix, rendering John Wick Chapter 2 unexpectedly sumptuous.

If this sounds like the flick takes itself too seriously, rest assured, it does not. The expansion of the super-secret criminal underworld in which John resides now includes New York’s homeless population (led by a charismatic bird-man, played by Laurence Fishburne), and its buskers as well. The best joke of the film is how unfazed regular New Yorkers are by the incalculable killers in their midst; John and Cassian can casually fire at one another across a crowded train station, and no one blinks.

If only the series would expand its universe to include additional female characters. Ruby Rose is practically left to represents womankind entirely on her lonesome, and she doesn’t utter a word. Though, that’s a novel diversion from her accent. As a menacing haircut, she’s in her element.

Nonetheless, there’s no reason John Wick can’t be our next increasingly ridiculous, Fast and Furious-style saga. I would take ten of these, readily. This is a prime example of more of the same being exactly what we want.

4.5/5

In cinemas May 18. Rated MA15+ for strong violence.