John Wick: Chapter 2
It shouldn’t really surprise me that “John Wick: Chapter 2” feels like a bit too much after the lean and mean first film- sequels often do when they find themselves building layers on to the foundation the first film started. What’s interesting about this film is that it wasn’t the story pieces I found “too much” but the action itself. Director Chad Stahelski still does a terrific job in constructing set pieces, but they feel too long in the tooth considering how breathless everything seems to feel about Derek Kolstad’s plotting.
“Chapter 2” begins not long after the first film ended, and we see John Wick (Keanu Reeves) taking the Russian mob to task for one more slight; he got revenge for his puppy (and got a new dog), but there is still the matter of his car. He goes to the headquarters of Abram (Peter Stormare), whose nephew started all of this mess for them, and it’s not long before he gets his car back. He has to get away, however, and the car is a wreck, but his buddy Aurelio (John Leguizamo) says he can fix it. John looks to settle down with his new dog, his revenge mission over, but it isn’t long before his past returns to lure him back in. He is visited by Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), a big shot in the order of assassins John retired from who is here to collect on a debt, the type of debt you have to repay. That mission will lead John back down the rabbit hole, and put him firmly back in his old life, whether he likes it or not.
The thing that was so great about the first “Wick” film is how it managed to be a no-fat action movie while also establishing the world Wick operates in, one which can be further explored in later films. “Chapter 2” is all about exploring that world, and putting John firmly back into it after with the same brute force flair for action Stahekski and Reeves displayed in the first film. The great thing about the way the action unfolds here is that it is rooted in story at all times, and tells its own story, as well. The sequence where John is fulfilling his debt is filled with bloody kills, but if you were paying attention shortly before it, an earlier scene where he is getting himself armed for it lays out a battle plan that is fun from a storytelling standpoint. My main issue here is that the action scenes, though terrifically constructed, go too long here, making the film feel a bit more sluggishly paced than it should. The thing is, it’s not the exposition and larger story doing it- it’s the fact that, like every first sequel, bigger seems to equal better when it comes to action. Reeves ran into that with the “Matrix” sequels, and he does so here, as well. I’ll give it to the “John Wick” franchise, though- they didn’t confuse their audience to the point of apathy in leading into the third film, though. By the end of this one, we’re wanting to see what happens next.
