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Film Review - John Wick Trilogy (Spoilers)
5 years ago
If you have any interest in action films, you've probably heard of the John Wick films. I saw the first one in the cinema, and I've only just got around to watching the sequels. You don't need me to tell you they are worth seeing. Easily the best action films of the last 5 years.
But with all that said I do think they are somewhat overrated. I only say this because there are elements that I don't think are up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, the films are still great, but I also don't ignore other problems simply because there's no competition.
To me, the John Wick trilogy can be divided into two separate films.
The first film is a completely self contained, stand alone film that establishes a cool universe in the background, answering questions like "what happens to all the bodies after a gunfight" with a funny yet plausible in universe explanation. The plot is a straight up revenge story. Some arsehole kid of a Russian mob boss kills John's dog, and John kills his way through the Russian crime syndicate for revenge. John is capible, but still human.
Films two, three, and I'm guessing film four, expand the rules of the underworld, and the plot focuses on said underworld organisations. John Wick's abilities are slowly dialled up to the point of super human. In the first film he was almost taken out by a lucky bouncer, at the end of the third film he survives falling off a 7 story building. It makes up for this with more memorable action scenes.
John Wick
The first film, as I said, is the neatest in terms of plot and smallest in terms of scale. His dog is killed, he goes out for revenge killing any and all mobsters and hitmen in his way.
It's a good film with a couple of action scenes stand out. The raid on his house and him attacking the nightclub are my favourite.
Other action scenes are mostly forgettable. Such as attacking the safe house. There is also one scene that falls into the trap of shaky cam and not showing where anybody is in relation to each other, but I've heard it argued that's a deliberate choice for that scene. It makes sense, I get the argument even if I don't like it personally.
Much like Mad Max Fury Road, the claim that there's little to no CG feels hollow, as the CG muzzle flashes don't look great, and there's a few shots that feel CG even if they're not, like the guy falling over the balcony. I don't know if it's the quick pan down or the motion blur, but that scenes feels like bad CG to me even though it's a fairly simple (but still impressive) stunt and thus unlikely to be CG. I dunno, it's weird.
John Wick 2
A bad guy calls in a mark. A personal favour that John agreed before the events of the films. The favour demanded is to kill a member of the High Table, a super organisation that oversees all the other criminal organisations. John does the job, is stabbed in the back by the person who told him to do it, and John goes out for revenge. This sets up the events in John Wick 3.
There's some fun stuff here, the gearing up scene is great, and there's some fun action scenes too like the running gunfight through the streets. The hall of mirrors fight is cool, memorable, and impressive on a technical level, though I think it might be over-hyped? If there's a problem, it's that the action scenes in general aren't quite as memorable as the other two film. At very least, I struggle to remember them. It's not bad, it's just sandwiched between two other great films.
John Wick 3
The film starts where the second film ends. Though it does an Evil Dead Army of Darkness thing and makes some minor retcons the ending set up in the previous film. eg. John got a mark from management in 2, but he doesn't have it at the start of 3.
Having been kicked out of The Continental for breaking the rules, John is now on the run. Much of the movie is like a video game. The film moves from action scene to action scene at a fairly swift pace, with conversations included just to get the plot moving from scene to scene. And there are some great scenes. The horse back bike chase might be the meme, but I was more impressed by Halle Berry's action dogs. Those things are amazing.
There's a bunch of cool moments in this film. The knife fight in the weapons shop is bad arse. The afore mentioned dog scene is bad arse. The fist fight in the glass room is bad arse. The fist fight in the library is bad arse. Even that guy everyone says is from The Wire gets to be bad arse in this film.
While the CG has improved substantially, there's still some awkwardness. Some makes sense, you can't have a horse really kick a guy in the face, but the CG heavy bike chase took me out of the film.
The film ends on a sequel hook. Thereby completing the video game feel.
By the end of the third film the universe has expanded to the point of silliness and introduces some plot holes in the process.
Spoilers, but the whole premise of John Wick being hunted was because he's killed members of the High Table is stupid. The first he assassinated was a hit he had to honour or be killed, and the second was the person that ordered the hit. There's also a scene where John cuts off his finger to show loyalty to the high table, only to tell them to go fuck themselves a couple of scenes later. I suspect this is part of a sequel hook, but I'll cover that should I ever see John Wick 4.
Taken as a whole, the John Wick trilogy is great. The first film stands alone as a decent action and revenge film. The sequels provide lots of action with minimal plot to get in the way. Worth seeing if you're a fan of action films, but you already knew that. Hence why I decided to nit pick a bit more than normal.
But with all that said I do think they are somewhat overrated. I only say this because there are elements that I don't think are up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, the films are still great, but I also don't ignore other problems simply because there's no competition.
To me, the John Wick trilogy can be divided into two separate films.
The first film is a completely self contained, stand alone film that establishes a cool universe in the background, answering questions like "what happens to all the bodies after a gunfight" with a funny yet plausible in universe explanation. The plot is a straight up revenge story. Some arsehole kid of a Russian mob boss kills John's dog, and John kills his way through the Russian crime syndicate for revenge. John is capible, but still human.
Films two, three, and I'm guessing film four, expand the rules of the underworld, and the plot focuses on said underworld organisations. John Wick's abilities are slowly dialled up to the point of super human. In the first film he was almost taken out by a lucky bouncer, at the end of the third film he survives falling off a 7 story building. It makes up for this with more memorable action scenes.
John Wick
The first film, as I said, is the neatest in terms of plot and smallest in terms of scale. His dog is killed, he goes out for revenge killing any and all mobsters and hitmen in his way.
It's a good film with a couple of action scenes stand out. The raid on his house and him attacking the nightclub are my favourite.
Other action scenes are mostly forgettable. Such as attacking the safe house. There is also one scene that falls into the trap of shaky cam and not showing where anybody is in relation to each other, but I've heard it argued that's a deliberate choice for that scene. It makes sense, I get the argument even if I don't like it personally.
Much like Mad Max Fury Road, the claim that there's little to no CG feels hollow, as the CG muzzle flashes don't look great, and there's a few shots that feel CG even if they're not, like the guy falling over the balcony. I don't know if it's the quick pan down or the motion blur, but that scenes feels like bad CG to me even though it's a fairly simple (but still impressive) stunt and thus unlikely to be CG. I dunno, it's weird.
John Wick 2
A bad guy calls in a mark. A personal favour that John agreed before the events of the films. The favour demanded is to kill a member of the High Table, a super organisation that oversees all the other criminal organisations. John does the job, is stabbed in the back by the person who told him to do it, and John goes out for revenge. This sets up the events in John Wick 3.
There's some fun stuff here, the gearing up scene is great, and there's some fun action scenes too like the running gunfight through the streets. The hall of mirrors fight is cool, memorable, and impressive on a technical level, though I think it might be over-hyped? If there's a problem, it's that the action scenes in general aren't quite as memorable as the other two film. At very least, I struggle to remember them. It's not bad, it's just sandwiched between two other great films.
John Wick 3
The film starts where the second film ends. Though it does an Evil Dead Army of Darkness thing and makes some minor retcons the ending set up in the previous film. eg. John got a mark from management in 2, but he doesn't have it at the start of 3.
Having been kicked out of The Continental for breaking the rules, John is now on the run. Much of the movie is like a video game. The film moves from action scene to action scene at a fairly swift pace, with conversations included just to get the plot moving from scene to scene. And there are some great scenes. The horse back bike chase might be the meme, but I was more impressed by Halle Berry's action dogs. Those things are amazing.
There's a bunch of cool moments in this film. The knife fight in the weapons shop is bad arse. The afore mentioned dog scene is bad arse. The fist fight in the glass room is bad arse. The fist fight in the library is bad arse. Even that guy everyone says is from The Wire gets to be bad arse in this film.
While the CG has improved substantially, there's still some awkwardness. Some makes sense, you can't have a horse really kick a guy in the face, but the CG heavy bike chase took me out of the film.
The film ends on a sequel hook. Thereby completing the video game feel.
By the end of the third film the universe has expanded to the point of silliness and introduces some plot holes in the process.
Spoilers, but the whole premise of John Wick being hunted was because he's killed members of the High Table is stupid. The first he assassinated was a hit he had to honour or be killed, and the second was the person that ordered the hit. There's also a scene where John cuts off his finger to show loyalty to the high table, only to tell them to go fuck themselves a couple of scenes later. I suspect this is part of a sequel hook, but I'll cover that should I ever see John Wick 4.
Taken as a whole, the John Wick trilogy is great. The first film stands alone as a decent action and revenge film. The sequels provide lots of action with minimal plot to get in the way. Worth seeing if you're a fan of action films, but you already knew that. Hence why I decided to nit pick a bit more than normal.
