John Wick Review
John Wick is a movie that came out in theaters around a year and a half ago and surprised me. It stars Keanu Reeves, and I think this may be his best movie since The Matrix.
John Wick is about an ex-hitman who comes out of retirement after the son of the leader of a Russian mob group (Viggo) kills his dog and steals his car. That's pretty much it. It's a simplistic premise, but the plot does have a little more meaning to it. John Wick tells a really good revenge story, and I loved the world it created. There's a hotel in the movie called 'The Continental', which is a hotel exclusive to hitmen and criminals and mobsters and assassins. This film could easily be turned in to a franchise, since the world John Wick created feels like there's still a lot more to discover. The acting in this movie was really great, with the actor from Game of Thrones Alfie Allen playing Viggo's son, and the mob boss Viggo being played by Michael Nyqvist. John Wick is pretty dark, and I like how the director Chad Stahelski implemented this feeling with things from the weather being dark and cloudy, or night time, or raining to the attire. The attire was taken well in to account, and everyone seen in the movie is usually wearing dark clothing, with black suits and black outfits. The sound editing and soundtrack were good too. The music was like a dark emo rock, and also partially electronic. There was some Marilyn Manson in the sound track, that really suited the neo-noir feel.
Now, this movie wasn't groundbreaking, but it did surprise me with how well it was directed, using techniques for filmmaking that I thought were pretty much gone in cinema. There were two main things that impressed me: the action choreography and the camera lighting. The choreography in this movie was swift and stylish, it was a lot of fun to behold as the action scenes play out. Rather than relying on a bunch of lazily edited jump cuts for an action scene, Chad Stahelski wanted the action to be genuine, with a lot of physical work from actors fighting. Keanu Reeves doesn't speak much, but he has a very physical role. Keanu Reeves has worked on some action movies like The Matrix and Speed, and he obviously has a respect for stunt work and choreographed fight scenes. He apparently had to take a couple months work of martial arts training for this movie. Not going to lie, Keanu was pretty badass in this film. There's excellent hand-to-hand combat scenes, and a couple shootout scenes. Keanu is in the action 90% of the time I'd say, with the exception of a couple of stunts. John Wick would be swiftly taking out these guards and mercenaries with 2 shots to the head, double tapping all of them. All of these fight scenes are orchestrated very well, and the shots are well planned out. The character comes off as experienced, but rusty enough to make the fight scenes interesting. A great shot in the movie that I liked is when someone is seemingly going to say their last words, when John Wick abruptly kills him. John Wick just wants revenge exacted, he doesn't savor the moments.
The lighting in this movie is used well too. It was a very dark movie, in regards to the premise and the tone, but they had a lot of seemingly dark settings painted with various colors. In John Wick's home, they had a calm and washed out blue, for a peaceful setting. In the Russian mob house, they had an oppressive orange that made the environment feel more agitated and hostile. In a car shop, which was strung between the crime world and the peaceful world, was a lime green tinge. In a nightclub there was a dark violet and blue color, for energy with extreme electronic music blaring. I loved to see all these things in this movie, and how the calming colors and oppressive colors were used accordingly to their setting.
I have a few flaws with the film, one being that there is some motivation, but I feel like there should be more. There is motivation for this character's darker side to being set in motion, but I feel like more tragic events needed to happen like the movie could have taken it one step further and done something even more violent. John Wick is a likable character, and you do want to see him succeed in this movie, but his character never really evolves from the start of the film to the end of the movie. You learn the darker side of him, but his character never really sways, and he never has any character dilemmas. I thought the villain Viggo was great, even though there aren't any protagonists or antagonists in this movie. All the characters were grounded, they just didn't ever have a chance to develop.
Overall, John Wick is a lot of fun, and it's good to see these old school action movie fight scenes return and some film making techniques return. I liked how the tone was implemented well, and hopefully, there can be a little more room for character development in the sequel.
+ Good colors/lighting - Not much character evolution
+ Dark tone set well - Needs more character motivation
+ Great choreographed action
7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment