It was
probably Point Break that made Keanu Reeves famous, and then after that Speed.
But everything was set in motion when The Matrix really made Reeves into the star he is now. People say he’s “the
most liked bad actor.” And I believe that to be true. However, he is a good
actor in some ways. He does usually fail in his emotional performance, but he
almost always delivers in his physical performance. And he proves that here.
In John Wick, Keanu Reeves stars as the
title character who just lost his wife to illness, but soon after receives a
gift sent from his wife right before she died - a dog in place of her. But as
people who are relative to somebody in his past do him wrong, we learn about
who he Wick used to be as he goes on a quest for revenge against his past
employer.
Sound
familiar? That’s because this story has been done multiple times before. Yes,
this film is disappointing generic. Just about everything in the plot of John
Wick has been done before multiple times. Therefore, it’s a very predictable
and rather dull movie. I will grant that there were times where it held my
attention and times in which I was enjoying it. However, those times are not in
abundance. Most of this film had me slightly bored. No, it was not painful to
sit through. But it was not exactly entertaining either. And by the one-hour
mark, I checked my watch.
As clichéd as
the plot is, it’s hard to make this movie good. However, there is some relief
in it. For one, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski (only Stahelski was listed in
the film’s closing credits, but both were present in the IMDb credits) provide
good-looking and, at times, stylish direction. Some moments (most dialogue)
come off as cheesy, but the action sequences are directed smoothly and with
precision, not to mention the incredible stunt work. That is where Keanu Reeves
shines in this movie. As usual, his portrayal of John Wick as a character with emotions
isn’t very good, but his work in the action scenes completely sell the stunt
work. And the products are very good action sequences that can compensate for
some of the clichés in the plot. But not all of them…
The
familiarity is not only in the plot of this movie. We have the typical action clichés
here, like a character blowing something up and slowly walking away from it,
not looking - little things like that. They are profuse here and do not fail in
annoying the viewers. I, myself, stood them, but definitely did not like them.
The dialogue
wasn’t great either. Not that it was bad, no, but it was very thin and quick.
You mostly learn about the character of John Wick through his various actions,
but some of it has to be given in dialogue. And that’s basically all the dialogue
does - cover the general idea of some of the characters… and provide one-liners
for Reeves to say in order to exhilarate the audience. They didn’t work for me,
though. They just added onto the various action movie clichés. No good was
done.
One thing
that takes away from the action sequences is the score. There aren’t very many
compositions exclusively for this film. Most of the music choices are big,
hip-hop, loud music to help the audience have more fun with the film. I thought
it was a mistake to put those songs in the movie. It made the well-executed
sequences seem more silly and unrealistic. The loud music did not add anything
to the film. It just drowned out everything else and annoyed me. And when there
were actual compositions, they were no different. Loud music meant to do the
same as the song choices, just without words.
John Wick proves to be an over-composed
and mostly dull experience. It’s riddled with clichés and the plot is familiar.
The dialogue just provides clippy one-liners and some character exposition.
Yes, the action sequences without the music are very good, but other than that,
there’s not much here. I say skip this movie. Maybe rent it when it comes out
on DVD or stream it on Netflix, but don’t go to the theater.
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