John Wick: Chapter 2

John Wick: Chapter 2 (also known as simply John Wick 2) is a 2017 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Chad Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad. It is the second installment in the John Wick franchise, and the sequel to the 2014 action film John Wick. It stars Keanu Reeves, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ruby Rose, John Leguizamo, and Ian McShane. The film premiered in Los Angeles on January 30, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on February 10, 2017. A sequel, titled John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, was released on May 17, 2019.

Plot
Retired super-assassin John Wick's plans to resume a quiet civilian life are cut short when Italian gangster Santino D'Antonio shows up on his doorstep with a gold marker, compelling him to repay past favours. Ordered by Winston, the kingpin of secret assassin society The Continental, to respect the organisation's ancient code, Wick reluctantly accepts the assignment to travel to Rome to take out D'Antonio's sister, the ruthless capo atop the Italian Camorra crime syndicate.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It displays several clever calls back in the first film, such as
 * 2) The fact that the film opens with John Wick fighting to recover his car that was stolen in the first film, which is nice continuity nod references of the first movie.
 * 3) Although this film is decidedly darker and bloodier than the first, there is still a decent amount of humor due to the filmmakers deciding the embrace the inherent absurdity of the setting's heightened realism and simply play everything straight without any winks or nods to the audience.
 * 4) The tone and theme is quite a bit darker than the first movie. While the first movie was a more straight-forward revenge plot, this one deals with themes like honor, duty, destiny and death. Markedly, while the first was a lot more humorous in showing Iosef and Viggo panicking over Wick's wrath, this time Wick's foes are deadly serious. Its even noticeable that every single victory Wick achieves over the movie is Pyrrhic at best, unlike the first.
 * 5) Amazing soundtrack.
 * 6) *The Outro song, "Plastic Heart".
 * 7) *Gianna D'Antonio makes one hell of an entrance at her party, complete with backing from a band.
 * 8) *Later in the same scene where John escapes after killing Gianna, we get another fantastic electronic track from Le Castle Vania, aptly titled "John Wick Mode".
 * 9) *When John goes after Santino in his museum, the ensuing action scene is accompanied by a track best described as a thumping bass remix of Vivaldi's Storm, titled "Presto Museum Battle".
 * 10) *"Battle Royale VIP" by Apashe is heavily featured in one trailer.
 * 11) It retains more action sequences, which is mostly impressive.
 * 12) * The museum shootout where John is forced to keep stealing his enemies' guns because he isn't armed to the teeth like he usually is, as well as the brief scene where he finds ammo for his Kimber 1911 and does a one-handed brass check after he reloads.
 * 13) The pacing is awesome and well done.
 * 14) Keanu Reeves's performance as John Wick is still amazing, with better acting sounds.
 * 15) The villains are actually better than the first movie, since they have interesting motives.

Bad Quality

 * 1) While a nice, humorous call back to the first film, the kills with the pencil are extremely slow, unpleasant, messy and painful looking deaths to watch.
 * 2) *Gianna slitting her own wrists, blood slowly dripping across her arms isn't exactly fun to watch either.

Reception
John Wick: Chapter 2 received positive reviews from critics, audiences and fans alike with praise for the action sequences, direction, editing, visual style and the performances of the cast, particularly Reeves. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 274 reviews and an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "John Wick: Chapter 2 does what a sequel should—which in this case means doubling down on the non-stop, thrillingly choreographed action that made its predecessor so much fun.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement from the "B" received by its predecessor, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 85% overall positive score and a 72% "definite recommend".