THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It is not easy to find a reason to return to your roots. But sometimes, it can be almost as simple as shown in John Wick.
PLOT
The film takes place in New York and follows the titular assassin who has retired to live peacefully with his wife Helen (Bridget Moynahan). His time of happiness sadly concluded when she died of a terminal illness. However before death, she arranges him to own a beagle puppy named Daisy, to help him cope with grief. He does grow a liking to the animal, but tragedy would only strike again. His vintage ‘69 Ford Mustang Mach 1 would be stolen at night by Iosef Tarasov, son of Russian gangster Viggo. He chooses to do this when Wick refuses to sell it to him upon encounter at a gas station. On the night he steals the car, he assaults him and kills the puppy. When he takes it to a chop shop to change its VIN, the owner Aurelio kicks him out when recognizing who it belongs to and when he confesses to his crime. Aurelio does relay to Viggo what his son did, knowing that Wick will get revenge. When he meets with Iosef, he warns him that Wick is considered to be the most dangerous assassin ever known to the criminal underworld. He is nicknamed ‘Baba Yaga’ as they identify him to be worse than the Boogeyman. He further explains that he was able to retire in the first place after pulling off eliminating multiple high level targets in a short period of time. When Wick himself checks with Aurelio, he does tell him who Iosef is and gives him another car as the mob son took it to another shop. Still wanting to protect his son, Viggo does beg John to spare him, but he predictably refuses. Wanting to stall, he then sends a small team of assassins that fail to kill him at his home. Wick gets rid of their bodies by contacting employees of an underworld cleaning service. As he moves forward on his path of revenge, Viggo offers an open $2 million bounty for Baba Yaga to be killed, but also requests his mentor Marcus to take him down as well. Wick then visits the Continental Hotel, that exclusively caters to the criminal underworld and permits no business in its premises. There, he gets information from the manager Winston that Iosef is hiding at the Red Circle nightclub. When he gets there, he takes out a horde of men working for Viggo while Iosef narrows away from his fate. When he chooses to recuperate, he gets a warning shot from Marcus that he is being intruded by fellow assassin Perkins. He is able to incapacitate her before making her reveal Viggo’s front, that is a church in Little Russia. As he destroys Viggo’s blackmail material and cache of money there, Perkins delays her punishment when fleeing the hotel and killing another acquaintance of Wick’s named Henry (Clarke Peters). Baba Yaga does try to ambush Viggo, only to be subdued and captured. As the gangster taunts him for thinking he can escape from his old life, John explains the importance of his dog which makes it clear for the last time that he is not intending to spare Iosef. Before he gets killed himself, he is saved by Marcus from afar again. Viggo ultimately gives away his son’s location and drops the bounty in exchange of being spared. Once John succeeds in killing Iosef, Viggo and Perkins kills Marcus for refusing to save his son. Shortly afterwards, Perkins is killed by Winston as a result of breaking an essential rule of the Continental. He even gives John a heads up that Viggo tends to flee NY via helicopter. Baba Yaga races to NY Harbor, killing him and the remaining henchmen in the process. As he tends to his own wounds at an animal clinic, the film ends with him adopting a pit bull scheduled to be euthanized.
THOUGHTS
Originally, the trailer threw me off because I could not believe such a plot to be adapted onscreen. So after people started telling me how good it is, it felt bound for me to check it out. Little did I expect to have such a blast throughout. Director Chad Stahelski and Producer David Leitch catch viewers off guard with something that is beyond exciting. Thanks to Jonathan Sela's cinematography, it is hard to not have your eyes glued with the various action scenes like the Red Circle shootout. While scenes like that bring the expected excitement, I think what can also bring viewers back is the way it chooses to explore grief and having standards. It is good to have a coping mechanism to help grieve over loss and if that is damaged, the process gets harder. It is even important to have a set of standards/rules in life in order to separate oneself from others who act selfishly. It is crazy to learn this in the perspective of the titular lead. Played by the breathtaking Keanu Reeves, this is a guy who unleashed so much wrath in the life before now and got out knowing he never needed to do that. His wife meant the world to him because she reminded him just that, paving the way for him wanting to be a better person. When he loses the things that made him holy, he is bound to return to the monstrous past that defined him. He may be a frightening assassin for the body count he stacks up, but you can't help rooting for him because he doesn't want to. No one could've predicted he would encounter Iosef the way he did, but he feels like had to do kill him afterwards for what he does in order to prove that he should've been left alone. It even felt symbolic of him to save the pit bull because he was doing something his wife would've done and it's cute to see this one live a little longer. Since this was surprisingly not the end of Wick's journey, you can only pray that however it ends, it can be peaceful in his eyes. Reeves is indeed the selling point, yet we still get an array of characters that plant the seeds of the franchise's creative lore. I might as well talk about the true villains of this story now since they're the reason this story gets in motion. Alfie Allen made it so easy to hate Iosef from the get go as he quickly showed him to be a cruel and spoiled man. You already know you're gonna hate him for killing the dog anyway, but later seeing he has no regret compared to others boosts it up. The guy acted like such a snake throughout as he kept trying to avoid danger, thinking he would never be harmed. So by the time he meets his fate, it's satisfying because he obviously had it coming. The only saddening thing about this character is that he didn't really have class compared to his father. Enter Michael Nyqvist who portrays Viggo as one who is very aware of his surroundings and actually tries to be cautious with his actions until push comes to shove. The last thing he ever wanted was to have conflict with Wick, hence replying 'Oh' to Aurelio once he found out what happened. He has seen his wrath and when we get to see it, we know he's not kidding. So trying to protect his son from such a figure is indeed a pickle because he knows the endgame. You do respect him for trying as much as he could because that is how strong parental love can be. It was a tough call to give his son up near the end, but he did it with the intent to get even, leading to killing Marcus. Even when his chances are slim, you still admire that he was willing to fight Wick because it proves that he is past being the coward of the situation. The only other villain that's easy to hate is Perkins, as Adrianne Palicki portrays him to be the most arrogant of assassins the franchise has shown thus far. She is the only one before Wick to actually break an important rule of the Continental, proving that rules have never applied to her. Despite her skills, there is no sympathy for her when she meets her fate as well because she should've known better that no one doesn't have consequences. I didn't think I would bring it up, but I thought Dean Winters was unintentionally hilarious as Viggo's lawyer/righthand Avi. The fact that he knows what world he partakes in and is so unprepared like Iosef is so baffling that I laugh. I even laugh when after Wick hits him with a car because at that point, he's just playing Allstate's Mayhem again. Considering that the criminal underworld is full of unpredictable figures, it is a relief that Wick found people to trust. You don't see that much of Winston in comparison to the sequels, but Ian McShane does take command of the character whenever onscreen. He's someone who has earned the power he has to use it as he pleases. This makes it a surprise that he appears to use it fairly by aiding Wick and executing Perkins. The best scene about seeing him with the lead is that you sense nothing but respect between them and it's cool to see it continue to be shown as the series progressed. I also enjoyed John Leguizamo as Aurelio because he plays him as one who seems to balance passion with work. He is passionate as a mechanic, which benefits him to provide for people connected to the Continental. With that balance comes a high load of respect to those he gives service to. He knew John and refused to work with someone that did him wrong, and that says a lot. Last but not least, Willem Dafoe was another welcome addition to the cast as Marcus. In his given time, he proved to be a worthy mentor and ally to the titular lead for being reliable and battle hardened, exactly what he taught him to be. He had his back until the end because that was clearly the closest thing he had to a son and wouldn't dare turning on him after the untold past they had. With him gone too, it drove Wick even further to get even and boy did he ever. I’ve given this movie more credit than it deserves, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t notice such flaws in a simple story. I know it is very cute to see that Helen organized for John to have a dog when she’s gone, but how did she not organize dog food as well? You’re going out of your way surprising your husband before you die with a new responsibility and miss that it has a specific preference of food. And it’s not like she didn’t have the money since she married an assassin who would care less about she spends. Of course this movie wouldn’t happen if Wick survives the break in and we all know Iosef is an idiot from the get go, but even if he’s going out of his way to do what he wants, that is killing a dog and stealing a car, it shouldn’t have been a hard decision for him to kill the owner whether or not he knew who he was. It’s cool exposition for Viggo to share how badass John is, in order for us to understand how dangerous he would show himself to be, but even if he never expected his son to run into him, he still should’ve told him who he was to prevent such hellfire. There is no doubt on how awesome the Red Circle shootout is, but that club should not have been open at all. You could say to ensure he would struggle to get to Iosef, but I think it’d be a bigger struggle for him if the club was closed and double the guards shown crowded him. It’s not like Viggo would waste time with autopsies unless it’s his son who he’s trying to protect. You wanna know what made me laugh when it shouldn’t? Avi asking for a gun when Wick is chasing them down. You are the lawyer/right hand to a Russian gangster, you should have a gun on you at all times you dumbass. However, you’ll still be having a blast if you can ignore these said issues. In short, John Wick is a dope action film for making bit of simplicity pay off in the long run. If you enjoy the action cuts loose in the best way, this is so gonna be worth your while.
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