“I’m not that guy anymore.” (Don’t worry, yeah he is)
With the release of John Wick, Keanu Reeves entered a Liam-Neeson-like sphere of reinvention. He had always been somewhat of an action star – Point Break, Speed, The Matrix et al – but there was always a bit of restraint to those roles, he had to strap on that cool, calm, Keanu demeanor and act as the eye of the storm swirling around him. Also worth noting, in each of those films he’s the clear-cut good guy. But with Wick, Keanu got to keep the demeanor but tweak it for an anti-hero instead, one who unleashed brutal hell on anyone he came in contact with him. It made the character (and the actor) more of a badass, this balance of placidity and violence, and it also made for the most successful film fronted by Reeves in a good while.
So naturally, there’s going to be a sequel, and also naturally, the filmmakers took all the elements we loved about the first film and blew them way the hell up into a bigger, bloodier, more bombastic and explosive second chapter. Don’t believe they could actually top the first film? You don’t have to, you can see for yourself in the first official trailer for John Wick Chapter 2, released today.
Somewhere Jason Statham is leveling his agent with a roundhouse kick for not getting him this role. But honestly, anyone else and John Wick might be as rote as the Mechanic sequel. In part it is the cult of Keanu and his perennial status as one of our favorite underdogs that makes the film such a delight. We’re not really rooting for John Wick when we watch John Wick, we’re cheering the resurgence of one of our favorite and uniquely-American thespians.
John Wick Chapter 2 sees the eponymous assassin come out of retirement (again) to infiltrate a guild of his peers and initiate what looks to be a battle royale of the world’s top paid killers. Common, John Leguizamo, Laurence Fishburne (Matrix reunion!), Ruby Rose, Franco Nero, and Ian MacShane co-star, and the film hits theaters February 10th, 2017.
Related Topics: Action
