A bit more of a continuation of the first film as opposed to a sequel, the lack of substance must rely much more this time on the stylized action to carry the weight. The first “John Wick” gave just enough emotional investment in the lead character for the audience to rally behind him and his quest for vengeance. Here, that backstory feel like a distant memory that is frequently waived in front of us early in the film as a reminder of what John Wick had lost. The new film changes his motivations from revenge to self-preservation. While it lacks the sympathetic narrative from the first movie, at the end of the day what people want to see is Wick in action. Once again, theirs is plenty of ballet-like kicking, punching and shooting. There’s even more violence and blood this time around, and considering the first film was famous for the hero’s tendency to shoot his enemies in the head, that’s an accomplishment. A few of the action scenes are a bit of a letdown, and although some of it seems repetitive near the end, there are a couple of standout sequences. Even though this film attempts to dig deeper into the franchise’s unique assassins club with killers on every street corner, very few of the characters are very interesting, including the main villain. The ending feels anticlimactic and it seems like there were more concerned about setting up a sequel than properly ending this story.
*** out of *****