John Wick

John Wick is a lot of fun. The soundtrack adds just the right energy, the composition is interesting both in terms of lighting and blocking, there's some cool stuff going on with the action, and Keanu doesn't have too many opportunities to ruin scenes with his signature brain-dead delivery. 

John Wick looked like a cool movie from the trailer; there were some standout action sequences that made it seem like it would be unique, and I was hoping Keanu Reeves' acting wouldn't ruin this movie like it did Johnny Mnemonic. His delivery in the trailer was pretty terrible. One of his first scenes in the movie is with Willem Dafoe, and the contrast between their levels of acting is crazy. It's like Keanu is reading off of cue cards and Willem is just an actual person saying something.

Luckily Keanu doesn't have a lot of dialogue. He's primarily just doing stunts, most of which he apparently performed himself, so that's cool. I always get a little lost with close combat. It's tough to tell what's going on, and these fight scenes were no exception. I wish I could've seen it in the theater; a bigger screen might have helped, but it didn't come to the cheap theater. It seems like they only get kids' movies anymore.

The soundtrack was great. It sounded good, it fit what was going on, and it added just the right kind of energy. The composition was great, too, both in terms of lighting/colors and blocking/framing. The sets were gorgeous, and the neon overhead shots of New York were cool. John's house was actually designed to be an art gallery, so it had lots of windows and light, and it looked perfect. The art director said he wanted something everyone would want to live in, and he really hit the mark.

Everything was super sleek and opulent for the whole movie. John's suit looked great. The wacky subtitles were a misfire. I don't know if they were going for a comic-book feel or just trying to do something different, but it was just annoyingly distracting. The different sizes and placements just weren't necessary. There's nothing wrong with regular subtitles.

John was a machine, but his one mistake was not killing Ms. Perkins. I almost feel like it's a little sexist. She was trying to kill him just the same as all the guys he killed were, so he should've just killed her. I guess he's allowed to have flaws, though. Maybe it makes it more realistic that he wouldn't do everything perfectly. I wasn't impressed with the final fight against Viggo, either. It looked like they were both just weak and slow. And I don't see how Viggo got put out of commission/killed by a knife in the shoulder.

All the cameos were a nice touch. The directors wanted to have somebody recognizable in every role, and they did a good job with that. I couldn't figure out where I knew Bridget Regan from, so I was preoccupied with that for a while. I liked the variety of weapons John used, especially the machine gun in the church. It would've been pretty easy to take John out, though. All you needed to do was send in the SWAT team in raid armor (or something like it; obviously not an actual SWAT team), or get one solid sniper like Willem who was actually willing to kill him. It's pretty unrealistic that Viggo couldn't take care of one guy, but I guess there wouldn't be a move otherwise.

I also liked that Ms. Perkins was just as much of a badass as everyone else. The character was originally male, but the directors wanted to work more women into the movie. I don't know why she even bothered trying to kill him in the hotel. I guess maybe she thought it would be easy money and she could get away. It seems like you wouldn't want to try to kill anyone at The Continental unless you were like John and you didn't really care if you lived through it/after it or not.

It seemed pretty reckless of Iosef to steal John's car without doing any research on him. He's obviously got some juice, so you would want to find out who he is before you just steal from him. Viggo has a lot of associates, and you could be stealing from someone he doesn't want you to. I guess Iosef wasn't the most responsible person, though. It seemed like Viggo was probably disappointed in him even before he stole the car.

I don't know how reasonable it is that John could get out of the business like that. Maybe with Viggo protecting him, if people knew Viggo would come after them if anything happened to John.

The ending didn't exactly work for me. It seemed like he must be at the vet with all those medical supplies, so he was just stealing someone else's sick dog from the vet. Apparently the note on the cage said "put down," but I certainly didn't see it. It's good that he got a new dog, though.