Those scary Russians.
It’s funny to see the “Russian mafia” in American films that often have no idea what they’re shooting. It is even more amusing when these “Russians” throw “creepy” terms like Baba Yaga, or sing a “sinister” song about a top that bites the barrel of naughty children. But it is not a serious action film. This film tells us the story of unshaven Keanu Reeves as an incredibly cool killer. A couple of scoundrels from a large criminal gang steal a car and kill the dog of the main character, which his deceased lover gave him, after which the hero, the same John Wick, goes to revenge. After a couple of calls and a dozen corpses, the entire criminal community stands up against him. How this mess will end is clear to anyone who knows even a little about American militants. The plot of the film is not much different from its relatives - the usual turns for this genre, typical hero-villain confrontation, the same predictable and illogical characters in behavior. The logic of the behavior of the characters, especially the villain and especially in the end, can be explained only by one reason - that the main character had a reason to spectacularly shoot at enemies. And I have to say, he's very good at it.
The first such shootout looked impressive - gloomy Keanu Reeves deftly wets villains accompanied by a lullaby about the top, which here sounds unexpectedly pathetic. But nothing more original than the movie. All the shootings are very high quality. They look great on the screen, and the lack of a trembling camera, which many modern action movies sin, makes them even more magnificent. But the problem is that they are too monotonous. Almost all such scenes boil down to the fact that dressed in a black suit, John Wick kills the same as Smith’s agents, bandits.
If you look at the characters that differ from each other not only the place where GG shot them, and from which the dark underworld is composed, you can see many interesting personalities. A sniper with a mysterious past, played as always by the magnificent Willem Dafoe, an old man-cleaner, a woman-cat of a local spill... Add to that a hotel for special visitors and a couple of mysterious little things like coins, which are valued above the late green presidents, and you get a whole underground empire, well organized and existing by its own laws. However, to destroy this lovely picture was enough just a couple of terrible, terrible Russians who act here as the main villains. Maybe to create the right impression for the American viewer villain enough to throw a few phrases in chewed Russian, but from the point of view of the Russian consumer it looks quite comical. Especially when the villains call John Wick, this unshaven Neo in a mourning suit, a lame humpback with a broom - Baba Yaga that is.
For the same reason, the film feels more like a comedy than the serious action movie it wants to appear to be. Accordingly, the degree of experience decreases, because American comedy can not end badly, even if the beginning has it. But to be called a comedy, funny villains alone are not enough. There is no meat or fish at all.
6 out of 10
Original
