[video=youtube;i3P1ejh9pGs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3P1ejh9pGs[/video]
A review worth watching...
Cool video, nice to see that even in something which is more or less a straight forward action film, and there's a lot more too it than first meets the eye.
Great movie.
Man, somehow John Wick's become a strangely fascinating movie to me because I just don't get it, and any explanations or analyzes like this one just add to that feeling.
After my first viewing I just assumed people just liked it for a mix of the usual spectacle combined with an unapologetically straight-faced celebration of ancient action flick tropes, but stuff like this video is making it seem like somehow people are seeing so much more in something that I don't see anything at all in. And it's not like I'm approaching this from a "ah yes what trite entertainment mmm yes quite" angle either, in fact I feel like I'm missing out on something.
For example, the review comes back to its catharsis point several times throughout the video and how important the setup was for making Keanu feel human. But the "my wife died, I'm a hardened shell now" backstory is ancient even without doubling as a revenge motivation, and "kick the dog" has been too on-the-nose even for Saturday morning cartoon villains for a while now. It's how nobody would write the line "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." anymore unless it's supposed to be a post-modern wink at the camera. It's like a buddy cop show starting with the lose cannon protagonist meeting his veteran partner who's one week away from retirement, or a Romance flick starting with a girl instantly falling in love with a dashing rogue despite already being promised to a rich asshole, or a Fantasy film where the hero starts as a young boy in a beautiful quaint village enjoying its summer moments before it turns into a sea of fire and demons/evil soldiers.
And the movie continued to check so many old boxes like "double entendre cleaning services", "infinite goons because mafia boss", "neutral grounds because gentleman killers club" etc that it left me all but convinced that it was supposed to be just a big "yeah it's cheesy as hell, but we adore that stuff anyway" love letter to the genre.
I found it difficult to find anything interesting in the actual action as well, tho I probably would have a very different opinion on it if I was actually into gunporn or knew just how difficult it is to pull off that kind of choreography and hand-to-hand. I do really like action, but it needs to be creative or clever when I'm not emotionally invested in the character. On that note, the video made a big deal out of Wick's emotionless attitude during those fight scenes, but "cold rage" with a "no-nonsense attitude" is a pretty common disposition for protagonists to have nowadays, isn't it? It was funny when Indiana just shot the sword-twirling guy back in the day, but I think nowadays people are completely aware of that sorta thing and protagonists will rarely go THAT cheesy anymore. Oberon Martell was practically oozing death flags when he got emotional and twirled his spear in the face of his surely defeated opponent.
Or alternatively, the action needs to actually feel like we're struggling with the protagonist, but the mob boss made it abundantly clear in the intro bit that Wick is an action movie hero and this is an action movie and none of the NPCs can possibly pose a threat to the PC. He technically got hurt, but for the most part those were just the type of wounds to make a character look more badass and made me care about as much about his well-being as the cigarette in the mouth of a Noir detective. It's just there to make him look cooler.
Ignoring the personal motivation, the actual execution of the operation surely must have been just another work Tuesday for John Wick considering how he had been built up by the mob boss monologue. Which, incidentally, probably made for good trailer material, but as part of a movie kind of felt like going against "show don't tell" for no good reason (especially since Wick tearing up the weapon stash was such a powerful, well-crafted visual and IIRC it played in the same scene). Just seeing the mob boss already resigning himself to his fate was enough imo, spelling it out and coming up with a cool nickname felt kind of superfluos imo. "Boogeyman" was millimeters away from sounding super-cheesy, but "baba yaga" I think at least sounds a little silly to English ears and thus pushes it away from associated tryhard nicknames like "black reaper".
I dunno, maybe I just haven't seen enough movies to appreciate John Wick in context, or I've seen too similar fiction so I just see so many clichés that I can't appreciate the execution - tho like I said stuff like this video make it seem like there's actually more under the hood. Tho I can't say I was on board with the Olympus analogy, and even the video creator kind of had to wandwave and reach for straws to make some characters fit their pantheon role. What kind of pathetic, bone-dry "god of war" would resign himself to his fate and sigh with a drink in his hand instead of looking forward to going out in a blaze of glory against a worthwhile opponent?
Idk. Still sad that I "don't get it". But happy I finally got to vent somewhere. Maybe going into the movie with genre-impacting expectations was the equivalent to watching a disaster movie with a slapstick laughtrack in mind and wondering why the movie's being so serious when characters get hurt or die.
See, for me I don't think its a matter of getting anything. I didn't really pay attention to any of the sub-text. I'm glad that there is enough depth to the writing and themes that one CAN dig into it, but its one of my favourite action movies simply because its beautifully simple. The plot can be summed up in half of a sentence, but the action cannot.
It is a refreshing movie in that it doesn't get bogged down in pointless additional plot, and there aren't jump cuts and shaky cam fragmenting the action to the point where it may as well not be there.
These are the same reason why Mad Max: Fury Road was so popular. Simple plot, meaningful, but simple characters and incredible stunts and craftsmanship.
These movies don't try to do everything mediocre, they do a FEW things REALLY WELL.
honestly they could of avoided all of this if the mob boss told his son who it seemed like he already kind of hated "you're moving out now say hi to Wick for me when he finds you" [sp] considering he's willing to do that already near the end when he tells Wick where the kid is to get out of dying knowing full well Wick can pull it off[/sp]
why are mob bosses smart enough to become bosses but then become dumbasses when the hero shows up
[QUOTE=iamgoofball;51285648]honestly they could of avoided all of this if the mob boss told his son who it seemed like he already kind of hated "you're moving out now say hi to Wick for me when he finds you" [sp] considering he's willing to do that already near the end when he tells Wick where the kid is to get out of dying knowing full well Wick can pull it off[/sp]
why are mob bosses smart enough to become bosses but then become dumbasses when the hero shows up[/QUOTE]
Because it's his son?
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