Review of John Wick (2014) by Romanontherun — 18 Jan 2015
Ok, it's a bad movie. I've exected something simple yet smart (like Dredd) but what i've got...
1) The plot: old killer is in retirement, and some stupid spoiled kid kills his dog, so he goes on and kill spoiled kid, his father and every other dude on the way. It's not an oversimpliifcation, it's the actual plot.
2) The characters: John Wick is well...stylish, brutal, silent, but generic and boring. His the best killer ever and everyone - i've mean cop, receptionist, car repair owner, bartender, neighbours in the hotel - knows best killer in the face, by his name, knows his wife and about his retirement. Other guys just there. Russian godfather at least have SOME charisma, but it's as good as it gets.
3) The action: plain boring. There is no good choreography, no clever moves, no planing, nothing worth watching. Best killer, famous for performing impossible jobs acts as lazy hitman player - just shoot everyone on sight.
4) The russians (yep, i'm russian myself): Come on guys. Russian bad guys are cool, but at least make them not absurd. Baba Yaga (which was translated as Boogeyman) is actually charismatic clever very old lady (basically a witch), acts as both bad and good character in slavic folklore. Songs are out of place, accent is bad, phrases are wrong. (please note what is not about "as a russian I was insulted"; it's about overall quality and lazy work done with source material. It's really not that hard to do right.).
5) The connection: John Wick and villains are so plain and boring what you just do not care. You don't want to see spoiled kid dead (ask Game of Thrones fans about it), you don't want to see his father dead, you don't feel for John and his "friends".
6) The lore: for some reason killers have their own awesome hotel, use gold coins as currency (i've just assume it was old Russian Empire golden rubles - it's makes it even more absurd), everyone knows each other by name and in the face - yep, it's include the police. Awesome.
In the end it's just plain boring and bad movie without plot.
This review of John Wick (2014) was written by Romanontherun on 18 Jan 2015.
John Wick has generally received very positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
