John Wick: Chapter 2

Quite a lot of times, you see the second movie of a franchise not live up to the same standards as the first but John Wick 2 definitely did. You could argue that it was better than the first. Great movie all round.

The rare case of a really good sequel. It has everything what made the original movie so entertaining and adds more action. lore, worldbuilding and new characters. After rounding up the loose ends of the last movie John Wick wants to go back into retirement. However he had drawn a lot of attention towards him so a former associate wants to collect a debt from John and he cant refuse without dire consequences. This is the set up for the story. I was surprised that they made a sequel I would rate even higher than the first movie. It is immersive, hugely entertaining, has style and superb focus even on details. There is no boring scene, all sets look amazing and the characters were perfectly chosen. Keanu Reeve, Ian McShane, Lance **** and John Leguizamo return to their roles and fully deliver. They nail their roles and I want to see more of them. The new characters are equally strong. Ricardo Scarmarcio, Ruby Rose, Laurence Fishburne and Common (Lonnie Rashid Lynn) are so entertaining to watch. The action scenes are superb and the franchise is the poster child for the term Gun Fu. Nearly no (modern) movie makes you feel the impact and intensity like this. As example: Many movies are visually too dark and have shaky cameras during action scenes. Here they are fixated that you can clearly see whats going on. Lastly it has an incredible set up for a sequel. Overall this is for me slightly better than the original. Me and my friends were entertained from beginning to the end. Its a 10/10 for me.