In my review of John Wick: Chapter 2, I talked about how it was largely a successful sequel by building off the groundwork of the first movie. However, I also pointed out that the movie is at odds with its protagonist. John Wick is a character who doesn’t want to kill anymore, but the film and the audience love seeing him kill. What’s troubling about Chapter 2 is where it leaves the character, the franchise, and how it sets its priorities for the next chapter.

[Spoilers ahead for John Wick: Chapter 2]

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Image via Lionsgate

In case you need a brief refresher, here’s how John Wick: Chapter 2 ends: John Wick, having broken the rules of The Continental by killing Santino D'Antonio on the grounds of the hotel, goes to meet his fate in the park. He assumes that he’s going to be killed for breaking the rules, but instead, Winston informs Wick that he’s getting a one-hour head start. However, he will no longer have the protections or benefits provided to the secret society of assassins. Wick runs, surrounded by people checking their phones to learn of the massive bounty on his life.

The setup for the third movie becomes clear: Wick may be an expert killer, but the third film will remove all of the benefits he received in the first two movies, so he’ll be at a disadvantage. He’s going to be out in the open using only his wits and his skills to survive. And if you’re looking for more action mayhem, that’s not a bad way to end a movie.

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Image via Lionsgate

Unfortunately, that’s not the best priority for a sequel to have. John Wick: Chapter 2 essentially makes a choice it doesn’t have to make. Rather than develop the character of John Wick and give him a compelling arc that will carry him into future films, Chapter 2 comes down on the side of the audience’s bloodlust. It assumes you’re there for the countless headshots, and that you’ll return for future installments to see more nameless henchman get bullets to the sternum and skull.

But that’s not the strongest way to continue a franchise if you want people to care about characters. Ultimately, set pieces come and go. They’re fun in the moment, and you may think about them from time to time, but characters last longer, and John Wick: Chapter 2 feints at creating an interesting arc for the protagonist. While the first movie was a lean action-thriller that could coast on John Wick having a direct goal motivated by a clear inciting incident (the death of a puppy left to him by his late wife), Chapter 2 wants to make the world bigger. Unfortunately, it doesn’t know exactly how to do that with Wick.

It starts at an interesting place: John Wick does not want to be a killer anymore. He wants to live out his days in peace, and D’Antonio won’t let him. However, in the scheme of the film, there are only two scenes where Wick’s desire for peace emerges. The first scene where he refuses D’Antonio and refuses his blood marker, and the scene where he gets his weapons back and screams in anger at having to suit up again.

And that’s about it. From there, John Wick is a killing machine, and for people who like the John Wick movies to see a killing machine at work, the film is a success. But that makes Wick a less interesting character, and the film misses opportunity after opportunity to check in with what makes John Wick tick. Instead of exploring why he wants to leave his assassin’s life behind, he simply keeps coming across characters who suggest that deep down he doesn’t really want to quit being a killer, which is far less interesting.

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Image via Lionsgate

For example, take the scene where he’s come to kill Gianna D'Antonio. This could have been a great moment for Wick. In this situation, he’s not killing in self-defense or taking revenge. If anything, this is almost a flashback to what his life was like before the first movie: taking assignments to kill people. But the earlier scenes establish he doesn’t want to do this anymore. While the movie kind of lets Wick off the hook by establishing that Gianna is a bad person, rather than having Wick wrestle with what he must do, the movie luxuriates in Gianna’s suicide. The film cares more about a character who only has two scenes in the entire series than its protagonist. While it’s nice that Gianna goes out on her own terms, I don’t really care about her. The scene should tell us more about Wick, and it doesn’t do that.

The film misses another opportunity in his relationship with Cassian. Instead of using these fights to illustrate that Wick doesn’t want to be a killer anymore, the movie indulges in fisticuffs without any real emotional payoff. When Wick sticks a knife in Cassian’s chest, but allows him the mercy of not killing him, the movie simply goes with a cool callback line, “Consider it a professional courtesy.” It doesn’t illustrate that Wick doesn’t want to be a killer or that he’s stuck in a world where people behave professionally but not personally. For John Wick: Chapter 2, the primary concern is always the action.

Which puts the franchise in a difficult position, because now everything depends on the set pieces rather than the character. Stories about characters endure longer than stories about action scenes. The biggest weakness of the John Wick franchise is that when it indulges too much in action, it comes off like a video game. You see it in the club scene in the first film and in the catacombs in Chapter 2. John Wick is essentially a video game character playing in god mode. He has no weaknesses and he always hits his shot.

But where Chapter 2 makes the priorities for the franchise clear is in its final scene. Rather than try to complete Wick’s arc and dig into the concept of a man who doesn’t want to kill anymore, Chapter 2 gleefully sets up a worldwide bloodbath. It’s a huge missed opportunity to have the audience consider their bloodlust and where their sympathies lie. Instead of sympathizing with Wick and his desire not to be a killer, the movie sides with the audience and promises that in a world filled with assassins (which just looks dumb, by the way; crowding the final scene with assassins removes the secrecy and allure of the society and makes it look like they’re all part of the same Meetup group), he must slay everyone.

That’s a problem for future John Wick movies. I don’t doubt that they’ll be stylish and have fun kills, but characters are more important than set pieces. Just look at The Two Towers. The Battle of Helm’s Deep is an incredible set piece, but when people go to cite that movie, they don’t reach for clips from that action scene. They go to this:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/k6C8SX0mWP0?ecver=2

 

It’s a speech about character and what these characters will do in a tough world. It connects with life outside the picture and our place in it. Characters are more important than set pieces, but John Wick: Chapter 2 doesn’t seem to realize this. There needs to be a balance between character stakes and the action. Yes, John McClane is a badass in Die Hard, but his arc is about a guy who doesn’t want to be a one-man wrecking crew, and is forced every step of the way to be the hero even though he just wants to reunite with his wife. In the better Bond films like Skyfall, you have Bond considering his place in an ever-changing world and if there’s still room for an old spy like him. When you put character first, you come away with a more meaningful and lasting movie.

On the one hand, if Chad Stahelski returns to direct and Derek Kolstad writes the script for John Wick: Chapter 3, I’m sure it will be a well-made action movie that further expands the world. And yet Chapter 2 shows the risk of indulging in action at the expense of character. To turn John Wick into nothing more than a killing machine ultimately shortchanges what this franchise could be. The ending of Chapter 2 isn’t about a man coming to terms with his desires or the impossibility of finding peace. It’s about teasing the audience that there will be more headshots.

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