John Wick: Action Squared – Editorial

Premise

Action movies have been the money getters of the movie industry since the beginning. Even people that have a particular ‘genre’ they watch obsessively won’t shy away from a really good action movie. After all, almost all the famous one-liners you can think of are from action blockbusters. Be it Arnold in a tank top or James Bond in a suave suit. But action movies can be more than just a testosterone rollercoaster. If you’ve said to me that Action movies can be artistic in their own gritty way a few years ago, I would’ve thought of you as a Michael Bay’s fanboy. But John Wick proved me wrong.

Related: ‘John Wick’ Review

John Wick is an assassin in an underworld that’s hidden in plain sights of our everyday world. They have their own institutions, clubs, hotels, currency and even rules… Isn’t that interesting?? A modern-day assassin world that kills for money and power while obeying rules. I’ll say that’s fresh air in decades of explosions and smoke bombs filled action jungle. If you haven’t watched John Wick yet, I strongly recommend you do.

Argument

From the beginning, John Wick makes us feel how dark and humorless the movie is gonna be. The movie story in a single sentence – “Keanu Reeves runs around killing nameless mercenaries searching for the murderer of his dog.” Yeah… I know how that sounds. But still, I’ll say John Wick surprised me. And that is really really really hard to do.

The way a professional killer presents his work, killing anybody that stands in his personal quest is absolutely exhilarating. Since the beginning, everybody seems to know who John is and fear the very mention of his name. Even the most feared crime overlord of the city shakes in his boots when he learns that his only son just signed his own death warrant by killing John Wick’s dog and stealing his beloved machina (Russian for Car).

BABA YAGA… translates to “The Boogeyman”. Every culture has a boogeyman as the center of its horror stories. John Wick is the Boogeyman of the assassin world. He is so skilled that he killed three men in a bar with a fucking pencil. These are not my praises. The crime overlord explains who John Wick is while mercilessly beating his own son using the exact words above.

The way John Wick unfurls… is a work of art. Every fight is overshadowed by the next one. The directors of the movie were fight masters for the last decade or so of their lives. They know how to build a story of an action hero and how not to disappoint when the time comes to awe us with the bloody kills, single shot fights, owning a gun like a boss. Unlike typical action heroes that spray bullets like water.

Conclusion

John Wick is undoubtedly a revelation in action movies. He’s an action hero that the thinning community of action movie lovers so needs. I hope John Wick 3 (releasing 16 May, 2019) will kill it as the first two did (pun intended).

Stream: John Wick (2014) Available on Netflix

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Suhel Abdulla

Another Engineer this world wanted but never needed. I was surrounded my whole life by the three most successful religions in the whole world. I was born a Muslim, grew up around Hindus and my School Teachers were Christians. I won’t assume, I won’t blame and I won’t shame. I listen, I understand and I write. I don’t have any complaints, just concerns. I'm curious enough to learn from the past, care for the present and hope for the future. I love Freedom of speech and writing keeps me free.

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