I hadn’t gone back and rewatched John Wick since the third movie came out. I had forgotten how amazing the first movie was. The amount of world building that happens throughout this movie from just reactions to hearing the name of the titular character. That’s on top of the more obvious worldbuilding that happens throughout the story.
Derek Kolstad did an amazing job of establishing this world that feels heightened in interesting ways. It has the same feel as a comic book or video game, especially with how the subtitles look. Chad Stahelski did a fantastic job with directing this movie. I know that both he and David Leitch worked very closely together, almost co-directing the movie.
This is kind of the beginning of Keanu Reeves’ action movie resurgence. I had forgotten how stacked the cast of John Wick was. Outside of Reeves, there’s Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianna Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, and Willem Dafoe that are also in the movie. There’s not a single person in this cast that doesn’t knock it out of the park. Every single person makes the worldbuilding stick as well as it does.
The stunt team did an amazing job with all of the stunts. The fights have a very raw feel to them, almost conveying the emotional state of the central character. The driving stunts are awesome, and I feel like that’s the best way to describe those stunts. The effects give the stunts an extra weight. Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard’s score adds a certain feel to the movie. The set and costume designers give the world and characters the right kind of feel.
John Wick is an amazing action movie that lets the characters express more emotions than just anger, though anger is a central feeling. I was one of the first people in my friend group that watched this when it first came out and recommended it, even though several scoffed at it. I even chose John Wick’s monologue in a class in college. I also wanted to give the series a rewatch before the fourth movie comes out in a couple of months. That will be much easier with all three of the movies being on HBO Max right now. I give John Wick 9.5 gold coins out of 10. [kofi]
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