Warren Gordon
Staff Writer
The suspense created in David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s film “John Wick” keeps viewers on the edge of their seats and holding their breath.
“John Wick”, directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, lacks engaging graphics, but contains a well written and focused plot, stunning acting, and creates suspense throughout the film.
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is an ex-hitman who just lost his wife to a fatal illness. While in mourning, Wick is robbed and brutally beaten by Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), who happened to be Wick’s old bosses’ son. Wick’s old boss, Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), was unaware of his son’s actions.
Even though Viggo has nothing to do with his son’s poor decision, he and all of his employees are in danger of Wick’s wrath. Wick, the best hitman Viggo employed, comes out of retirement to make sure Iosef pays.
The one disappointing aspect of this film is that it lacks high quality graphics. The picture display is a bit blurry and the computer generated edits do not do an impressive job of depicting a dead person. For example, when John kills most of Iosef’s guards, it is easy to tell they are fake bodies due to the poor computer generated edits.
Even though the graphics were not high quality, the plot and storyline of this film are very focused. For example, Wick’s outburst of rage was caused because they killed the one thing his wife left him, his puppy. Which not only brings an action side to this film, but also a caring view. This film is different from other films that use this plot because Wick is killing his victims not just because of random anger spurts, but because they killed something he genuinely loved.
On top of the focused plot, this film has a brilliant actor in Keanu Reeves. He probably has around 100 words in the whole movie, but is still able to instill fear into the audience and the other actors through his character’s horrifying actions and intimidating personality.
Also, Leitch and Staheiski pick support characters to bring humor into this film. John stays at a hotel where the hotel manager (Lance Reddick) tries to pretend like he does not know John Wick is killing people up stairs, but then when he calls Wick, he calmly asks him “Sir do you need anything?’, creating the funniest scene in the movie because the manager uses this question to hint at Wick to keep the killing down.
Also adding to the film’s success is its creation of many scenes of suspense. For example, when Iosef and his friends rob Wick it has the audience on the edge of their seats. Due to Wick’s character, the audience is rooting for Wick and this causes the audience to be worried when Wick gets brutally beat.
Overall this film is humorous, action-packed, thrilling. Everyone in this film helps in its success, and with a well written script and skillful acting, it becomes an intense, must see film.
“John Wick” is rated R and playing in theaters nationwide.
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