John Wick

RATING: C+

Sometimes there are multiple ways to look at a movie; that could be said of this movie. While on one hand it's a typical "They killed my _____, now I will kill them all" revenge story, it could also be a look at what happens when a man loses everything and snaps; or even just an exercise in senseless killing.

Those other ideas may seem a little thin, but they're there. The story's pretty simple; it's about a retired hitman and recent widower who has his house broken into and dog killed by three thugs (hey, it was in the trailer), thus setting off a revenge killing spree--that for some people will be totally justified because the dog died--in which, in seemingly typical revenge movie fashion--the main character must kill the culprits, and everyone directly connected to them, and anyone else who just happens to get in his way.

That's basically it. There's not much of a plot elsewhere. It's just Keanu Reeves not looking his 50 years as he blows everyone's head off with the skills of "gun-fu," and uses admittedly awesome hand-to-hand combat skills when necessary as well. There's a massive underworld criminal operation going on, but it's not nearly as fleshed out as it could be, leaving us guessing at how some of the things work. In fact, there actually is a bit of backstory that's left out at times, it feels like.

The other problem is that even though the main culprits are eventually killed and given their comeuppance, there's still 25 minutes of movie left. So we still have one more fight scene coming up, obviously. At that point, though, a lot of people really aren't going to care. I certainly didn't; I enjoyed the final shootout and fight for its action, but I didn't care about the stakes at all. In other words, even though this movie is only 101 minutes, it's still somehow too long. Or something.

Despite a pretty thin plotline, it's still not a total mess. The action scenes are, for the most part, pretty undeniably fun, even though the killing eventually gets a little old. There's a pretty decent cast, which includes Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, and the Allstate "mayhem" guy (yes, seriously). Keanu Reeves actually manages to put out some pretty good moments of acting as well. And there's some pretty humorous dialogue regarding how much of a super-assassin John Wick is. The direction's fairly stylish as well.

I don't entirely know what I was expecting from this film, but I was sort of hoping for something resembling an actual plot besides the typical revenge story. It would've also helped if the generally fun atmosphere that reared its head at times during the first two-thirds hadn't more or less disappeared during the final act. It's not a bad action movie, but I guess I just don't see how an almost plot-less movie combined with often senseless killing makes for greatness.