“Have I killed your dog?”. Well, nobody’s happy if someone hurts his dog, especially if it’s the last gift from his beloved passed away wife, and his name is John Wick, a repented former killer who decided to change his path. And he’s not an everyday killer, but the cruellest and most precise assassin ever known, if we don’t consider politicians and dictators.
Forget death-wishers and macho man heroes from the 80s; John Wick is out of their league. His origins are comics, games and cinematic nerdism; that’s why this action is not flat EEG as it seems. Wick is an Unforgiven who mourns on his wife’s grave and gets machine gun revenge for his puppy on the Road to Perdition. Very well balanced, even if it’s a strange adjective for the genre, between a graphic novel and video gaming onanism, John Wick choreographs and sublimates a harmless History of Violence. The Eastern Promises are all kept ‘till the last body count, not one in excess, but not even one less.
In this universe wanders the ghost of Neo, a perfect mask and puppet Keanu Reeves, surrounded by classy supporting actors, especially Willem Dafoe and Ian McShane.
If you want to turn off your brain during John Wick, it’s your call, but you’d probably lose many bright things hidden behind digital vaporized blood.