John Wick Chapter 2 is a sequel that builds up on the first movie and brings back the non-stop action that is the staple of the franchise.  Directed by Chad Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad, John Wick Chapter 2 brings back the same cast and crew as the original and of course welcomes new editions in Common, Ruby Rose and Laurence Fishburne

John Wick Chapter 2 starts from the opening scene to the end in non stop action and the movie takes you on joyous thrill ride. This movie builds upon the awesomeness of the first movie by doing some great world building and expanding the lore in the world. John Wick, played wonderfully by Keanu Reeves, is back and this time his motives for coming back are unclear but man does he have a vengance. There are even more action and more action set pieces than the first one and, of course, more headshots.

This time Wick has to travel all the way to Rome as someone from his past forces him to take someone else out before Wick can go back into retirement. This movie splits its location time up quite fairly between Rome and New York City, and it works out really well, as we get to see what the assassin world looks like in another country.

John Wick Chapter 2 of course brings in some new faces in Ruby Rose, Common and Laurence Fishburne. Common and Ruby Rose play other assassins that are both after Wick and both give really good performances and both surprised me with how well they handled the action scenes. Ruby Rose was fine as she played a mute assassin and I’m not really the biggest fan of her or her acting so not having to hear her talk made the film a bit better. I was honestly surprised by how well Common’s character was in this film. He played Cassian another assassin who goes toe to toe with the Boogeyman and proves to be a worthy foe. And of course the last addition to the cast which may be the biggest is Reeves former Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne as The Bowery King. It was awesome to see Neo and Morpheus back on screen together and their chemistry together is of course impeccable.

This time the action in John Wick is even bigger and better than the first. In an interview I watched Director Chad Stahelski stated that he knew the action set pieces he wanted going in and revolved the story around them. These set pieces are in the Catacombs in Italy, All around the City in New York and lastly in a Art museum. This time the violence holds no barred and there is of course a memorable action scene revolving around a pencil that is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

Another thing I have to applaud the director Chad Stahelski for is not using the stereotypical shaky camera and quick cuts to hide the acts. Instead he uses an incredible stunt team and hardcore training with each actor to make sure that each action scene is in clear focus and never confusing. Stahelski uses huge wide shots to and close ups of the actors to not hide the weakness of the actors.

John Wick Chapter 2 provides to be one of the few sequels that is as good as if not even better than the first movie. By building up the assassin world and creating even more unique action scenes John Wick Chapter 2 provides to be a tour de france for Keanu as his character looks to be gearing up to one heck of a fight in the eminent Chapter 3 that should beautifully close out this trilogy of this dangerous assassin known as “The Boogeyman.”