Besides more shots to the face than maybe any movie I've ever seen, not since The Matrix (ironically another Keanu Reeves movie) have I seen guns look sexier in a film. There's a killer scene when Reeves' Wick constructs his own gun out of the spare parts of an old model and another big applause line comes when in a deadpan he announces he "needs a lot of guns."
I have know idea how Reeves feels about gun off-screen or the filmmakers for this matter, but I know how I feel about them -- I hate them. You wanna hunt, do target practice -- sure, fine. But I'm one of the most pro-gun control people you've ever seen -- it's just common sense, as far as I'm concerned.
But I'd be lying if I didn't totally get a thrill out of Reeves (and Halle Berry) massacring anyone who gets in their way with an arsenal of weapons.
It helps considerably that the violence in the Wick films is pretty cartoonishly outlandish. You rarely see the after effects of the carnage. In fact, in this new film many of the people who get shot and killer are wearing helmets, so we never even see their faces.
But every once and a while I found myself stepping outside myself and wondering: Why do I like this? Am I a violent person deep down inside, are all of us?
Of course, I am not the first person to point this out. The right in particular loves to troll the left about the violent Hollywood movies it makes and enjoys. It's supposed to highlight our supposed hypocrisy on guns although making a piece of fiction that is violent isn't the same thing as condoning violence.
Still, I have some ambiguous feelings here. I have never watched a violent movie and thought 'I want to go do that.' That doesn't absolve me or anyone else involved from feeling a little bit of requisite guilt. Ironically my favorite action set piece in the film (and one of the best I've ever seen) involved knife throwing, but there's no question that the gun is our hero's weapon of choice and therefore it becomes ours.
I am not advocating against movies like these. I am not even anti-cartoon violence per se. I have been and probably always will be an enormous James Bond fan and maybe only twice over the course of that 57 year old franchise have they ever made a death mean something (think the endings of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Skyfall).
Nothing really matters in the John Wick universe, except maybe his dog and to a lesser extent his car. This is a series which suggests that nearly everyone is a badass assassin (although never more badass than Wick) and if you if you embrace that conceit than you also pretty much have to see life as being pretty cheap in these movies.
When the movie was over, I felt wiped. It was a real endurance test in some ways. And I am not sure if the series will age well as we continue to reflect on this era of mass shootings being the new normal. On the other hand, this fantasy violence -- which has no real repercussions and is meant to simply entertain -- can provide a cathartic rush and a diversion from the terrors of the real world.
That's what these films have done for me, for the most part. But I can understand why some people may want to walk away from this book rather than read chapter four.
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