John Wick (film series)
John Wick is an American action film series developed by Lionsgate . It consists of three films so far, all of which were directed by Chad Stahelski and in which Keanu Reeves embodies the main character that gives the title.
overview
Film series
| year | German title | Original title | Director | script |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | John Wick | John Wick | Chad Stahelski & David Leitch | Derek Kolstad |
| 2017 | John Wick: Chapter 2 | John Wick: Chapter 2 | Chad Stahelski | |
| 2019 | John Wick: Chapter 3 | John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum | Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten , Chris Collins & Marc Abrams | |
| 2022 | John Wick: Chapter 4 | John Wick: Chapter 4 | still unknown | |
| - | John Wick: Chapter 5 | John Wick: Chapter 5 | ||
| - | ballerina | ballerina | Len Wiseman | Shay had |
Television series
In June 2017 it was reported for the first time that Lionsgate was planning a prequel series for the “magical, mythical world of the killer hotel” under the title The Continental . In January 2018, the American television station Starz gave the green light for the series, in which Chris Collins will act as screenwriter and showrunner . Chad Stahelski is expected to direct the pilot and produce the series with David Leitch and Derek Kolstad . Keanu Reeves , on the other hand, is said to work as an executive producer and also have an appearance as John Wick , even if The Continental is not supposed to revolve around his character. In July 2019, Jeffrey Hirsch , the CEO of Starz, gave an update on the production status. Accordingly, the series will only appear after John Wick: Chapter 4 . In addition, it should be very close to the films, but at the same time introduce its own characters and thus hardly influence the actions of the John Wick parts.
action
John Wick
Shortly after the wife of John Wick, a retired hit man, dies of illness, the widower is ambushed by a group of three at his home, killing his late wife's dog and stealing his car. Through contacts he can find out that the leader of the group is Iosef Tarasov, the son of his former employer Viggo Tarasov, whereupon he swears revenge. Since Viggo has also learned what his son has done in the meantime and he wants to protect him, he assigns some supporters of his syndicate to kill Wick, but this fails. Viggo then puts a bounty of two million US dollars on him and also assigns Marcus, an acquaintance of Wick, to kill him. Since Iosef escapes a first attack by John, the latter burns down Viggo's money hiding place, which leads to a confrontation between the two. Viggo's men can overwhelm John at first, but are turned off by Marcus, who shows solidarity with Wick. John can then get the whereabouts of his son from Viggo, whereupon he visits Iosef, switches off his protectors and finally kills him too. Almost at the same time, Viggo murders Marcus because of his betrayal, which is why John subsequently kills Viggo.
John Wick: Chapter 2
A few days after Viggo Tarasov's death, John Wick is visited by Santino D'Antonio, who once helped him to leave the milieu and received a coin from John for it. D'Antonio asks John to do an assignment for him, but Wick initially refuses, which is why D'Antonio burns his house down. Afterwards John is reminded by Winston, the manager of the Continental Hotel, on the floor of which killing is not allowed, that a guilt coin is mandatory. He then accepts D'Antonio's order: he should kill his sister Gianna so that Santino can get to her seat in the High Chamber. Although John was able to successfully carry out the assignment in Rome and thereby eliminate numerous followers of Gianna, Santino has also turned against Wick in the meantime in order to avenge the murder of his sister. Because of this, he puts a $ 7 million bounty on Wick, causing all of the New York assassins to come after him. Wounded by several battles, John finally seeks the help of the Bowery King, the leader of a network of false homeless people in the underworld, who supplies him with weapons and ammunition. After Wick was able to kill D'Antionio's followers piece by piece, Santino flees to the Continental, where he feels safe. But Wick kills him within the walls of the hotel, which is why John is informed a little later by Winston that his bounty has been doubled and that he will be denied any support in the future due to his rule violation.
John Wick: Chapter 3
With the "excommunication" of John Wick imminent and all the hit men in town hunting him down, his goal is to get out of New York. To do this, he seeks out the director, a woman from his Belarusian past, who smuggles him to Casablanca. There he asks the hit man Sofia, from whom he still has a debt token, to take him to the elder, a high-ranking member of the High Chamber, from whom he hopes to get his bounty waiver. Together they manage to get to the whereabouts of the elder via the assassin Berrada and then to eliminate Berrada and his men after a confrontation between the two parties. In the desert, the completely exhausted John finally meets the elder, who agrees to waive John's bounty if he swears his loyalty to the High Commer and kills Winston. This is accused by a judge, as well as the Bowery King and the director, of having helped Wick in the illegal murder of Santino D'Antonio and the subsequent escape, which is why he should resign but did not. Since John refuses to kill the hotel manager back in New York, the judge secularizes the New York Continental, which allows killing inside the hotel. John and the Concierge Charon are able to kill all attackers sent by the High Chamber under the direction of the hit man Zero, which is why Winston and the judge agree on a deal: in return for the reopening of the Continental, Winston swears his loyalty to the High Chamber again. He then shoots Wick, who falls from the roof of the hotel and is then picked up by a trailer of the Bowery King, who was previously badly wounded by Zero. Both join forces against the High Chamber.
Cast and dubbing
Film staff
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
John Wick (2014) |
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) |
John Wick: Chapter 3 (2019) |
|
| Director | Chad Stahelski & David Leitch | Chad Stahelski | |
| script | Derek Kolstad | Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten , Chris Collins & Marc Abrams | |
| production | Basil Iwanyk , David Leitch, Eva Longoria & Michael Witherill | Basil Iwanyk & Erica Lee | |
| music | Tyler Bates & Joel J. Richard | ||
| camera | Jonathan Sela | Dan Laustsen | |
| cut | Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir | Evan ship | |
reception
Stylistics and analysis
Because all of the films were directed by Chad Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad , they all share the same visual and narrative style for Kevin Lincoln of Vulture . Compared to other representatives of the genre, however, the films were produced on a comparatively low budget. Contrary to the usual starting points for action films, such as attacks, crimes or similar events, the plot of the film series is triggered by something banal, domestic, understandable and sensitive: John Wick's puppy is killed. As a result, the hardly speaking, calm and modest main character leads the viewer into a world full of assassins with their own etiquette , aesthetics and traditions, which are also subject to an elaborate mythology, such as paying with gold coins or the Continental Hotel. In choreographed scenes with many long takes, the professional killer has to fight against mostly faceless opponents, with John Wick actor Keanu Reeves doing almost 90% of his stunts himself using the weapon-based martial art called 3-gun , in which he uses the weapon Swing "like a sword" and kill opponents at close range. Stahelski used neither close-ups nor shaky handheld cameras in these fight scenes, so that the full extent of the fights can be seen directly in front of the lens.
For Jacob Hall of Slashfilm.com , the John Wick film series is full of character, humor, and details that reward careful planning. In this way, Stahelski and Kolstad created a world with lots of little hints and symbols that were built together like a legend. In particular, the criminal underworld resembles a Greek myth in which John Wick is the strong but not invulnerable title hero. The world around him is tailor-made for his specific abilities, but at the same time his actions never affect the “real world” but only a parallel reality. Wick only kills other contract killers and their followers, also because there is not a single civilian in the films apart from Helen Wick . In addition, there is an office with outdated technology in which murder inquiries are processed, the Bowery King with an army of fake homeless people and the High Chamber, which is not questioned. As a result, there is just enough realism, even with the exaggerated action, so that it doesn't drift into the unrealistic. In between the fight scenes, however, the films would also show plenty of humor. Similar to silent films, the joke is purely visual, since John Wick does not speak much. In addition, the main character himself takes the completely exaggerated and thus amusing action very seriously, which Keanu Reeves illustrates with a rigid calmness and an expressionless face in dangerous situations. This also underpins Wick's constant grief, which has made revenge his lifestyle. He doesn't kill to look cool, but rather quickly and efficiently, shooting his opponent in the head to save time and energy, since the opponents are not targets, only obstacles. In these long shots, Stahelski refrains from extreme close-ups and always keeps the faces of the actors in the picture so that the viewer never loses their orientation and to illustrate the specific details of the fight. Hall's colleague Hoai-Tran Bui added that the works were influenced by Hong Kong martial arts films such as Jackie Chan , Bruce Lee or Jet Li . The plot moves into the background so that the focus is on the action sequences with their "dances between the fighters", as these are the real highlights of the films. John Wick uses the Gun-Fu fighting style , a mixture of Japanese Jiu Jitsu , Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu , tactical 3-gun and Judo , and depending on the opponent, he focuses on one of the martial arts mentioned.
Brian MacNamara from tldrmoviereviews.com elaborates on visual storytelling and worldbuilding, which is used as the primary narrative form. The film series adheres to the motto “ Show, don't tell ”, whereby the story is given depth and emotions by only small visual cues, without a dialogue being used. How the world works is also explained purely visually, and no character is used who, together with the viewer, is immersed in an environment that is new to them, as is usually the case with other films. Further visual anomalies are that the colors of the individual settings have been adapted to the emotions of John Wick and even the subtitles are formatted in such a way that the story is pushed forward.
Box office results and audience numbers
| Movie | Publication (Germany) |
Box office earnings in US dollars | Budget in US dollars |
Spectator (Germany) |
swell | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Germany | Worldwide | |||||
| John Wick | Jan. 29, 2015 | 43,037,835 | 3,703,908 | 88,761,661 | 20 million | 431,571 | |
| John Wick: Chapter 2 | 16 Feb 2017 | 92.029.184 | 7,617,195 | 171,539,887 | 40 million | 824.491 | |
| John Wick: Chapter 3 | 23 May 2019 | 171.015.687 | 12,351,369 | 326.314.736 | 75 million | 1,180,843 | |
| Total (as of November 1, 2019) | 306.082.706 | 23,672,472 | 586.616.284 | 135 million | 2,436,905 | ||
Reviews
(As of October 11, 2019)
| Movie | Rotten tomatoes | Metacritic | IMDb |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Wick | 87% (211 reviews) | 68 (40 reviews) | 7.4 (478,841 ratings) |
| John Wick: Chapter 2 | 89% (263 reviews) | 75 (43 reviews) | 7.5 (315,573 ratings) |
| John Wick: Chapter 3 | 90% (321 reviews) | 73 (50 reviews) | 7.6 (177,258 ratings) |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Mike Fleming Jr .: Len Wiseman Set To Direct Female-Centric 'John Wick' Spinoff 'Ballerina'. In: Deadline.com. October 8, 2019, accessed October 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Ben Travers: 'John Wick' TV Show: Keanu Reeves Expected to Guest Star, a New Title, and More Plans for the Prequel. In: indiewire.com. June 14, 2017, accessed October 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Fred Topel: 'The Continental' TV Series Probably Won't Air Until After 'John Wick 4' [TCA 2019]. In: slashfilm.com. July 29, 2019, accessed October 10, 2019 .
- ↑ John Wick in the German synchronous file
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 2 in the German synchronous file
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 3 in the German synchronous file
- ↑ Kevin Lincoln: By Killing a Puppy, the Creators of John Wick Birthed a Franchise. In: Vulture.com . Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Jacob Hall: Heartbreaks and Headshots: The Action Movie Majesty of the 'John Wick' Series. In: Slashfilm.com. February 15, 2017, accessed October 27, 2019 .
- ^ Hoai-Tran Bui: The Poetic Action Storytelling of the 'John Wick' franchise. In: Slashfilm.com. May 22, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019 .
- ^ Brian MacNamara: Analysis - John Wick is a Masterclass in Visual Storytelling and Worldbuilding. In: tldrmoviereviews.com. January 29, 2017, accessed October 31, 2019 .
- ↑ John Wick In: BoxOfficeMojo.com, accessed October 11, 2019.
- ↑ Top 100 Germany 2015 In: insidekino.de, accessed on October 11, 2019.
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 2 In: BoxOfficeMojo.com, accessed October 11, 2019.
- ↑ Top 100 Germany 2017 In: insidekino.de, accessed on October 11, 2019.
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 3 In: BoxOfficeMojo.com, accessed November 1, 2019.
- ↑ Top 100 Germany 2019 In: insidekino.de, accessed on November 1, 2019.
- ↑ John Wick Movies at the Box Office In: BoxOfficeMojo.com, accessed November 1, 2019.
- ↑ John Wick at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ John Wick at Metacritic (English)
- ↑ John Wick in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 2 at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 2 at Metacritic (English)
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 2 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 3 at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 3 at Metacritic (English)
- ↑ John Wick: Chapter 3 in the Internet Movie Database (English)