I don't think JW2 leaves the mythology behind at all. The rock opera stuff may also apply, but if you think the god stuff is gone, it's only because you are making the wrong allegorical connections. Winston is not Zeus, and the Continental is not Olympus. Winston is Hades, and the Continental is the Underworld. Why do you think Charon is at the gate? Why do you think impartiality and peace are the law? Hades is one part of a triumvir which ruled the cosmos. It's clear that there are three powers which rule the world in this movie, too: The Continental, the Beggars of the Bowery, and the High Table. I think that the Bowery King represents the Poseidon figure, and whomever chairs the High Table will be Zeus. Zeus had the power to judge the souls of men and gods, a power which he gave to Minos. As I have said elsewhere, I think it's clear that John is the Thanatos in this picture. Minos and Thanatos would operate pretty much as foils and counterparts to each other, so I think that Cassian is the Minos figure - he certainly judged John.
I think this is right. It's hard not to see John as a devil who found salvation and is now trapped in hell. Cast in a more foundational myth, the Greek myth parallel has legs. The whole sequence of movies feels like an existential horror film in which nothing matters but the moment of salvation we get at the beginning of the first film.
But Hell to the classical world was not a place of punishment (... necessarily). It was "living" with no goals, no connections, no future. Just a grey void. So (just reread the Illiad) people know who Achilles is when he arrives in Hell, but so what? There's no point to being Achilles anymore ... which is why Achilles was so desperate in life to establish himself as a great figure to be remembered forever. As long as he was remembered he was not entirely in the grey void. His name was still breathed. I don't know if I'm saying this right ... John may be in Hell, but if there's a Devil it's a "Christian" Hell, not classical. John is carrying the classical Hell inside him from the beginning of the movie. So he's John Wick, so what? He has no goals, no connections, ... and so on.
I dig Bowery as Poseidon on one hand because it's how he sees himself (equal of Zeus, more than just another god of another underworld but i'm going by my pop-culture cobbled together Poseidon) and the way he helps Wick has that "Oh, you're hot shit? I'm ten years of hot shit you little" feel from the Odyssey. Every time someone calls Wick the Boogeyman it frames them as just human for me because, however they see themselves, Wick has gotta be an ostensibly-mortal hero on a quest. But maybe i have to rewatch #2 just to map out the underworlds. He gets into the action through a tunnel, it's "I'm gonna do a tunnel" for minutes on end. But this is after they already had the patrolman show up to do the same "This hasn't been happening in the the overworld for a while" gag from the 1st one.
This. I like the new observations about rock opera and video games having some influence but there are still deep mythology themes. The statue in the center of the Greek exhibit during the museum scene is Hercules Throwing Lichas, a story of revenge against personal betrayal. This continues even into the next room, where a bust of Hercules is staring directly at Santino, while a bust of Aristotle is looking up at Wick. It makes a pretty clear picture of their mindsets: John wants to throw Santino into the sea, while Santino - ever the thinker - is focused on the civil war painting, the battle amongst siblings, and how he can use Wick for his own ends. It's interesting that Santino's themes are historical rather than mythological, suggesting he's not cut out to play with the gods after all. The Hercules statue makes a return to stand behind Santino as he once again takes the role of Lichas by putting a hit out on John. The High Table is without a doubt Olympus. 12 seats gives it away, and are even shown in the greek exhibit as the 12 gods lining the walls, watching Hercules.
It's more like he loses all the things that made him who he was. The dog gets to survive because the new one is not a part of his old self, New Doggo is not a piece of the life he built once he retired and is instead the marker of the new page of his life and therefore gets to survive with him. That destruction is the collapse of both the new him established with his retirement and the John who existed as Baba Yaga prior to his retirement into this new character we meet and see forged in this film. He is not the husband watching over his shrine to his retirement life because that chapel is destroyed. He is not the Baba Yaga of the time prior to that because he is now a man in direct opposition of all the organizations he used to work for and helped create. I think we could actually argue that part of this is how throughout ch.2 he is becoming the reaper of the very structure that helped create him, he is the death sent to end this world, as it has ended him.
Ohh, I just realized in this transformation through misery thing he might still be playing at the war of the gods it's just that this is his transformation into the god of death, Thanatos or Hades of his people. He even has a Cerberus in the form of the dog.
And that happens after the old Hades is dead thanks to Ares' actions in the first movie. This is kinda like the Titanomachy, but a generation down the line, and happens for even more personal reasons.
You did this to you vs I did this to me ... I'll admit, I paused the video, went and had a cup of coffee, and simply sat in admiration of that comparison. Thank you.
This was a movie about consequences. John wanted his revenge in the first movie but wanted to avoid the consequences. The Italian dude wants to force John to be his enemy without suffering the inevitable return. Common makes it clear, despite being forced into it John took action and the consequence is Common. Amd pf course the ene when Johns anger takes things too far and now he is on the run. Nobody gets to escape the consequences of their actions in this movie and that extends even to chapter 3 where characters pay for what they do here.
I feel that this movie questions the reasoning behind our empathy for John despite all the brutality involved in his revenge missions. While in the first, we granted him moral superiority because we needed to see Iosef and Viggo get their comeuppance, we conveniently forgot that a bunch of actual redshirts (as you pointed out in your video on the first movie) are complete human beings even if we don't get to know them, just as we conveniently ignore that fact over here. Both movies have multiple people acknowledging the sheer insanity of the reason for Wick going on his killing spree, and his friends seem to treat him like a loose cannon who's probably part insane. I think by cutting away all his ties to being John Wick, a man who had a loving wife an a normal life, it's asking whether it's possible for someone who became the Boogeyman to leave that behind to get a normal life and believe that they are a good person. When Viggo says that God took John's wife away for his misdeeds, what he seems to be insinuating is that he needs to be the Boogeyman to live now that his wife is dead. His wife probably sent him the dog to give him something to remember him by and hold him back from becoming the Boogeyman again, but when Iosef kills it, he has nothing left to hold onto being a person. The violence in the first movie is brutal, but we sanction it, since we put ourselves and John on a moral high ground to justify our need for vengeance and blood. Here, the motive becomes thinner, and we see this idea of unquestioning empathy put to the test in the end, where we need to question whether the need for revenge was all that justified, since the outcome is the same whether he shoots Santino or not. In that sense, this is a good ongoing deconstruction of the empathy people have for flawed and often outright morally despicable protagonists by questioning the reasoning behind our empathy for such a protagonist, giving us ways to empathize that seem reasonable on the surface, but are actually deeply selfish when you think about them for more than a few seconds. As you pointed out in your video on the first movie, we need the catharsis, and so does John. However, this need for catharsis shouldn't make you ignore the fact that John Wick is simply exacting his own idea of retribution, which is way more brutal than the original crime, just for his own need to see a proud god fall as revenge for what, in the end, is just a dog. In a way, the way this movie plays out makes me question whether he went on that killing spree in the first movie because he wanted revenge, or because he wanted blood, and a convenient reason came up to go ham on some party that came up on the horizon. Anyway, great video as always, keep up the good work!
Rafael Markos why do you think he kept his guns and old equipment he wanted to go back to the thrill of the kill he misses the adrenaline and blood. In the first movie we see him speeding toward cars only to stop last minute that could easily be him trying to get some sort of thrill. I think your right John missed his old life and wanted a reason to start killing again.
He’s stuck between two worlds the world of mortals and the world of the gods and because he’s used to being a god it’s hard to go back the wold of the mortals.
In the commentary for the first film, our host here says at one point something like "Maybe John started killing people again because he didn't know what else do."
I believe the "weapon pickups" part of the video game comparison stems heavily from the influence that the film received from 3-Gun, which for non-shooters, could be explained as the most hardcore "game" of shooting competitions; after all, since a lot of weapons and training were sourced from Taran Tactical (a premiere 3-gun-centric company) it was only natural those elements would bleed in. The invulnerability to bullets and need for infinite bad guys also stems from the sport, as a 3-gun stage will throw more targets at the shooter than its plausible in real life because it's game. And because it's a game, there's no danger coming back towards the competitor. I don't disagree at all with the video game analogy. I just believe that this is the extra link that binds all of these things together and helps us understand why the movie comes off as it did.
Thank you Cinemawins for sending me here. Some of the best optimistic film analysis on youtube. No negative bullshit. If this were around during my film class in high school we would have watched this instead of the actual movies.
Here's the cruel irony of everything, in the first movie, John was repeatedly told: "It was just a dog" and "It was just a car". If he had taken their advice and not gone after Iosef, Santino wouldn't have shown up. As much as it sucks to admit, the bad guys were right all along.
Depends how you look at it. If Viggo had just listened to the part of his brain considering handing his son over then the whole series would've been averted. If Iosef had listened to John say he wasn't selling the car then it would have been fine. Out of these things could happen, John Wick letting the death of the dog go seems the least likely to me. If he would have accepted that I don't think he'd be in a much better place now (though about 300 people would still be alive)
To paraphrase Winston from this movie, "You stabbed the devil in the back. What do you think he's going to do?" John letting Daisy's death go was never an option. It's also hit on when the Bowry King tells John he'll owe him now and John replies that he (The bowry king) doesn't want that. Inevitably you're going to be too tempted to use it to simply leave the debt alone, but whatever you use it *for* will be so damn important and dangerous that it WILL explode in your face. No, Santino never would've just stayed away. He can say he would've all he likes, but the slimeball had the unmitigated gal to use a marker to force an assignment and then attempt to execute the person who fulfilled it because he needed a scapegoat and John telling people who exactly had sent him after Santino's sister was bad news for Santino. Maybe it would've waited, but in the end Santino was too damn power hungry, too damn self-important to ever ACTUALLY honor their agreement. Honestly I don't even really agree with Mikey's statement that 2 is "I did this to me." No, if anything that's Parabellum. It's consequences of what he did in 1, but abstractly. Because he even showed his face Santino took it as an excuse to say "You're back. Means our agreement is done." I don't think anyone, even Winston who makes it clear that he *must* obey the marker, would agree that John was 'back' until Santino left him no alternative but to BE back. Where 3 is... literally the consequences of him not finding another way to end the conflict with Santino. It is directly, trackably, and undebatably so.
Nope, Mikey is right. That's multi-armed Avalokiteśvara - aka Kannon, aka Guanyin - the boddhisattva of compassion and mercy. Multi-armed to indicate his/her ability to help in many different ways. Shiva in his form of the cosmic dancer Nataraja would be dancing, not standing straight up, and Kali always carries implements indicating death, and not be empty-handed. Totally different iconography.
*Unrelated to the video at hand*. You should make a review of the Raid films, in my opinion they're probably the best and well choreographed hand to hand action movies ever made (as far as i'm aware at least). They aren't all that well known compared to other top notch action movies due to being relatively low budget foreign films, but they're amazing to say the least.
Sincerely hope that the next John Wick film is him isolated in a cabin somewhere cold, and it turns into a cat-and-mouse, Home Alone styled survival thriller of him against assassins...
So if John Wick 1 is the bogeyman kills the gods, and John Wick 2 is the bogeyman kills the devil, then John Wick 3 has to be the bogeyman ascends to godhood, and John Wick 4 is the bogeyman falls and becomes the devil.
It really bothered me when, after adhering to the rules and killing Santino's sister, John Wick broke the rules to kill Santino. It felt bad. If he'd just broken the rules immediately she wouldn't have had to die, and it made his "victory" more than hollow when he chose to break the rules at the end. And it still bothers me, but having watched this it's clear that I'm supposed to feel this way. At the end of the first movie you feel catharsis, satisfaction that justice has been meted out and a wrong has been righted. At the end of this movie you feel rotten. You're mad that the cool sign-language mini-boss had to die, you're mad because John Wick should have just ignored the mark and killed Santino, you're mad that the rules now mean John Wick won't know peace, you're just mad. And I'm mad at myself that my first reaction was to think less of the film for choosing not to give me the satisfying ending I wanted.
The fight in the mirror exhibit reminded me of the saying (or something very close to this). I’m not trapped in here with you... You’re trapped in here with me
“…for perceived injustices” Well, here’s the thing. John exited “the life”. Such was acknowledged and respected. John didn’t resume the life. He killed Viggo and Iosef. He didn’t resume contract work. He didn’t “offer services”. It was personal. Santino took advantage of that and tried to exploit it. Was a marker involved? Yeah, but John didn’t return to the life. It’s understood that when Santino “with a heavy heart” told John that had he stayed out of the life, he would have left him alone (paraphrasing) that John’s marker was that on the condition that should he ever return, then he owed Santino a favor, which he was going to hold onto considering how “potent” John is in their world. Santino tried to take advantage of John’s predicament from the first movie to extort what he wanted out of John. John wanted nothing to do with “the life”. When John said he was back, he was referring to efficient killing. Guy who makes you dead. WITH A ••••ing RUSSIAN PENCIL! Or a spaghetti noodle straight out of the box. Or a dry sponge. Or a rubber band. The difference is relevant. Santino was being opportunistic and then decided to do away with John after violating their agreement. •••• Santino, good riddance.
john wick is kind of like kratos. They are both revenge stories where a man loses his family and then retrieves a weapon stored under his floor to take revenge on the gods.
Nick Willard Now all I can see is John Wick 4 where he’s reluctantly taken on a young apprentice that he consistently refuses to call by their actual name for a great deal of the runtime.
I'd give this a double thumbs up, your analyses of the subtext and also of all the the straight out story that is told to us without ever saying a word. We may all be coming at this story from different walks of interest. That you offered these layers without ever once pointing out that we've seen without seeing or understanding all of what we've seen. Thank you for the analyses of all these wounds that people can unintentionally inflict upon ourselves. Couldn't double thumbs up without negating the first thumbs up.
While you are right about the painting, it was of a civil war but it wasn't the American Civil War, it was the Italian Civil War, where a brother fought his sister for power, which is so-pose to represent Santino trying to take power from his sister Gianna
There must be a hidden analogy to Fishburne working on set with Reeves that is outside of The Matrix. Both in Fishburne's roles as Morpheus in the Matrix and The Bowery King in John Wick provides Reeves' character a hidden secret. Whereas in the Matrix the secret is to the great benefit for Reeve's Neo-knowing that the world around him nothing more than a malleable ancestor simulator to which he can break boundaries and be more powerful enough to engage with The Matrix's structure, in John Wick The Bowery King's secret doesn't grant Wick any special power, only rehabilitation and a guide to his target, Santino. As if to say that Keanu Reeves has elevated from the dependency of a freakish exploit as Neo into somebody self-sufficient and not requiring of any sort of divine blessing as John Wick. Keanu Reeves has fully realized this legend in Hollywood, and in his advancing age we should not be surprised if these are some the last high-budget action-oriented films Reeves will ever involve in.
RE: the mirror fight, it's debatable which film was being referenced, a Bruce Lee joint or Bond - "The Man With the Golden Gun" being about taking down the world's best assassin (MASSIVE HUM OF RESONANT THEME)... just with none of the goofy stuff, thankfully.
Wish I would have found this channel years ago. CinemaWins did lots of people right by pointing out your channel, its one of the best on youtube. Definitely the best credits/credit song on any youtube channel I've seen
I'm sure it's been mentioned before in one of your previous videos, but whoever did the stinger for the opening of your videos did a fantastic job and I can't think of an intro that gets me more hype for a video
I was really worried that these edits would remove the more 'Mikey' elements of your vid style. I am really happy to still see Mikeyisms and mad dance moves :P
I think something really interesting that happens when you compare this with the first movie is how it really embodies the "all he does is lose" line at the end of the video, as well as what that says about the previous film. In the first movie, John is trying to move forward with his life. Fittingly, he's almost never not moving forward in the movie itself, whether it be his slow takeover and destruction of the mob or the action always focused around him as the aggressor moving through a scene to fight his way to his target. About the only time he's not is when he gets caught (fitting that it's the scene where he explains why he's doing all of this, letting the rage he'd turned off out and effectively going backwards to when they killed his dog for a brief moment), but then he breaks free and gets right on back to stepping over corpses. But in the second, all he wants to do is go back to where he was at the end of the first movie. He finally had the chance to start grieving after tying up the one hanging plot thread from the first movie (again, fittingly the only action scene where he's the aggressor like in the first), but it was torn away from him as he was forced to continue going forward as a killer. It's also why basically every action scene in the second film has him running away from people pursuing him. He's trying to escape and is no longer the aggressive force attacking others.
Hearing that slow saxophone jazz in the background of this made me want a Movies with Mikey - Lessons Animation Taught Us - Cowboy Bebop. Is that a thing that can happen? I can bring snacks and friendship.
The "Multi-handed Buddha" is actually a Chinese diety called "Thousand-hand & Thousand-eye Guanyin" and no. She isn't as docile as led. In fact the Thousand-hand Guanyin is known to be one of the fiercest Guanyin's iterations in the Chinese Buddhism lore and it's said that she's very stern and would smelt anyone with her thousand arms if anyone was to go against the codes of conduct which mirrors Winston. Winston is the manager of the Intercontinental Hotel and he sticks to a strict code of conduct where "There will be no business done on the grounds of the Continental" hence, stern and like in Part 1 where Perkins did it and when John did it in Part 2, he issued a warrant for the assassination of John. That's how that particular Guanyin handles shit goes wrong BUT like the Guanyin, both are benevolent. That benevolence shown by Winston is that he knew why John had to kill his marker and how much did that bastard ruined John's life that John din't have a choice and appropriate time to end his marker's life except in the Continental. So despite John breaking the rules, he knew how John felt and the reasoning behind it so instead of treating John like how he treated Perkins who he almost immediately gotten rid of once he knew what had happened, he allowed John to be ex-communicado but only 24 hrs after he left the Continental grounds.
The one thing I think that would improve the JW movies is real squibs for blood. Or vastly improve the CG blood. It’s rather distracting and quite underwhelmeing. Also muzzle flashes but I’m just repeating Corridor with that one, I’m not a gun person and don’t know any better. But apparently they are quite bad
Man, Mikey. I skipped this video until I had seen Chapter 2 and your breakdown of the first 1 stuck with me so much that I kept looking for the Mythology connections lol
First, just discovered your channel and I'm so glad I did, it's great. Second, as insightful as your videos are, and as much as I often agree with what you say, the theme of religion came through much more to me in this movie than in it's predecessor. EDIT: I was partway through the video when I typed this, I know, it's a faux pas, but I have a tendency to get overexcited and jump into things head first, and although you touched on a good few of these things, my opinion hasn't changed too much. Some of it was more on the nose (Using the term excommunicated, referring to John's home as his temple, even just placing it in Rome) But there was some that took me a while to appreciate fully (the carvings on Laurence Fishburne's chair, which is on older norse symbol which the Roman Catholic church has used, plus he just has tons of Catholic knick-knacks here and there) There was just a ton of imagery too, (tons of scenes in front of statues of gods from all different faiths, like Kali and the trials of Hercules, John walking in front of an angel statue for a split second as to appear to give him wings, a homeless assassin with blood splattered across their face like a Bindi, Claudia Gerini dying, as she bleeds from her wrists in the pose of the crucifixion) That's just me, I tend to miss a lot of major themes and latch onto one or two minor things and focus on those so that may have just been the case, either way, love your work, keep doing what you're doing man!
I've been watching your videos almost non-stop the past 3 days. I'm sad I've only come across them so recently. But I have to say, I definitely love that you used Chvrches in this video. As soon as I heard the first few beats I perked up and got even more happy to watch this.
Prediction, based entirely on this analysis - in John Wick 3, he will end up having to fight the gods themselves, and thus, ascend to the pinnacle of Olympus and replace the King on the throne. Thus he's *forever* sucked back into the old life he promised his wife he wouldn't return to. Or, twist - he ends up running the hotel, and thus becomes King of the Underworld and psychopomp. Let's see if I'm right.
There was nothing to suggest that Santino was going to do anything further though; they left John there and either presumed him to be dead or just didn’t care (they didn’t look for him). It’s further touched upon with Winston saying “you’re lucky he stopped there” as there is nothing to suggest that a contract of any kind had been put out on John, nor was anyone from “the High Table” looking for him. He probably could have just faded into obscurity and no one would have been any wiser. Though that wouldn’t make for an interesting movie. Aside from that, John walks all the way there and just sits next to Santino with only the thought of killing him. Cooperation, whether it would have been enforced or not, was only the after thought. An obstacle in the way of John killing Santino.
God bless you Mikey I shall watch your videos for evermore. There is such (film)joy in watching your videos. I love this channel; I haven't met you but I love you as well.
I just checked out this channel as result of a shout-out from CinemaWins, and I I found one of my new favorite channels. Great job with the editing, and description. Everything said makes a lot of sense, and the jokes added in thus far always make chuckle at the very least. I give Movies with Mikey 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿up.😊
I'm pretty sure I agree with every nice thing anyone has commented about your channel and you as a person, I'm about halfway through your videos and refuse to stop watching them. I want to add to the refrain of people saying that your presentation is the best on this platform, and your dance moves are spectacular.
Again with the bad pronunciation of Chad and David's names!!! Spank thyself sir. Chad Sta-hell-skeee David Leach Easy peasy But again, your review is a thing of beauty, so I'm nitpicking. It's lovely that someone else sees through all the flash of the fight scenes etc (which ARE amazing), and gets to the core of the movie, and of John Wick himself. So, nitpicking aside, thanks for this. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say about JW3 Parabellum...
The finale might be an inversion of Sarte's No Exit, where hell is three people and no mirrors, making it impossible to see yourself except through the eyes of others. Instead, this is nothing but mirrors and no people (only mobs and adds), making it impossible to avoid seeing yourself.
FilmJoy U r completely right about everything u said in this video, he set himself up to lose by the end of the film, ur analysis was spot on, I fricking loved it to be honest. Please do a video on The Raid: Redemption & The Raid 2, their 2 of the best action films you'll ever watch in ur life I can promise u that! 😀
Mikey..... Was I the only one that saw those 'grape lights' in Queen Santino Sister's bath space to be .... symbolic as such of Ambrosia? The gods are dead, stoned, gone. And yet, their food that made super-men was still available. Picking through the scraps that John left behind....
Honestly dude, thanks for all the passion you put into this. With your insight on John Wick 1 I could even make my wife look at it in a different light and also enjoy it.
Wow. Your analyses of these movies, from Greek gods to this descent into hell, I feel so inattentive. I'm a major fan of revenge films. My own life has made it clear that the guilty are never punished as they deserve even when they're are straight out caught...even imprisoned. The guilty should suffer up to and beyond what they've inflicted If karma can punish with you reap what you dish out times three, nobody ever is punished for the pain they've caused. So seeing John kill can intoxicate me into dark laughter, but while I'm drunk on the power of the Boogeyman, I am distracted by the violent euphoria I still want to feel for those that wronged me decades ago. I should forgive and forget. No. I have done enough by forcing myself to not increase skills with knives and guns. My enjoyment is not physical and depends upon movies. I think I've staved myself enough. I'll have to keep watching John Wick. Although I am interested to see whether John is himself evolving into a "god" himself, and in charge of his own pantheon. We'll see... Although the previews seem to imply the 9 circles of hell in Dante's Inferno. The attack gods....are they Cerberus....because the Boogeyman is himself becoming the God of Death....Hades....Anubis....Hel.... Thanks for the analyses
Good analysis. And why I don't like this movie as much as the first - Because it's a different person we're watching, despite sharing a name. It's not the boogeyman getting redemption, but the boogeyman reaping what he's sown, redemption be damned. So, if that was intended, mission accomplished. However my big issue, and maybe it's not with the movie as much as with the audience who raved - is that they don't get it. (You get it - the first person who has, from those I've spoken with - Even if we haven't spoken.) The general audience rooted for Wick to win, missing the entire point, because it wasn't pointed enough, and part of that was a result of it being a "sequel" - Live by the sword, die by the sword. The only righteous end to John Wick in John Wick 2 is a bullet to his head. That it didn't happen is a weakness, and if it doesn't happen in a third film, the weakness will be solidified, no matter if the theme gets reinvented yet again.
I don't think JW2 leaves the mythology behind at all. The rock opera stuff may also apply, but if you think the god stuff is gone, it's only because you are making the wrong allegorical connections. Winston is not Zeus, and the Continental is not Olympus. Winston is Hades, and the Continental is the Underworld. Why do you think Charon is at the gate? Why do you think impartiality and peace are the law? Hades is one part of a triumvir which ruled the cosmos. It's clear that there are three powers which rule the world in this movie, too: The Continental, the Beggars of the Bowery, and the High Table. I think that the Bowery King represents the Poseidon figure, and whomever chairs the High Table will be Zeus. Zeus had the power to judge the souls of men and gods, a power which he gave to Minos. As I have said elsewhere, I think it's clear that John is the Thanatos in this picture. Minos and Thanatos would operate pretty much as foils and counterparts to each other, so I think that Cassian is the Minos figure - he certainly judged John.
This is really really good, I watched the third one last month and your theory makes sense
I think this is right. It's hard not to see John as a devil who found salvation and is now trapped in hell. Cast in a more foundational myth, the Greek myth parallel has legs. The whole sequence of movies feels like an existential horror film in which nothing matters but the moment of salvation we get at the beginning of the first film.
But Hell to the classical world was not a place of punishment (... necessarily). It was "living" with no goals, no connections, no future. Just a grey void.
So (just reread the Illiad) people know who Achilles is when he arrives in Hell, but so what? There's no point to being Achilles anymore ... which is why Achilles was so desperate in life to establish himself as a great figure to be remembered forever. As long as he was remembered he was not entirely in the grey void. His name was still breathed.
I don't know if I'm saying this right ... John may be in Hell, but if there's a Devil it's a "Christian" Hell, not classical.
John is carrying the classical Hell inside him from the beginning of the movie. So he's John Wick, so what? He has no goals, no connections, ... and so on.
I dig Bowery as Poseidon on one hand because it's how he sees himself (equal of Zeus, more than just another god of another underworld but i'm going by my pop-culture cobbled together Poseidon) and the way he helps Wick has that "Oh, you're hot shit? I'm ten years of hot shit you little" feel from the Odyssey. Every time someone calls Wick the Boogeyman it frames them as just human for me because, however they see themselves, Wick has gotta be an ostensibly-mortal hero on a quest. But maybe i have to rewatch #2 just to map out the underworlds. He gets into the action through a tunnel, it's "I'm gonna do a tunnel" for minutes on end. But this is after they already had the patrolman show up to do the same "This hasn't been happening in the the overworld for a while" gag from the 1st one.
This. I like the new observations about rock opera and video games having some influence but there are still deep mythology themes.
The statue in the center of the Greek exhibit during the museum scene is Hercules Throwing Lichas, a story of revenge against personal betrayal. This continues even into the next room, where a bust of Hercules is staring directly at Santino, while a bust of Aristotle is looking up at Wick. It makes a pretty clear picture of their mindsets: John wants to throw Santino into the sea, while Santino - ever the thinker - is focused on the civil war painting, the battle amongst siblings, and how he can use Wick for his own ends. It's interesting that Santino's themes are historical rather than mythological, suggesting he's not cut out to play with the gods after all. The Hercules statue makes a return to stand behind Santino as he once again takes the role of Lichas by putting a hit out on John.
The High Table is without a doubt Olympus. 12 seats gives it away, and are even shown in the greek exhibit as the 12 gods lining the walls, watching Hercules.
Cinema wins really was right when he said your underrated and under viewed smh been on a binge since I learned about your channel
Worthy Killaz me too!
Same here.
Yuuup same
Worthy Killaz dude I'm here because CinemaWins too!
Same. Thanks to CinemaWins, got to know about this channel and it is absolutely awesome.
I feel like John Wick was the best Max Payne movie we'll ever get and John Wick 2 is the best Hitman movie we'll get.
Piemanthe3rd holy shit, I've never realized that until you said it! That is amazingly accurate.
i would say hes more doomguy in the first but hes also very agent 47.
Shoot EM Up is a good Max Payne movie
man on fire
oh wow... it hurts how obvious this was!
thanks for pointing it out. O_o
It's more like he loses all the things that made him who he was. The dog gets to survive because the new one is not a part of his old self, New Doggo is not a piece of the life he built once he retired and is instead the marker of the new page of his life and therefore gets to survive with him. That destruction is the collapse of both the new him established with his retirement and the John who existed as Baba Yaga prior to his retirement into this new character we meet and see forged in this film. He is not the husband watching over his shrine to his retirement life because that chapel is destroyed. He is not the Baba Yaga of the time prior to that because he is now a man in direct opposition of all the organizations he used to work for and helped create. I think we could actually argue that part of this is how throughout ch.2 he is becoming the reaper of the very structure that helped create him, he is the death sent to end this world, as it has ended him.
Ohh, I just realized in this transformation through misery thing he might still be playing at the war of the gods it's just that this is his transformation into the god of death, Thanatos or Hades of his people. He even has a Cerberus in the form of the dog.
And that happens after the old Hades is dead thanks to Ares' actions in the first movie. This is kinda like the Titanomachy, but a generation down the line, and happens for even more personal reasons.
You did this to you
vs
I did this to me
... I'll admit, I paused the video, went and had a cup of coffee, and simply sat in admiration of that comparison.
Thank you.
Duckie Alexander they did this to them
The end never justify the means ... because the means create the end.
Mikey comes at ya fast sometimes.
You did this ☕ to you
"We're done with the Greek gods; John is here for the modern ones." that....blew my goddamn mind
This was a movie about consequences. John wanted his revenge in the first movie but wanted to avoid the consequences. The Italian dude wants to force John to be his enemy without suffering the inevitable return. Common makes it clear, despite being forced into it John took action and the consequence is Common. Amd pf course the ene when Johns anger takes things too far and now he is on the run.
Nobody gets to escape the consequences of their actions in this movie and that extends even to chapter 3 where characters pay for what they do here.
"Somebody PLEASE, get this man, a gun." B)
I feel that this movie questions the reasoning behind our empathy for John despite all the brutality involved in his revenge missions. While in the first, we granted him moral superiority because we needed to see Iosef and Viggo get their comeuppance, we conveniently forgot that a bunch of actual redshirts (as you pointed out in your video on the first movie) are complete human beings even if we don't get to know them, just as we conveniently ignore that fact over here. Both movies have multiple people acknowledging the sheer insanity of the reason for Wick going on his killing spree, and his friends seem to treat him like a loose cannon who's probably part insane. I think by cutting away all his ties to being John Wick, a man who had a loving wife an a normal life, it's asking whether it's possible for someone who became the Boogeyman to leave that behind to get a normal life and believe that they are a good person. When Viggo says that God took John's wife away for his misdeeds, what he seems to be insinuating is that he needs to be the Boogeyman to live now that his wife is dead. His wife probably sent him the dog to give him something to remember him by and hold him back from becoming the Boogeyman again, but when Iosef kills it, he has nothing left to hold onto being a person. The violence in the first movie is brutal, but we sanction it, since we put ourselves and John on a moral high ground to justify our need for vengeance and blood. Here, the motive becomes thinner, and we see this idea of unquestioning empathy put to the test in the end, where we need to question whether the need for revenge was all that justified, since the outcome is the same whether he shoots Santino or not.
In that sense, this is a good ongoing deconstruction of the empathy people have for flawed and often outright morally despicable protagonists by questioning the reasoning behind our empathy for such a protagonist, giving us ways to empathize that seem reasonable on the surface, but are actually deeply selfish when you think about them for more than a few seconds. As you pointed out in your video on the first movie, we need the catharsis, and so does John. However, this need for catharsis shouldn't make you ignore the fact that John Wick is simply exacting his own idea of retribution, which is way more brutal than the original crime, just for his own need to see a proud god fall as revenge for what, in the end, is just a dog. In a way, the way this movie plays out makes me question whether he went on that killing spree in the first movie because he wanted revenge, or because he wanted blood, and a convenient reason came up to go ham on some party that came up on the horizon.
Anyway, great video as always, keep up the good work!
Rafael Markos why do you think he kept his guns and old equipment he wanted to go back to the thrill of the kill he misses the adrenaline and blood. In the first movie we see him speeding toward cars only to stop last minute that could easily be him trying to get some sort of thrill. I think your right John missed his old life and wanted a reason to start killing again.
He’s stuck between two worlds the world of mortals and the world of the gods and because he’s used to being a god it’s hard to go back the wold of the mortals.
In the commentary for the first film, our host here says at one point something like "Maybe John started killing people again because he didn't know what else do."
"What if I told you John Wick two is a Rock Opera?"
My mind is fucking blown my guy.
Edit: And I love John Wick 3 even more now somehow.
7:40
I feel bad for the SFX-guy who had to sit there for weeks to paint out the camera from all those mirrors.
I believe the "weapon pickups" part of the video game comparison stems heavily from the influence that the film received from 3-Gun, which for non-shooters, could be explained as the most hardcore "game" of shooting competitions; after all, since a lot of weapons and training were sourced from Taran Tactical (a premiere 3-gun-centric company) it was only natural those elements would bleed in.
The invulnerability to bullets and need for infinite bad guys also stems from the sport, as a 3-gun stage will throw more targets at the shooter than its plausible in real life because it's game. And because it's a game, there's no danger coming back towards the competitor.
I don't disagree at all with the video game analogy. I just believe that this is the extra link that binds all of these things together and helps us understand why the movie comes off as it did.
Thank you Cinemawins for sending me here. Some of the best optimistic film analysis on youtube. No negative bullshit. If this were around during my film class in high school we would have watched this instead of the actual movies.
I finally saw John Wick 2, and my first thought after was "Oh sweet, I can watch that Movies with Mikey video now!"
Here's the cruel irony of everything, in the first movie, John was repeatedly told: "It was just a dog" and "It was just a car".
If he had taken their advice and not gone after Iosef, Santino wouldn't have shown up.
As much as it sucks to admit, the bad guys were right all along.
Depends how you look at it. If Viggo had just listened to the part of his brain considering handing his son over then the whole series would've been averted. If Iosef had listened to John say he wasn't selling the car then it would have been fine.
Out of these things could happen, John Wick letting the death of the dog go seems the least likely to me. If he would have accepted that I don't think he'd be in a much better place now (though about 300 people would still be alive)
To paraphrase Winston from this movie, "You stabbed the devil in the back. What do you think he's going to do?" John letting Daisy's death go was never an option. It's also hit on when the Bowry King tells John he'll owe him now and John replies that he (The bowry king) doesn't want that. Inevitably you're going to be too tempted to use it to simply leave the debt alone, but whatever you use it *for* will be so damn important and dangerous that it WILL explode in your face. No, Santino never would've just stayed away. He can say he would've all he likes, but the slimeball had the unmitigated gal to use a marker to force an assignment and then attempt to execute the person who fulfilled it because he needed a scapegoat and John telling people who exactly had sent him after Santino's sister was bad news for Santino.
Maybe it would've waited, but in the end Santino was too damn power hungry, too damn self-important to ever ACTUALLY honor their agreement.
Honestly I don't even really agree with Mikey's statement that 2 is "I did this to me." No, if anything that's Parabellum. It's consequences of what he did in 1, but abstractly. Because he even showed his face Santino took it as an excuse to say "You're back. Means our agreement is done." I don't think anyone, even Winston who makes it clear that he *must* obey the marker, would agree that John was 'back' until Santino left him no alternative but to BE back. Where 3 is... literally the consequences of him not finding another way to end the conflict with Santino. It is directly, trackably, and undebatably so.
Not buying this movie for one reason: there is no amount of money I would take to try and kill John Wick
He CaNt KiLl AlL oF uS
@@coreysloan728 yes. yes he can
14 million is alot of money.
not if you can't spend it
I appreciate the use of Vangelis music here, thanks
Winston is standing in front of a statue of the Indian Goddess Shiva, the Destroyer. So. I don't think non-violence was the symbolism there.
I wondered
Usually she has weapons and 4-6 arms? The face is fanged and enraged as well.
God Shiva or Goddess Kali?
Nope, Mikey is right. That's multi-armed Avalokiteśvara - aka Kannon, aka Guanyin - the boddhisattva of compassion and mercy. Multi-armed to indicate his/her ability to help in many different ways. Shiva in his form of the cosmic dancer Nataraja would be dancing, not standing straight up, and Kali always carries implements indicating death, and not be empty-handed. Totally different iconography.
Shiva is a god and I am pretty sure it's Kali, goddess of death. Just think of statue as Hela and wick is pretty much Death incarnate.
@@AnkitSharma-qm7sg Kali is not ....the goddess of death?
*Unrelated to the video at hand*. You should make a review of the Raid films, in my opinion they're probably the best and well choreographed hand to hand action movies ever made (as far as i'm aware at least). They aren't all that well known compared to other top notch action movies due to being relatively low budget foreign films, but they're amazing to say the least.
Oh yeah. We need this. Raid!
I agree
Love the Raid movies. Good call
I would definitely love to see that
You're my favorite content creator period. Please don't stop making videos
Sincerely hope that the next John Wick film is him isolated in a cabin somewhere cold, and it turns into a cat-and-mouse, Home Alone styled survival thriller of him against assassins...
In which John Wick dies heroically. Then his dog rips out the throat of his killer and walks away in the snow...
@@bernieponcik1351 then the fourth one will be called
Dog Wick: The Bark's now a Bite
Ironically, Mads Mikkelsen will be doing that in Polar, a Netflix Original.
@@poodlemeister22314 Polar is a big pile of shit. Mads would make a greate J.Wick villain tho.
Just watch Skyfall one more time.
So if John Wick 1 is the bogeyman kills the gods, and John Wick 2 is the bogeyman kills the devil, then John Wick 3 has to be the bogeyman ascends to godhood, and John Wick 4 is the bogeyman falls and becomes the devil.
If John ends up killing Winston I'll cry like a bitch
@@jameshughes7946 saame
@@jameshughes7946 He won't. From what I get from the trailer Winston helps him
So John Wick is literally God of War but with Keanu Reeves and lots of shooty shooty bang bang action?
@@AngelXStrong I have quite enjoyed all the shooty shooty bang bang. Reminds me of the old John Woo movies with Chow Yun Fat.
It really bothered me when, after adhering to the rules and killing Santino's sister, John Wick broke the rules to kill Santino. It felt bad. If he'd just broken the rules immediately she wouldn't have had to die, and it made his "victory" more than hollow when he chose to break the rules at the end.
And it still bothers me, but having watched this it's clear that I'm supposed to feel this way. At the end of the first movie you feel catharsis, satisfaction that justice has been meted out and a wrong has been righted. At the end of this movie you feel rotten. You're mad that the cool sign-language mini-boss had to die, you're mad because John Wick should have just ignored the mark and killed Santino, you're mad that the rules now mean John Wick won't know peace, you're just mad.
And I'm mad at myself that my first reaction was to think less of the film for choosing not to give me the satisfying ending I wanted.
Sign language girl isn't dead if I'm not mistake
This is how you subvert expectations the right way. Take notes Rian Johnson!
Thats the point of not doing the same again
@@TheFamilyLedger oh my god shut the fuck up about tlj
well he thought that by honoring themarker, he would be left alone. than santino tried to kill him.
The fight in the mirror exhibit reminded me of the saying (or something very close to this).
I’m not trapped in here with you... You’re trapped in here with me
“…for perceived injustices”
Well, here’s the thing. John exited “the life”. Such was acknowledged and respected. John didn’t resume the life. He killed Viggo and Iosef. He didn’t resume contract work. He didn’t “offer services”. It was personal.
Santino took advantage of that and tried to exploit it. Was a marker involved? Yeah, but John didn’t return to the life. It’s understood that when Santino “with a heavy heart” told John that had he stayed out of the life, he would have left him alone (paraphrasing) that John’s marker was that on the condition that should he ever return, then he owed Santino a favor, which he was going to hold onto considering how “potent” John is in their world.
Santino tried to take advantage of John’s predicament from the first movie to extort what he wanted out of John. John wanted nothing to do with “the life”. When John said he was back, he was referring to efficient killing. Guy who makes you dead. WITH A ••••ing RUSSIAN PENCIL! Or a spaghetti noodle straight out of the box. Or a dry sponge. Or a rubber band.
The difference is relevant. Santino was being opportunistic and then decided to do away with John after violating their agreement. •••• Santino, good riddance.
john wick is kind of like kratos.
They are both revenge stories where a man loses his family and then retrieves a weapon stored under his floor to take revenge on the gods.
Nick Willard Now all I can see is John Wick 4 where he’s reluctantly taken on a young apprentice that he consistently refuses to call by their actual name for a great deal of the runtime.
I'd give this a double thumbs up, your analyses of the subtext and also of all the the straight out story that is told to us without ever saying a word.
We may all be coming at this story from different walks of interest. That you offered these layers without ever once pointing out that we've seen without seeing or understanding all of what we've seen.
Thank you for the analyses of all these wounds that people can unintentionally inflict upon ourselves.
Couldn't double thumbs up without negating the first thumbs up.
While you are right about the painting, it was of a civil war but it wasn't the American Civil War, it was the Italian Civil War, where a brother fought his sister for power, which is so-pose to represent Santino trying to take power from his sister Gianna
Winston is Hades, damn it. The receptionist is literally Charon.
There must be a hidden analogy to Fishburne working on set with Reeves that is outside of The Matrix. Both in Fishburne's roles as Morpheus in the Matrix and The Bowery King in John Wick provides Reeves' character a hidden secret.
Whereas in the Matrix the secret is to the great benefit for Reeve's Neo-knowing that the world around him nothing more than a malleable ancestor simulator to which he can break boundaries and be more powerful enough to engage with The Matrix's structure, in John Wick The Bowery King's secret doesn't grant Wick any special power, only rehabilitation and a guide to his target, Santino. As if to say that Keanu Reeves has elevated from the dependency of a freakish exploit as Neo into somebody self-sufficient and not requiring of any sort of divine blessing as John Wick.
Keanu Reeves has fully realized this legend in Hollywood, and in his advancing age we should not be surprised if these are some the last high-budget action-oriented films Reeves will ever involve in.
John definitely spent some coins in the first one though. I know he at least used one to pay for his stay at the hotel.
+1 for the clean-up at his house.
@@martialme84 he paid 12 coins for the house cleanup. 1 for each body
RE: the mirror fight, it's debatable which film was being referenced, a Bruce Lee joint or Bond - "The Man With the Golden Gun" being about taking down the world's best assassin (MASSIVE HUM OF RESONANT THEME)... just with none of the goofy stuff, thankfully.
Wish I would have found this channel years ago. CinemaWins did lots of people right by pointing out your channel, its one of the best on youtube. Definitely the best credits/credit song on any youtube channel I've seen
In this movie I believe his [John Wick] quest was to get himself back from the clutches of the dark world. And in chapter 3, dying might be an option.
I like how happy the movie team looks in these photos compared to the first John Wick ones.
I'm sure it's been mentioned before in one of your previous videos, but whoever did the stinger for the opening of your videos did a fantastic job and I can't think of an intro that gets me more hype for a video
I was really worried that these edits would remove the more 'Mikey' elements of your vid style. I am really happy to still see Mikeyisms and mad dance moves :P
12:38 blade runner score is always a win
He calls the hotel the wrong name and it hurts me
grilin18
Isn’t that the joke though?
The original is the ‘Continental’, however when he goes abroad its the ‘Intercontinental’
The Kali visual with Winston. He is the Mother, protecting John at the end and in one hour will become the Destroyer.
3:19 is when Mikey won my heart forever with the Flash Gordon callout
I think something really interesting that happens when you compare this with the first movie is how it really embodies the "all he does is lose" line at the end of the video, as well as what that says about the previous film.
In the first movie, John is trying to move forward with his life. Fittingly, he's almost never not moving forward in the movie itself, whether it be his slow takeover and destruction of the mob or the action always focused around him as the aggressor moving through a scene to fight his way to his target. About the only time he's not is when he gets caught (fitting that it's the scene where he explains why he's doing all of this, letting the rage he'd turned off out and effectively going backwards to when they killed his dog for a brief moment), but then he breaks free and gets right on back to stepping over corpses.
But in the second, all he wants to do is go back to where he was at the end of the first movie. He finally had the chance to start grieving after tying up the one hanging plot thread from the first movie (again, fittingly the only action scene where he's the aggressor like in the first), but it was torn away from him as he was forced to continue going forward as a killer. It's also why basically every action scene in the second film has him running away from people pursuing him. He's trying to escape and is no longer the aggressive force attacking others.
I'm glad the dance stayed in, because it makes me smile. 👍
Love how you set this to the super noir soundtrack to Blade Runner. Stylish choice my man.
Who's here waiting for your analysis of John Wick 3.
Cant wait for chapter 3 the trailer alone makes me want to see a 4th film in this universe john wick or not
Do I have good news for you; 4 years later lol
Great as always Mikey. Thanks for always bringing such a high level of content to the world.
Hearing that slow saxophone jazz in the background of this made me want a Movies with Mikey - Lessons Animation Taught Us - Cowboy Bebop. Is that a thing that can happen? I can bring snacks and friendship.
Man, you sure can edit the hell out of a video. So clever and entertaining... Keep up the great work.
The "Multi-handed Buddha" is actually a Chinese diety called "Thousand-hand & Thousand-eye Guanyin" and no. She isn't as docile as led.
In fact the Thousand-hand Guanyin is known to be one of the fiercest Guanyin's iterations in the Chinese Buddhism lore and it's said that she's very stern and would smelt anyone with her thousand arms if anyone was to go against the codes of conduct which mirrors Winston. Winston is the manager of the Intercontinental Hotel and he sticks to a strict code of conduct where "There will be no business done on the grounds of the Continental" hence, stern and like in Part 1 where Perkins did it and when John did it in Part 2, he issued a warrant for the assassination of John. That's how that particular Guanyin handles shit goes wrong BUT like the Guanyin, both are benevolent. That benevolence shown by Winston is that he knew why John had to kill his marker and how much did that bastard ruined John's life that John din't have a choice and appropriate time to end his marker's life except in the Continental. So despite John breaking the rules, he knew how John felt and the reasoning behind it so instead of treating John like how he treated Perkins who he almost immediately gotten rid of once he knew what had happened, he allowed John to be ex-communicado but only 24 hrs after he left the Continental grounds.
Isn't Guanyin the one in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or a different god?
@@baseballjustin5 That's Kali I believe.
Guanyin is Taoism/Zen Buddhism, Kali's Hinduism and with ToD being set in India, it's probably Kali.
So John Wick chapter 2 is basically the Dark souls of movies?
That Vangelis song at the end man...such good music
Well it's all fair that John was a video game character in this one, he became a literal one after John Wick Chapter 1
The one thing I think that would improve the JW movies is real squibs for blood. Or vastly improve the CG blood. It’s rather distracting and quite underwhelmeing. Also muzzle flashes but I’m just repeating Corridor with that one, I’m not a gun person and don’t know any better. But apparently they are quite bad
Please review the third film. We GODDAMN need your review.
I want everyone to picture this John Wick and the Equilizer together just let that sink in for a minute
So...what you're saying is John Wick two is very much like Rush's 2112, where John is the guy that finds the guitar? Absolutely legit.
Man, Mikey. I skipped this video until I had seen Chapter 2 and your breakdown of the first 1 stuck with me so much that I kept looking for the Mythology connections lol
Mikey going all George Lucas on us (jk)
Low blow man, using the bladerunner music tuggin at my heartstrings.
You made me love this movie even more.
Came here from CinemaWins and I gotta say that I love your content and style. I can only hope to be that good one day.
I love your theme song and would happily listen to it over and over
Knife digging into the eye in 3 & the pencil in the ear in 2 may be his most hardcore kills
First, just discovered your channel and I'm so glad I did, it's great.
Second, as insightful as your videos are, and as much as I often agree with what you say, the theme of religion came through much more to me in this movie than in it's predecessor.
EDIT: I was partway through the video when I typed this, I know, it's a faux pas, but I have a tendency to get overexcited and jump into things head first, and although you touched on a good few of these things, my opinion hasn't changed too much.
Some of it was more on the nose (Using the term excommunicated, referring to John's home as his temple, even just placing it in Rome) But there was some that took me a while to appreciate fully (the carvings on Laurence Fishburne's chair, which is on older norse symbol which the Roman Catholic church has used, plus he just has tons of Catholic knick-knacks here and there) There was just a ton of imagery too, (tons of scenes in front of statues of gods from all different faiths, like Kali and the trials of Hercules, John walking in front of an angel statue for a split second as to appear to give him wings, a homeless assassin with blood splattered across their face like a Bindi, Claudia Gerini dying, as she bleeds from her wrists in the pose of the crucifixion)
That's just me, I tend to miss a lot of major themes and latch onto one or two minor things and focus on those so that may have just been the case, either way, love your work, keep doing what you're doing man!
what's going on with the re-edits?
He said he is cutting some extraneous stuff from some of his videos from last year.
*Muffled catawampus* Just let him do it!
After watching this and your John Wick 1 take, I really want to watch these movies. Great channel! Love your content.
I've been watching your videos almost non-stop the past 3 days. I'm sad I've only come across them so recently. But I have to say, I definitely love that you used Chvrches in this video. As soon as I heard the first few beats I perked up and got even more happy to watch this.
Prediction, based entirely on this analysis - in John Wick 3, he will end up having to fight the gods themselves, and thus, ascend to the pinnacle of Olympus and replace the King on the throne. Thus he's *forever* sucked back into the old life he promised his wife he wouldn't return to. Or, twist - he ends up running the hotel, and thus becomes King of the Underworld and psychopomp. Let's see if I'm right.
What on earth is the last song in the credits I've fallen in love with it
Does this mean that for the third movie it'll be "we did this to us"?
These analyses are literally the best. Such perfection.
Cinema Wins got me hooked on this. So satisfying to get real thought behind a review.
I did not knooooow!
There was nothing to suggest that Santino was going to do anything further though; they left John there and either presumed him to be dead or just didn’t care (they didn’t look for him). It’s further touched upon with Winston saying “you’re lucky he stopped there” as there is nothing to suggest that a contract of any kind had been put out on John, nor was anyone from “the High Table” looking for him.
He probably could have just faded into obscurity and no one would have been any wiser. Though that wouldn’t make for an interesting movie. Aside from that, John walks all the way there and just sits next to Santino with only the thought of killing him. Cooperation, whether it would have been enforced or not, was only the after thought. An obstacle in the way of John killing Santino.
God bless you Mikey I shall watch your videos for evermore. There is such (film)joy in watching your videos. I love this channel; I haven't met you but I love you as well.
@ 4:06
Evidently Wick never heard of home insurance... :P
I just checked out this channel as result of a shout-out from CinemaWins, and I I found one of my new favorite channels. Great job with the editing, and description. Everything said makes a lot of sense, and the jokes added in thus far always make chuckle at the very least. I give Movies with Mikey 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿up.😊
I'm pretty sure I agree with every nice thing anyone has commented about your channel and you as a person, I'm about halfway through your videos and refuse to stop watching them. I want to add to the refrain of people saying that your presentation is the best on this platform, and your dance moves are spectacular.
Been binging your channel. Cinemawins sent me from his john wick 3 video! You make great stuff, highly underrated
Again with the bad pronunciation of Chad and David's names!!! Spank thyself sir.
Chad Sta-hell-skeee
David Leach
Easy peasy
But again, your review is a thing of beauty, so I'm nitpicking. It's lovely that someone else sees through all the flash of the fight scenes etc (which ARE amazing), and gets to the core of the movie, and of John Wick himself. So, nitpicking aside, thanks for this. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say about JW3 Parabellum...
9:21 You are basically describing Venture Bros, John wick wishes he could chew through nameless henchmen like Brock Samson!
The finale might be an inversion of Sarte's No Exit, where hell is three people and no mirrors, making it impossible to see yourself except through the eyes of others. Instead, this is nothing but mirrors and no people (only mobs and adds), making it impossible to avoid seeing yourself.
Perfect.
SamyulDavis No, you.
When the song says "up, down", you see John pick a dude up and slam him down.. great editing
FilmJoy U r completely right about everything u said in this video, he set himself up to lose by the end of the film, ur analysis was spot on, I fricking loved it to be honest. Please do a video on The Raid: Redemption & The Raid 2, their 2 of the best action films you'll ever watch in ur life I can promise u that! 😀
9:27 was beautiful 🤣
“SWEET BISCUITS.”
I’ma remember that’n.
I get the silent credits.... oh yay, a cookie!
Mikey..... Was I the only one that saw those 'grape lights' in Queen Santino Sister's bath space to be .... symbolic as such of Ambrosia? The gods are dead, stoned, gone. And yet, their food that made super-men was still available. Picking through the scraps that John left behind....
When you put it that way I'm excited and worried for chapter 3 john has the whole city after him how is he gonna survive
I couldn't stand how unrealistic the combat in this one was.. like you said the bad guys threw themselves at wick like a video game! Great vid
Please mention "Brotherhood of the Wolf" in your review of John Wick Chapter 3, I think you will have reason to again :)
also if you look up the casting for john wick 2 the bad guy squad around santino is called the "ares team"
Honestly dude, thanks for all the passion you put into this. With your insight on John Wick 1 I could even make my wife look at it in a different light and also enjoy it.
Wow. Your analyses of these movies, from Greek gods to this descent into hell, I feel so inattentive.
I'm a major fan of revenge films. My own life has made it clear that the guilty are never punished as they deserve even when they're are straight out caught...even imprisoned.
The guilty should suffer up to and beyond what they've inflicted If karma can punish with you reap what you dish out times three, nobody ever is punished for the pain they've caused.
So seeing John kill can intoxicate me into dark laughter, but while I'm drunk on the power of the Boogeyman, I am distracted by the violent euphoria I still want to feel for those that wronged me decades ago.
I should forgive and forget. No. I have done enough by forcing myself to not increase skills with knives and guns.
My enjoyment is not physical and depends upon movies. I think I've staved myself enough. I'll have to keep watching John Wick.
Although I am interested to see whether John is himself evolving into a "god" himself, and in charge of his own pantheon. We'll see...
Although the previews seem to imply the 9 circles of hell in Dante's Inferno. The attack gods....are they Cerberus....because the Boogeyman is himself becoming the God of Death....Hades....Anubis....Hel....
Thanks for the analyses
You have the best movie analysis channel on this platform.
Good analysis. And why I don't like this movie as much as the first - Because it's a different person we're watching, despite sharing a name. It's not the boogeyman getting redemption, but the boogeyman reaping what he's sown, redemption be damned. So, if that was intended, mission accomplished. However my big issue, and maybe it's not with the movie as much as with the audience who raved - is that they don't get it. (You get it - the first person who has, from those I've spoken with - Even if we haven't spoken.) The general audience rooted for Wick to win, missing the entire point, because it wasn't pointed enough, and part of that was a result of it being a "sequel" - Live by the sword, die by the sword. The only righteous end to John Wick in John Wick 2 is a bullet to his head. That it didn't happen is a weakness, and if it doesn't happen in a third film, the weakness will be solidified, no matter if the theme gets reinvented yet again.
Damn. You hit me every single time. Thank you.
Can you PLEASE do something on Crimson Peak because it is amazing and doesn't get enough credit? The marketing team really screwed the film over.
All I do is-BLAM-🎵adagio for strings...
😂😂😂