The following contains minor spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 2.
John Wick is a great action movie. John Wick: Chapter 2 is a pretty damn good action movie. It's clear that there are long-term plans for this title now and that's a good thing, because John Wick has the potential to be a massive action franchise. While the original film was written in a way that no sequel was in any way necessary, that sequel has come, and along with it comes an obvious indication that they plan to do even more with the character.
John Wick: Chapter 3 would seem to be a foregone conclusion following Chapter 2 and word of a prequel TV series is also going around. As long as the level of quality remains high there's absolutely nothing wrong with going back to this well because John Wick has all the pieces of a fantastic action franchise.
Keanu Reeves Is At Home Here
For the longest time, Keanu Reeves had real trouble finding respect as an actor following his early work in films like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. He was always viewed as the guy who played "surfer dude" types of characters. While movies like The Matrix and Speed helped him break that to a large extent, it's clear from the wide variety of types of films that Reeves has made since then that he's still been looking for the right fit. Having now seen two John Wick movies, it is clear that this is it. Reeves belongs in this role. He can still go off and try other things from here, but having John Wick to come home to will be a good thing for him -- and for the audience.
The Action is Engaging
If you're going to try and make a long-standing action franchise, then the first thing you have to get right is obviously the action. One of the things that John Wick does right is that it makes the action sequences truly something to enjoy. Most modern action movies seem to rely on the editing room to give you a great fight scene by cutting between camera angles so often that you can't actually follow what's going on. John Wick lets the camera pull back and show you great action with multiple characters in such a way that you can follow every move. At the same time, it never gets repetitive, so you're always looking forward to what you're going to see next.
The Lore is Deep
The absolute best thing about John Wick as a movie has nothing to do with John Wick as a character. The world that the films have created is quite simply one of the most interesting in recent memory. A world of organized crime where hitmen have their own hotel and a couple drinks at the bar cost the same gold coin that you'll need to get a body cleaned up. The economy is confusing, but that just makes it curious. The world is thoroughly entertaining, and yet even after two films, there's a great deal that we don't know. There's plenty that can be brought into this world to build stories for future films.
Future Movies Don't Need John Wick
One of the things that the interesting lore of John Wick would allow the franchise to do is also one thing that might help keep the franchise fresh for the long haul -- not focus on John Wick. His name might be in the title, but both movies have introduced numerous other characters who could be interesting to follow in their own movie. Granted the first movie killed them all off, but there can always be new characters introduced that could carry their own movie if they get over with the fans enough. The sequel at least implies that a couple of major side characters might survive, and we'd love to see them pop up in a potential sequel or maybe even their own spinoff.
But, There's Plenty More To Do With John Wick
While telling stories without John Wick is a possibility, there's no question that Keanu Reeves' character will be the soul of the franchise. John Wick Chapter 2 ends in such a way that a third entry is virtually guaranteed and while it's anybody's guess how such a third movie would end, there still a lot we'd like to know about the character. While we don't necessarily need full movies to fill in the backstory, there's still plenty of ways that backstory could inform future movies. So often action movies have had to shoehorn in reasons to bring the character back but John Wick has essentially created somebody who has already done so much that inventing a reason for another film is the easiest thing in the world.
