John Wick: Chapter 2 (May 2017)

Official Australian release date: 18/5/17. Viewed: 20/5/17.

Director: Chad Stahelski

Actors: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Common

Genre: Action / Thriller

Rating: MA

‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ is a sequel I didn’t think they were going to make, but it is actually better than the first, if only because they now know what to do more and less of. It starts directly after the first film, but Wick (Reeves) now has a new dog. The initial car chase scene in New York is a pretty great way to start the film. Wick’s still the same – brooding, wearing a suit, saying maybe 100 words in the whole 2 hours and killing people left, right and centre.

The plot, as much as there is one, is that Santino D’Antonio (Scamarcio) – some Italian mafia guy – wants Wick to kill his sister, so he’s off to Rome to mess stuff up. This starts a long-running battle with fellow hitman Cassian (Common), which has some funny moments and some good fights.

I liked that there’s a sort of ‘Kingsman’-like global hitmen underground, but it does seem a little far-fetched most of the time, especially since there’s apparently hundreds of them! The film definitely needed to use Fishburne, McShane and Leguizamo more. But Reeves carries it, running around and killing at least 50 bad guys. The scene at the end in the museum is really well done too. Nothing new or exceptional, but well-made.

Overall: Fast and violent fun

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Alien: Covenant (May 2017)

Official Australian release date: 11/5/17. Viewed: 11/5/17.

Director: Ridley Scott

Actors: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride

Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror

Rating: MA

‘Alien: Covenant’ is number 6 or 8 in the franchise, depending if you count the ‘Alien Vs Predator’ films, or not. It’s a sequel to ‘Prometheus’, but a prequel to the original four ‘Alien’ films. Confusing? It doesn’t matter too much, but Fassbender as the cyborg, Walter, links this film to ‘Prometheus’, where he was David. As such, he plays a large role in the plot, which is similar to all that has gone before – in the 22^nd century, the crew is awoken from their “hyper-sleep” early by a mini-disaster and decide to stop on a nearby plant. What could possibly go wrong?

I’m not really sure what Ridley Scott was going for here (only his third film in the franchise) – a mix of ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’, since it involves a bit of action on a planet, but also the final scenes trapped on a ship. Unfortunately, it’s not done as well as either of those films. It takes over 40min for anything to happen, but because there’s 15 characters, we don’t get to learn much about them – just that Oram (Crudup) is the captain, Daniels (Waterson) his second-in-command and Tennessee (McBride) is the comic relief, that doesn’t get any jokes – and that it’s unlikely more than 20% of them will survive.

The film could’ve done more to explore the “Creators” that were set-up in ‘Prometheus’, but it’s only alluded to a little, with a slight twist being revealed. Both “twists” aren’t that shocking, and while there’s some good gore, there’s no truly scary or tense moments. I almost wish they went a little less serious with it. I thought the finished about three times before it did end, and left me asking if it was necessary?

Overall: Can’t give it too low a score, because we still get to see Aliens killing humans, but not great either.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.