genre post - action - John Wick 2

Genre post on action 

The film I will be reviewing is "John Wick 2"

Trailer:

- Genre = action
- Released in 2017
- Studio is Summit Entertainment
- Written by Derek Kolstad
- Directed by Chad Stahelski
- Star cast are Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio and Ian McShane

The opening scene

Narrative 

From the opening title sequence at the start we see a mob member walking into the mob boss's office and telling him that they are nearly all loaded. The mob workers ask why they are moving to be told that John Wick's car is in their possession. As he says "John Wick's car" the shot changes to who we assume is John Wick entering the building. The shot cuts back to the mob boss and member. The mob member asks “why don't we just give it back". In response the mob boss say "He killed by nephew". As he says that the shot cuts back to John Wick who we can assume is killing the nephew.

It can be suggested as being a flashback. After that it cuts to the mob boss saying "my brother" and the shot cuts to John Wick killing another person who we can expect to be the brother. The shot keeps cutting from the mob boss and member talk to John Wick killing people. It keeps switching until the phone starts ringing and John Wick says to the mob boss "you have my machine" in Italian and then it cuts away to John Wick unveiling his car from the line of stolen cars.

He quietly gets in the car and starts it. The loud engine alerts the mob and they start trying to follow him. There is a long fight/ car chase around the mobs building and a lot of people are killed by John Wick. The scene ends with John Wick coming up to the mob boss's office and taking a drink with him. He says "peace" and in response the mob boss says "can a man like you know peace". This encounter is said in Italian.

It can be assumed that John Wick is going to be the main character in the narrative. We can also assume that the narrative will have lots of fight scenes and other cool action scenes. We can guess that the movie will be about how John Wick wants to get revenge for what had been taken away from him. We could guess that someone might try to take something else from him and the narrative will be him going to get that thing/ taking revenge on the person/ people who did it.

Target audience 

As this movie is in the genre of action we can expect the movie to be targeted towards people who enjoy watching action movies. John Wick is targeted towards an audience of 15 years old and above. We know this due to the rating the movie has of a 15. We can see that the rating fits what is going on in the scene. The scene has violent content in it but no sexual content. The opening scene also has swearing in it. These points allow the movie to be marketed as a 15. The movie is targeted towards 15+ year old action movie enthusiasts. We can see that it is an action movie from the amount of action that we are given in the opening scene. The scene was also long which allowed more action to be fit into it.

Characters

In the scene there are only two main characters. The first is John Wick and the other is the mob boss.

John Wick

We can assume that he will be the main character in the narrative. This can be guessed due to the movie title being his name as well as the mob boss talking about him as we watch John kill people. We can guess that John Wick is a very dark man who will do anything to get what he wants. This can be suggested from his costume and his hair. He wears a full black suit and has black hair. Black is a colour which connotes power, death and evilness. This can suggest that John has a lot of power and has evilness in his heart which means he will do anything, even kill tonnes of people just for what he wants.

The mob boss

As the boss of the mob it can be assumed that he is very evil but his costume helps to emphasise his evilness and power. He wears black clothing. Black is a colour which connotes evilness, power and death. This suggests that he has obscene amounts of power and is extremely evil. The tattoos can connote more of a ruthless nature as tattoos can connote ruthlessness and overall used to show villains in movies.

Genre and tone 

The genre of action and tones of excitement, thrill and badassery are explored in the opening scene. The conventions of fights, weapons, vehicles and crashes are seen in the opening scene. The convention of fights is when john wick is fighting and killing all the people with no emotion on his face. This can suggest he is ruthless. The crashes of all the cars during the car chase shots bring real elements of action into the scene and show that John Wick is highly skilled. The gun and other weaponry add to the fighting and makes it more action packed. The badassery tone is shown by how good of a killer and driver and everything else that John Wick is.

Camera use

The use of the camera being out of focus has no depth of field. The whole screen is blurry. This makes the character a mystery to the audience. This can connote the character as being a mysterious character. The use of John being in the centre of the shots shows how he is the main character. Being in the centre of a shot connotes importance and authority. This can suggest that John is important to the narrative which connote him being the main character.

The use of the close-up shot used on John Wick presents the character to us but focuses more on his facial expressions rather than body language. This shows his emotions. The use of the Pan in the car chase scene matches the slide of the car. It is like the camera is fixed to the car and follows its moves. This makes the action scene smoother and makes them cooler.

Sound use 

The use of the pleonastic diegetic sound effects of the killing of the mob boss' brother and nephew adds importance. Making a sound pleonastic makes the audience focus on the sound. It also connotes importance in a scene. This makes the killings more meaningful in the scene. Added with the fact that it was over "A car and a puppy" connotes John Wick being a ruthless man.

Mise-en-scene use

The use of the props of the cars being new york taxis helps to establish the setting that the movie is set in. The setting mixed with the setting of New York helps the audience to establish what mafia it is. This can make the audience be able to assume how the mobsters will act in the movie and what they will do.

Editing use

The use of the short shot durations is one of the conventions of an action movie. It makes the shots better and the action looks better and better in the cinematic experience. The shot durations are used to improve the action in the scene.

Conclusion

I believe that the scene was successful in engaging the audience and bringing the right tones and conventions into the scene to make it enjoyable for the action movie enthusiast. The scene was very good at telling a story without spoiling the narrative of the rest of the movie. The tones used emphasised the action and emotions in the scene.