>>14326
>Are you saying John Wick isn’t violent or John Wick doesn’t have martial arts in it?
Both, i may be wrong but i'll explain:
While the results are the same as other martial films, as in a lot of dead folk, the process is different... the hyper violence is actually very clean and differs from even basic Chuck Norris movies.
Wick does possess a very advanced technique in a martial aspect, close-quarters combat, Reeves is a horrible drama actor but he did a splendid job on firearm choreography, but his actions denote a lack of martial strategy (as he goes full-frontal and naked in most situations) and life discipline (point of the movies is that he goes berserk). You see "martial art" is just a fancy name for defensive doctrine, which means a combat system, strategy operations or route to take (infiltrate-attack-retreat, or deceive-attack-deceive) and life philosophy. Wick performs sublimely at the first, disappears or fails at the second and half-asses the third.
Now i said it wasn't hyperviolent, have you seen Hot Shots 2? pretty good for night surfing, as has the same dead men as Wick, but we don't call it hyperviolent until we see AIDSman carrying a Mr. Bean that talks. It isn't because of the precision John uses, part of why the movies are a joy to watch are the photo (that ovendodger cinematographer is pretty good) and choreography, but that's it, the gun dancing makes every victim a flash event in the screen, dozens of them, but that hold much lesser importance than a Shaolin student getting slapped in 3 seconds as these guys take 1.8 seconds (i counted).
And the script sucks and same with the character building because, unlike Five Venom movies where the characters are absurd masters but die all the time, Wick is a machine and there's very rarely a sense of tension, we are expecting him to mow down anyone at any time, we just want to see the resolution, making the above-average spectator wait for an hour (or more) to find the ending. There's no continuous use of impaled people mirrors count? no arm chopping that appears for more than 5 seconds, no cerebrospinal juice splashing after massive hits, no spine snapping due to a well-performed judo thrown, no tibias broken in half in all its shining glory, no decapitation from mouth, no squashing, just precise shots to the head and upper torso with random exit wounds, the same that appear in ALL movies with guns like you said get theatrical releases, i don't know why you said there isn't, Baby Driver is mainstream as it gets and there was some darkie getting impaled by a truck bumper in it, also tons of cops with exit wounds.
But i will back down a bit, John Wick IS a martial arts film because it does depict the 3 factors even the bonus asian one as Reeves is a hapa but it's simply not one that portrays them well, or at least traditionally well, humanity is lost in its high contrast results and at times characters that become cartoons instead of cartoons that become characters. Or maybe i'm spoiled/jaded with playing Hitman games as a kid and saw Hard Boiled multiple times, now that's a good example of hyperviolence in a movie with guns, going full-american cop on somebody and shooting them until they stop moving on the ground, also mangling workers with shotguns and bikes.
I recommend Hard Boiled too, it becomes very campy at times due to sentimental asian soap opera acting but the action sequences are top, it drags too much at the end but the Teahouse scene is a stamp of action cinema. That's a fun experiment, find the 3 factors in movies you said, surprisingly they are still there, but much less obvious than say, Shaw Brothers movies or Chuck Norris. I'm serious, Norris' The Hitman showcases very explicitly hyperviolence, hard-to-hand combat and precise shooting, tactic resolution and life philosophy, it just does it in a disjointed way that makes it sloppy, plus the acting and directing is Cannon Group-tier. John Wick done without budget or camera, but certainly with a better lead man, even if he helps a bike thief.
