I had always filed John Wick away in the Generic Action Revenge Movie Featuring Some Middle Aged White Guy. But I noticed it had a place in the cultural zeitgeist of my roughly lefty, queery friends.

The movie starts out as your action revenge faire: A man who had lost his wife gets robbed of his car and his dog (the final gift from his late wife) is killed. But then the characterization and worldbuilding starts. Wick is an ex-hitman, and he has a wide-reaching reputation. An audience can usually assume the protagonist will win for any given movie. But in John Wick, every other character also assumes John Wick will win in the end. The main bad guys fight with a futility that makes you feel sympathy for them.

He's not just some guy, he's some comically relentless force. He just starts shooting his way through the criminal syndicate who raised him, killing dozens (hundreds?) of bodyguards and whatnot.

That's boring and played out, but the movie does it well. Meanwhile, a larger crime organization is implied in the worldbuilding. What's up with the hotel, The Continental? Why is it such a central location? Who are all these characters who have a connection to Wick? What's up with the coins?

John Wick really feels set up like a videogame. I'm sure there's some fantheory out there that weaves it together better than me.,

The enemies lives are expendable but many of them are subtly characterized in the few seconds they're onscreen. John Wick's motivation is sound (they killed his dog!) But eventually, you kind of start rooting against John Wick. You've seen a thousand revenge movies, you know there's some message about the cycle of violence. Give up Mr. Wick! Go to therapy! But the movie subverts that and doubles down by just having more fight scenes.

It's really a "River Tam Beats Up Everyone" kinda movie.

But everyone the protagonist comes into contact with is a high-profile criminal. This isn't a "David vs Goliath" story, this is a "Reformed #1-goliath returns to his goliath ways, kills a whole hierarchy of lesser goliaths, and all the Davids are comic relief."

The fight scenes are pretty good too, but mostly involve guns rather than hand-to-hand combat. I assume that makes the choreography easier.

The main bad guy says what we're all thinking, "It was just a fucking car, it was just a fucking dog." You kind of agree, you still want him to set down his guns and go to therapy. But, they killed his dog, and he spares some guys.

The movie ends with John Wick getting a second dog, who I really hope doesn't die in the sequel.

But ultimately, I don't see what the big deal is? It is a good action movie, and I enjoyed it where I might not enjoy most others. But it's just a movie about an antihero who goes on a revenge rampage. The movie really leans aggressively into the "magical realism" you come to expect, to an almost surreal, folk-lore degree. It doubles down and executes well all the basics of an action movie.