The Keanu Shift

This post is book-ended by two pictures of Keanu Reeves, the actor who has presided over two major shifts in the visual language of action in film.

I had the chance to watch The Matrix recently, with my teenage son. He didn't know anything about it, and I wanted to see if he had the same experience I had when I first saw it. Remember, the marketing for the movie played the story very close to its vest, and the major plot point was a complete surprise to me. Sitting in a theater with some friends, we all sort of thought it would be a computer hacking movie, similar to Reeves' earlier (forgettable) Johnny Mnemonic; but from the opening action scene to the revelation of the truth about the Matrix, my jaw was literally wide open. My son was impressed, but not overly so, which makes me question my judgment.

Many things about this movie don't hold up today, some that are inherent to the film itself, and others extrinsic to it. For one, the drum and bass techno soundtrack is as dated as sideburns and bell bottoms. And the fashion victim costumes, so edgy and cool back in 1999, are frankly ridiculous. But it also suffers because it was the first to present a computer-enhanced action style that was aped endlessly- we've seen so much that is derivative of Bullet Time that it seems a bit passe.

Make no mistake, this movie was revolutionary in how action scenes are composed, shot and edited. While taking several cues from Hong Kong and Japanese action movies, the Wachowski brothers (as they were at the time) created something original and fresh. With the aid of enormous computing power, the directors were able to make human beings do things never before seen outside of animation. Not just slow-motion, but dynamic, impossible slow-motion that transitions perfectly to normal speed, giving the viewer a better understanding of what is happening in those microseconds.

Time marches on, and so many movies are larded up with computer-generated imagery that the magic is lost. Even big budget, top-tier movies are looking poorly these days- the Marvel products come to mind particularly.

So it is fascinating that it took another Keanu Reeves action film to make the next big shift: John Wick.

Here we have almost the antithesis of Matrix-style action: no slow motion, no gratuitous cuts, no computer generated digital actors. The characters are clearly placed in the frame and allowed to perform the action themselves, in real time. That the directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch are themselves stuntmen comes through in this movie's abundance of physical stunts and realistic action setpieces. The camera is often far enough away from the actors so we can see what they are doing, and appreciate their skills.  John Wick is going to shoot a dude in the face, and we're not going to doll it up with a bunch of fakery.

Warning: ultraviolence in GIF form!

This return to physical action staging is a welcome return to a more realistic take on action cinematography. Who knows, maybe in 20 years Keanu will disrupt the genre again with something new.