"The Continental" - a beautiful but strange prequel to "John Wick" with Mel Gibson

On September 22, the first episode of the series “Continental” premiered on the streaming services Peacock and Prime Video.

"Continental" is a prequel to the film series "John Wick». The plot centers on the rise of Winston Scott. He is just preparing to become the manager of a hotel with which elite assassins are associated. The format of the series is unusual; only three episodes will be released, but each has the same length as a full-length film.

The first and third episodes were directed by Albert Hughes (“The Book of Eli”), the second by Charlotte Brändström (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”). The screenwriters were Greg Coolidge (“Wayne”), Kirk Ward (“Wayne”) and Ken Christensen (“Shantaram,” “The Punisher”).

Young Winston Scott lives in London, where he carries out fraudulent schemes. One day, his brother, Freddy, steals a currency printing device used in a New York hotel “Continental” - with its help they produce money for hired killers. The innkeeper, Cormac, forces Winston to find his brother and return the printing press. At the same time, Scott understands that the device will allow him to become the main one at Continental.

Lack of cool action

From the very first minutes it becomes clear that “Continental” took a little from “John Wick”: a couple of heroes, a gloomy atmosphere, an abundance of fights and shootouts. And the last one works the worst. The action production is quite decent, but the monotony is confusing - there are few really original ideas. Most often, this is a classic scattering of enemies in corners with standard action film editing (here it is worth remembering that John Wick relied on long scenes, removed one camera). The ending of each fight also interferes with the action - either the hero’s savior appears out of nowhere, or the villain thinks for a long time about whether to pull the trigger, which is why he loses.

Another problem is sterility. Sometimes it seems that during a firefight the heroes are not only able to avoid injury - they don’t even get dirty. And in order to completely eliminate damage to the beautiful costumes, the authors of the series decided to add blood in post-production - and it doesn’t look natural at all.

Very solid thriller

Where "John Wick" sprinkled cranberries and stupid stereotypes, "The Continental" tries to be more serious and detailed. It’s impossible to dig into the backstory of the characters, it’s precise and neat—it’s not a character Keanu Reeves with his “and by the way, I’m Belarusian Giovanni.” The atmosphere is also taken seriously, so the plot is influenced by both Vietnam War veterans and the garbage strike in New York. The authors want the past to be felt - and they succeed.

The brilliant soundtrack with music from the 70s and 80s is in keeping with the spirit of the times. Combined with cinematography, excellent costumes and cool color grading, the result is a truly stylish spectacle. The Continental wrapper is good until the heroes start fighting.

Empty characters

But if the authors of Continental took a responsible approach to recreating the spirit of the times, the heroes turned out to be too simple. Winston looks like a mixture of James Bond and any criminal from Guy Ritchie's early films. Throughout the entire first episode, he gives no reason to believe that he is someone deeper. He is surrounded by even simpler heroes who love pathetic discussions about duty and fate, but are unable to talk about themselves.

Cormac, the main villain, has exactly the same problem. Either he is constrained by the script, or Mel Gibson has aged, but the character turned out to be evil, a little creepy, but too minor. The villains in John Wick evoked emotion, even through the simplest of actions, but the antagonist in The Continental seems to have no intention of scaring anyone. And his passion for puns is reminiscent of the bandit Krugly from “Brother.”

The most devoted fans of the franchise will enjoy familiar, but rejuvenated heroes, of whom there are far too few in the series. But at least this is understandable fan service.

Optional prequel

In the first John Wick, the concept of the Continental Hotel seemed interesting and unusual. The subsequent parts told so much about “Continental” that it became a little boring - by the last film it began to seem like something boring, interfering with the narrative. Because of this, even before the release of the series, the question arose about its necessity - well, this hotel is not that interesting. And the first episode makes it clear that the John Wick franchise was completely comfortable without prequels for a reason.

Continental evokes mixed feelings. Beautiful visuals, bright music, good costumes - the result is a beautiful series that gives pleasure. It’s probably good to turn on something like this in the background during cleaning. But at the same time, an uninteresting plot, empty characters and bad action raise bewilderment and the question - does John Wick really need a prequel? And the first episode gives the answer: no.