The Continental: From the World of John Wick

The story, as the title suggests, takes place in the famous hotel, The Continental.

Hyderabad: Trust Keanu Reeves to lay the foundation stone for a series. Time and again, he has proved that he is Mister Dependable. The Continental is an origin story for one of the characters of the John Wick (essayed by KR) franchise–Winston Scott. True to its franchise, the series is violent to a point. It is so violent that it dedicates one full episode of the 3-part series to only killing (not that the other episodes don’t).

The story, as the title suggests, takes place in the famous hotel, The Continental. To those who have come in late, the story takes place in dystopian New York in the 1970s. Francis “Frankie” Scott (Ben Robson) steals the Coin Maker (a device used to mint gold coins that is used as currency by assassins world over) from Cormac O’Connor (Mel Gibson) who is the Manager of the Continental. Cormac has a past with Frankie and his brother Winston Scott (Colin Woodell). Unable to locate Frankie, Cormac gives Winston three days time to get back the Coin Maker. What follows is three episodes of violence.

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When Keanu essayed the titular John Wick, he ensured that the violence was not too gory to see. It did not hurt the eye. Here it is gruesome. There is not much work for directors Albert Hugesand Charlotte Brändström to do.

Mel Gibson is wasted in the series. Though he is the main antagonist and excels whenever he is on screen, he too has nothing much to do. Saying Mel Gibson is the best is not saying much. The narrative moves at a snail’s pace. With comparisons to the parent film, this sleepwalks. Though one would get a nostalgic feeling with a stunt tribute to the Matrix (again Keanu), it is still violent. Issues like family, brotherhood and loyalty are only dealt with superficially.

With a scope of delivering a masterpiece for the OTT platform, the makers falter and disappoint. While series like Young Sheldon and Young Indiana Jones have carved a space for themselves, this youngster version of a spinoff leaves a bitter taste.

Not much screen time is dedicated to the life or camaraderie of Frankie and Winston. As such, the leadactor Colin Woodell has nothing much to do. Even the support cast including Nhung Kate who plays Frankie’s wife from Vietnam, Jessica Allain as Lou, Ayomide Adegun as the young Cheron do not leave a lasting impression. I reiterate – with a scope of so much, with a diversified cast list, this could have been much more.

The Continental is definitely not worth checking in to. Skip it. This time around, the pasture is greener on the other side.