I don't understand the popularity of the "John Wick" movies.

[bif]

Don't get me wrong. I love a good revenge movie. But I just watched the first three Wick movies on Netflix and I thought they were pretty boring. They were so predictable and formulaic. And the fight scenes were practically the same in each sequence and each movie. How did they each get a 7.4 score on IMDb?

[Traildogbob]

1. Lot and lots and lots of guns?

[bif]

2. Gun nuts must get a hard-on watching these movies.

[jimfields33]

3. They are top 10 on Netflix right now.

They are for everyone!

[Traildogbob]

4. Can you imagine

All the stroking going on in the two seats MTG and whoever was next up in a theater binge watching the whole series? Sorry, Boebert!!! But probably both. Just no video of MTG doing the stroke in public.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

5. Are they great movies? Of course not. Was I entertained? Yes.

If I want to see people getting killed in a relatively intense action movie, Wick it is. Plus, the all deserve it for the dog.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

9. That was the cutest puppy in the world!

It was hard to watch, but that invested so much in watching him get his revenge.

Plus Keanu is just an all-around great guy...

[RainCaster]

10. The Mrs and I have raised beagles for 40+ years...

She was so pissed to see them abuse such a cute puppy. She had to watch the rest of the movie, but no more after that.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

6. I think the big appeal is the "alternate world" they created in it

The world building is amazing.
It’s almost like “urban fantasy without magic” in that it’s set in our world, but there’s this parallel world right under our noses where these superhuman assassins rule the world with secret societies, are trained in secret schools and have gorgeous hotels they pay for with weird gold coins.
It’s Harry Potter without the magic and transphobia.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

7. And all the rules that they just live by.

Like the safe house.

Also why there are going to be a lot of spinoffs in that universe.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

8. Exactly

On the surface it's just another shallow action film - but the background work that went into it is incredibly deep.

[getting old in mke]

11. Opera/Ballet

If I watched them all in a short period of time, I'd probably have the same reaction But I watched them over time.

For me, the (predictable) story arcs were so over the top in terms of motivation that I was reminded a great deal of opera, where one tiny thing spirals out of control into horrific consequences. (This is obviously not exclusive to opera--witness, for example Titus Andronicus or Othello.)

And watching the fight scenes, I was reminded more of ballet than combat. Much more Kurasawa's Kagemusha or Asian martial arts movies than Taken or more mundane revenge fare.

I think the other replies talking out the setting/world are spot on. In a lot of ways, I'd class the John Wick movies as fantasy movies more than action films, even if they cover the same territory.