Despite some quibbles with Chapter 2, the sequels to John Wick only went from strength to strength, getting bigger, better, and more complex with each installment. Not bad when you consider that the first film corrected course for how action is portrayed in non-Asian films.
I have to admit Chapter 4 did not make a great first impression. It starts, like the others, shortly after the events of the previous movie. A fun prologue sets the scene where we catch up with John Wick (Keanu Reeves,) who survived getting shot off a building in fine action movie sequel tradition. Doing martial arts training in front of a a burning triangle on the floor, as you do. Nonsensical but cool.
That gives way to a horseback chase in the desert that... just consists of John shooting down the people he's chasing. Not an action scene, just a massacre. Turns out John's killing the head of the Table, the chief of Wickaverse's shadowy assassin organization, and that one-sidedness is very deliberate; But that doesn't make the scene any more engaging.
Then we go for another deep dive into the silly, silly world of wizardry assassining, complete with a new functionary (Clancy Brown, who unfortunately doesn't do a lot more than lend the movie his massively entertaining brand of exasperated gravitas) with his own old-timey badge of office, oversized sand clocks, more official-sounding jargon...
If I have to be honest, this is my least favorite aspect of the movies. It was great in the first one, where it was background color, but it got tiresome as it took on a lot more screentime, and kind of swallowed Chapter 2.
But it's fine! everything is fine. The series has learnt from its mistakes and managed to both embrace its ridiculousness and find a story worth telling set in this world. Just when I got a little bit worried about chapter 4, maybe fifteen minutes in, the movie turns the screws and holy shit I am so completely on board. And the movie just keeps getting better and better from there.
Soon John Wick is once again going against the world as the Table give plenipotentiary powers and almost unlimited resources to one of its scions, the Marquis, (Bill Skarsgård) to kill the rogue assassin once and for all. The asshole forces one of Wick's old friends, Caine (played by absolute HK legend Donnie Yen) out of retirement, and pulls all sorts of dick moves. A very hissable villain of the worst sort - one who doesn't get his hands dirty.
But there's a silver lining; As long as Wick meets some stringent conditions, he can challenge the Marquis to a duel, and if he wins, he's fully pardoned and can retire peacefully again. So that becomes the throughline for the movie: Wick needs to jump through some hoops for the duel, with the help of a few choice allies, and meanwhile everyone else tries to kill him. Lovely.
And all that killing... it's a thing of beauty. The action scenes in previous John Wicks have a deserved place of honour among the best ever, and 3 in particular took such a maximalist, over-the-top approach that any follow up was going to face an uphill battle. But holy fuck does Chapter 4 ever deliver. The action is varied, frequent, hilarious, impeccably performed, and... well, awesome. It's absolutely essential if you even marginally enjoy this sort of thing.
Just the thought of the stuff the stuntmen were put through makes me wince in sympathy.
Each and every technical aspect of this movie is carefully crafted. The cinematography is gorgeous (and no wonder; DP is Dan Laustsen, who besides the previous Wicks, has become Guillermo del Toro's go-to DP, and had been the cinematographer in interesting-looking movies including Brotherhood of the Wolf and Mimic.) The music blends with the editing to give the film a slinky, nervous energy, and is full of neat little touches like a music box melding into some diegetic violin playing, and then swelling into the soundtrack.
And the plot... well, it's more John Wick, just done uncommonly well, with a ton of outlandish characters and weird little touches. The series has accrued some cruft over the years, but mostly it's gained narrative weight, turning a pretty standard revenge/man against the world yarn into this fable of someone who dug himself into a hole, and decided to get out of it by digging deeper into it because it's the only thing he knows how to do. There's all sorts of lovely themes there - brotherhood in arms, honour, and those fucking institutions, man. It's also knowingly ridiculous, and this final installment leans hard on that; it's (intentionally) funny while keeping a mostly straight face, and there are some very, very good jokes here. Chapter 3 should have silenced those people complaining this series takes itself too seriously, but if anyone says that after watching this one... I don't know, man.
And even when it's being serious... well, these are movies that bluntly state their themes by having characters just blurting them out to each other with maximum gravitas. CONSEQUENCES.
An acquired taste, for sure. The kind of smartly-made dumb I can completely get behind.
I could keep on gushing - I left the theater annoyed no one applauds at the cinema any longer; I near floated out, humming with energy.
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| Much effort is expended in making Donnie Yen look as awesome as possible. I approve. |
There's so much more! The series continues to provide a showcase for action stars from all over the world; Chapter 4, besides giving Donnie Motherfucking Yen almost-coprotagonist status, very generously makes Chilean martial artist Marco Zaror the head henchman, and gives absolute legend Scott Adkins a very juicy, extremely fun character as Killa, possibly the freakiest invention this series has unleashed yet. Joining them and making a huge impression are Shamier Anderson and Rina Sawayama; I was surprised that she's a pop singer with no movie credits- She has great presence and some great action moves.
It also has one scene which rivals *that* bit in Hard Boiled, a ridiculously awesome, video-game influenced sequence that literally had me slack-jawed for its entire duration. It only took thirty years, folks!
Ridiculously awesome is about right; Doubt we'll be seeing its like for a while.
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