Notable Cast: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard,
Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, Clancy Brown, Hiroyuki Sanada,
Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror
At one point leading into the final portion of John Wick:
Chapter 4, Clancy Brown’s Harbinger warns the big bad of the film, The Marquis
- played with a seething and conniving performance by Bill Skarsgard, that a
man’s ambition should never exceed his worth. The moment is one to indicate that,
despite the villain’s endless amount of resources and skilled killers, The
Marquis is still over his head in trying to kill John Wick. Yet it’s also the
same warning that echoed my worries for this fourth entry.
Would the ambitions of the John Wick franchise eventually
exceed its worth?
With John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, one could see
the ambitions for building the globe trotting world start to stretch to the
point of excess. Not that the film is inherently bad, nay, but it is one where
some of the choices for plot and narrative felt the strain.
With John Wick: Chapter 4, the series addresses those
(including an opening sequence that neatly ties an open thread with a bullet
point of finality) and then proceeds to grow the series in scope while going
back to the thematic and narrative points about the character that made this
franchise explode with audiences. It’s a cinematic magic trick of epic
proportions. It balances its emotional parallels for the character while
simultaneously giving the viewer the biggest and most ambitious entry yet. If
the ambitions were exceeding the worth, Chapter 4 grows the worth to
match those ambitions. The results are glorious and punctuated with the
viciousness of a napalm loaded shotgun blast.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is Shakespearean action cinema that
reaches a new height for the genre and blends homage with fresh feeling mythological
storytelling. All while it continues to raise the bar in Hollywood filmmaking
for complex action set pieces told in gorgeous visuals.
Kicking off with Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King shouting
to the heavens as he comes to deliver John Wick his newest suit, it is
immediate that Chapter 4 was aiming to be the most epic of the series in
its storytelling. Yes, it’s going to be shouting with its bright and bold
visuals, bombastic action, and gargantuan run time, but it’s going to thread it
with a cohesiveness and smart sense of character and theme that will carry it
through. In each of its details, Chapter 4 is akin to Fishburne’s performance
as the King. It’s aiming for big and the results are cinematically astounding.
Just the use of sets,
which rockets around the globe like New York, Paris, Berlin, and Osaka, is a
CHOICE. Director Chad Stahelski and Oscar nominated cinematographer Dan Laustsen
deliver a film that is simply gorgeous in each frame. The use of the neon
colors from previous entries is emboldened to 11/10 here and whether it’s the
use of water in Berlin, sunshine in Paris, or the cherry blossoms and samurai
armor of Osaka, the film is aiming to deliver a fantasy-esque version of each
location. Even the way that Stahelski pulls the camera back to show the size of
each location and how small each person is in it is something to be admired
that adds to the size of everything.
With the settings ramped up, what Chapter 4 truly
delivers on, even more so than previous entries, is the interconnectivity of
its characters. Yes, John Wick – still played with the stoic determination of
third wave Keanu, is still finding his freedom and a way back to his home, but the
film really does some gymnastics to fill out the world around him. A mysterious
Tracker, played by Shamier Anderson, delivers the human and dog bond we still
expect. Hiroyuki Sanada brings a gravitas and fatherly love to the film as the
manager of the Osaka Continental. Scott Adkins is hamming it up in an evil
Sammo Hung inspired performance as an underground gangster in Berlin. Marko
Zaror is going full Bond henchman to the previously mentioned Skarsgard and
Rina Sawayama, as Akira, gets a solid backdoor introduction to a possible spin
off. All of them are owning their moments, interjecting the necessary character
beats to parallel Wick’s narrative, or punctuating the world with their own
quirks. It’s impressive to say the least.
Yet, it’s Caine, played by the always incredible Donnie Yen,
that tends to steal this film. Although the gimmick of a blind swordsman and
assassin is one that isn’t all that original, Yen’s inspired Zatoichi
style performance as a haunted man who uses humor to lesson his own burdens ends
up being one of those characters that elevates all of the material. His own
backstory, which is only briefly touched upon, reflects Wick’s and creates a dynamic
that’s worth seeing. Yen provides a slew of great moments in the film and one
of the biggest emotional moments too. There’s a lot of call for a spin off with
his character and, to be frank, I’m 1000% in for that.
Of course, when you have a cast as such with some of the
world’s greatest action talent and a stunt crew lead by Stahelski, there are lofty
expectations for the action set pieces. To say that Chapter 4 decimates
those expectations might be an understatement. The first big action sequence, a
massive “siege” on the Osaka Continental is large enough and impressive enough
to be the finale in any of the other best action films of the year…and that’s
just setting the stage. As each new sequence unravels on the screen, it becomes
apparent that Stahelski and his team are truly insane. Fights in traffic
circles, throughout water soaked dance clubs, or up the most daunting set of stairs
known to man increasingly build on the complexity of choreography and execution
throughout. It all culminates in the “dragon’s breath” gunfight which should be
immediately cemented into one of the greatest gunfights EVER to grace the
silver screen – along the likes of Hard Boiled or Heat. It’s that
kind of elevated action.
With an emotional core that continues to explore the meaning
of “family” and how far people will go (or not go) for it in this expansive world
of killers, Chapter 4 manages to up the ante for the franchise while
cutting back to why John Wick has gone on this rampage in the first place.
Through an exploration by other characters that allows him to remain stoic,
this fourth chapter solidifies every reason why this franchise is successful.
Its action is immense and impressively executed, the visuals soar to
fantastical heights, and the narrative has now fully embraced its Shakespearean
pillars. Which all leads me back to the initial warning about ambition and
worth.
Would the worth of John Wick eventually exceed its ambition?
In the iconic line of dialogue that introduces the character in this film, “Yeah.”
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