John Wick’s universe expands in scope and quality in the fourth installment of the series, raising the stakes to an all-time high and elevating the series’ trademark “world within a world” concept to a new level.
Following the events of the last film, John Wick: Chapter 4 finds the main character (Keanu Reeves) in exile and ready to wreak his revenge on the High Table with the assistance of Bowery King (Lawrence Fishburne). As a last-ditch effort to end the bloodshed and get everyone off his back, John travels to Morocco and kills the only person above the High Table. However, the plan backfires, making John’s situation even more precarious. A senior member of the High Table, Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), becomes the new leader, and his first move is to destroy the Yew York Continental and excommunicate Winston (Ian McShane) for failing to execute John before. He raises the bounty on John’s head to $20 million and hires Caine (Donnie Yen), a blind former High Table assassin and an old friend of John’s, to kill him, threatening to kill Caine’s daughter otherwise. Then there’s Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson), a tracker, who is hunting John but not killing him since he believes that twenty million dollars are insufficient for the task. With the world’s most notorious assassins and gangsters on his tail, John Wick’s odds of survival are wearing thin. His only way out is to challenge Vincent to a dual battle.
The film contains three major action set pieces, which grow in scale and length as the story progresses. Chad Stahelski, known for his action choreography, delivers some of his best work here, as these action scenes are jaw-dropping to watch. The first sequence takes place in the Osaka Continental, where John has sought refuge with the assistance of his friend and the hotel manager, Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), despite opposition from his daughter, the hotel concierge Akira Koji (Rina Sawayama). I liked how the father-daughter relationship felt genuine and organic without the screenplay investing too much time in unnecessary exposition or separate scenes to establish their chemistry, thanks to crisp writing and good performances from the actors. When it begins, the action moves throughout the Osaka Continental as John, Akira, and Shimazu fight Vincent’s thugs, led by Chidi (Marko Zaror) and Caine. There is a particularly striking scene in which John fights Caine and the others in a room that appears like a postmodern art gallery, with white walls, a glass structure with light beams, and rows of LEDs. It is a non-stop action sequence that will take your breath away.
The second action set piece takes place in a Berlin nightclub owned by a menacing looking Killa (Scott Adkins), who is the head of the German High Table. The most impressive aspect of the screenplay is the pre-action (buildup) scenes, which play a significant role in enhancing the effectiveness of the action sequences. For example, before the start of the first action setpiece, there is a scene in which all the main characters arrive at the Osaka Continental to kill John. Shimazu and his daughter realize that and begin preparing for war, boosting the audience’s interest in the impending confrontation. A similar situation is presented prior to the second action sequence, when Caine, Mr. Nobody, John, and Killa are all seated around the table, at which point Killa pitches a poker game in which the victor gets to kill John. As the game progresses, the tension reaches its crescendo before the full-blown action breaks out. The movie also profits from the fact that even though characters like Killa, Shimazu, Akira, etc. have limited screen time, they make a significant impact, helping the film avoid the pitfall of appearing to squander time with uninteresting side characters.
The third and the final action set piece, which clocks in at roughly 30 minutes, takes place throughout the streets of Paris, from the Arc de Triomphe to Sacré-Coeur. This sequence reminded me of Walter Hill’s outstanding The Warriors (1979), in which two gangs battle it out on the streets of New York, from the Bronx to Coney Island. Within the extended sequence, there is an utterly incredible bit where John is in the abandoned building, battling with thugs, which will remind you of Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002) and Gasper Noe’s Enter the Void. (2009).
Stahelski shoots almost all the action from wide angles and makes as few cuts as possible to make it look more realistic and impactful. It also gives an appropriate sense of the geography of which character is where during the scene. When it comes to the cinematography, a flavor of German Expressionism permeates the filmmaking, with its highly styled sets, buildings with sharp angles and enormous heights, and crowded environments, all of which are integral to the franchise’s world-within-a-world narrative, easily making it one of the best-looking films in recent times.
John Wick, seeking vengeance for his murdered wife, challenges an intricate system by violating its rules and embarking on a worldwide killing spree. Along the way, John starts realizing that his actions have consequences and that he is endangering the lives of people close to him. He also comes to terms with the fact that no matter how many people he kills, the grief will not go away. The High Table starts targeting people who helped John, including Winston, his loyal concierge Sharon, Koji, and his daughter Akira, begging the question of when it will stop and how far John is willing to go and sacrifice his friends and allies to seek his revenge. This movie finally answers these questions in the form of Caine’s storyline. Donnie Yen stands out as the film’s top performer and steals the show whenever he is on the screen.
As someone known for doing most of his own stunts, Keanu Reeves is in a red-hot form here as he bares it all and puts his body on the line while doing all the death-defying stunts. And it all pays off because this is arguably the best film in the John Wick series.
John Wick: Chapter 4 movie link: IMDB
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