IR Film Review: JOHN WICK - CHAPTER 4 [Lionsgate]
The tenaciousness of John Wick has turned into something ethereal, less realistic in any sense and more the aspect of myth in his path of nihilistic existence. With "John Wick: Chapter 4", the ampage continues to build but like samurais of old, using certain contemplations and ideas of what can be to make the world spin. Keanu Reeves is always game and looks more comfortable here (than even in previous outings and even more fit). While all the players are effective, it is the balance of Donnie Yen as a fellow assassin/friend/enemy that really makes the plot work. There is a correlation to "Rogue One" here (and in more than one obvious way).
The texture of the movie is larger just to say "look what we can do" but in that way it feels more cinematic, and many of the sequences stay in your mind, especially on the big screen, not just for the gunplay but the choreography and how it is shot. One specific one/two punch with two different styles in Paris is insane because it seems almost like a video game but there is a lot of praticcal mixed with CG. The key is that it uses its locations (Berlin and Tokyo also among them) as part of the mechanics. This Wick is much bigger and understands why. Reeves is always as said "game". In one driving sequence which is very technical at one point (at certain times, even in wides), you can see that it is Reeves behind the wheel of the car (and it is not being towed at all), which really makes it work realistically. He is getting older and that is to be understood too. Wick is tired but he never gives up. There is that irony playing in many of the characters but that is the point. However it is Yen that gives a sense of mortality to Reeves' character when nothing else can. Wick has nothing to save except to kill whereas Yen;s character sees things in a certain way (and in levels). And that reluctance is a wonderful counterbalance that makes this outing feel much more earned.
Bill Skaarsgard plays an interesting rumination on a certain class with a bone to pick in the power scheme we saw Wick dealing with at the end of the last film. While the film clocks in fairly long at almost 3 hours, it understands why it needs that and is always moving. As indicated, the locations are specific and beautiful. At certain times it does leave reality behind in terms of camera perspective but in the one main sequence it does that , it is more an exercise to push the bounds and does so in reverence to old school action. In a counterbalance, a stairs fighting sequence as well as a club sequence uses the elements at its disposal (namely gravity and water separately) to make their point. On top of this, the film pays tributes to the films (especially from Hong Kong) that inspired it. One face off lingers because it shows the aspect of consequence, even in the face of compassion, and that is what creates stakes, up until the very end. "John Wick 4" is an continual idea to push the envelope. It is a different animal than with Berry in "Antebellum" but more classical and epic in its progression. A-
By Tim Wassberg
