John Wick Chapter 4: A New Myth
John Wick Chapter 4 is an amazing continuation of the franchise and easily the most audacious and ambitious of the quintet of films. Picking up shortly after the events of the last film, the opening scene has John making a choice with severe repercussions. His actions attract the attention of The Marquis (Bill Skarsgard) who takes it upon himself to capture or kill John. Of course, if he had bothered to watch any of the previous three movies, he would know things aren’t going to go well.
From a technical standpoint, this is easily the best of the four, The cinematography is gorgeous, with every shot doused in colored and almost a painting. The stunts and choreography are jaw-dropping, with a number of heart-pounding set pieces, and including one of the most amazing staircase stunts I’ve ever seen. The story is deeper than one might expect, with some surprisingly touching moments. Of course, the death of Lance Riddick gave parts of the movie some resonance that might otherwise not have been there, but it still had some nice heart-tugging moments. The 169-minute run time flew by, and I never felt bored or that anything needed to be cut, with maybe the possible exception of the first big fight. My only minor quibble is a technical one. I realize with the number of headshots in the movie, using squibs for the hits really isn’t practical, but the film did rely a lot more on digital blood than I would prefer. Digital blood just isn’t quite there yet, and it would have been nice to see more practical bullet hits. But when the action is this good, I can let that slide.
Rating: 4.5/5
Now I’m going to offer a little analysis of my thoughts on something that occurred to me as I was watching the film. This section CONTAINS SPOILERS, so if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want anything ruined, stop reading.
Still here. Okay, here goes. As tends to happen with these kinds of movies (the Die Hard movies being an egregious example), there is a “toughness creep” where the heroes become more and more superhuman, to the point where they seem unstoppable and immune to death. In John Wick, this happens several times, when he is hit by cars, slammed into other cars, and bounced off any number of hard surfaces. But the worst is in the third act, when John falls from a high point, slams on his back against a piece of machinery, and then flips and hits the ground. The kind of thing that would kill anybody. But after a moment of being stunned, John stands and Iimps off to continue fighting. It would kind of be an “oh, come on,” moment, except for how the writers set things up. (Note, I have no idea if what I’m about to say was their intention or not, but it’s what I got out of it)
The third act sees John having to get to a church by sunrise to participate in a duel with The Marquis to free him from his obligations to the High Table. The Marquis has no intention of letting John make it to the duel, so he tells his men to take care of it. What follows is a beautiful homage to The Warriors, complete with a close pair of lips speaking into a radio microphone and giving a play-by-play recap of John’s exploits as he mows through the various sub-cultures of the city to reach his goal. It’s a wonderful set piece recalling a seminal movie of the late 70’s. But it’s more than that. The Warriors was a modern-day retelling of the Odyssey, where a group of people far from home have to fight through many obstacles to return. By using this framing for John Wick, the writers are transcending John Wick from reality to the standing of mythology. It was hinted at with John being called Baba Yaga, which is itself a mythological creature. This movie just takes it directly into the realm of true folklore. This is the story bad guys tell each other. Don’t double-cross anyone or John Wick will get you. He can’t be stopped and won’t give up until he gets his full revenge. The ending cements this concept by putting an end to John. Once he is dead, his legend can only grow. So what we are seeing in John Wick Chapter 4 isn’t reality, but a story told from criminal to criminal in the dead of night. John Wick, the one who comes for all the bad guys.
Anyway, that’s my take on it. Because in the real world, John would have died halfway through act two. Or at least a shitload of cops would have shown up to put a stop to things.