John Wick: Chapter 4

Note: While I avoid spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4, there are minor spoilers for the first three.

Traditionally, I’ve not been a big fan of big budget action films, at least not since I was a kid. That’s not to say I don’t like action movies, but I need more than the promise of “turn off your brain, muscle-bound fun”. Sure, there are some exceptions: for example, I was a fan of the MCU through Avengers: Endgame, although only a few stand out as great, and many are mediocre or outright bad (maybe I’ll do a post about the MCU at some point…). But for the most part, I need something more. Which can take many forms, of course. Great characters (The Dark Knight), comedy (Deadpool), style coming out of its ears (Mandy), or anything else to set it apart. Best of all is narrative depth, such as when the The Matrix blew my mind as a kid, or more recently the very nearly perfect Mad Max: Fury Road.

As such, the John Wick series had passed me by. I’d never heard much in detail about it, save for Keanu doing many of his own stunts and being directed by his stunt double from The Matrix, which I always thought was cool. Talk about not forgetting those who helped make you, ya know? But that was it.

I first watched the series about three years ago. I’d been getting more and more obsessive about movies, and just the year before people had been talking about John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. So I figured why the hell not, and dove in. And…🤯 I’d never seen action like it, the style was incredibly slick and cool, and the score was bananas good. I watched all three over a weekend, and listened to the soundtracks for the whole next week. I’m kinda lukewarm on Parabellum (I’ll expand on that below), but the other two are fantastic, instantly making it my favorite modern action franchise.

So I was I excited for Chapter 4 this year. A little hesitant, yes, given my issues with Chapter 3, and the trailer didn’t do much to assuage those concerns. But still: it’s John Wick.

And I was not disappointed.

John Wick: Chapter 4 begins a little after the events of the first three (director Chad Stalheski has said in interviews about 6 months have passed). The Table is still after Wick for the killing of Santino D'Antonio on Continental grounds, and has beef with Winston for not killing him on the spot and then joining Wick’s defiant stand. They’ve unleashed the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a member of the Table known for his brutality and ruthlessness. Not only is he willing (even eager) to deploy his forces to destroy anyone who defends Wick and decimate any place which harbors him, but the Marquis calls upon former Wick associate Caine (Donnie Yen) to hunt him down. Meanwhile, Wick must regain favor with his Ruska Roma family so that he may duel the Marquis, in a bid to completely undermine the authority of the High Table.

There’s a lot going on in this movie, yes. But its saving grace is dispensing with the lore-heavy approach of Parabellum. It draws on much of what we already know, and doesn’t dwell on the new elements it introduces, which are few. All those threads make for some crazy fun fight scenes, and points at which you really have no idea from which direction to expect the violence to erupt. There are games being played left and right, side quests which continue the world-building, and some very dramatic and unexpected moments. Even some of the side characters get their own minor arcs which pay off quite nicely, or at least play into the larger story.

Chapter 4 continues the series’ proud tradition of boasting spectacular style and production design, and is a return to form for the score; I actually found myself jiving along to it in the theater. The fights are still quite good, although Keanu’s age is definitely showing; much of the choreography involving him felt slower and more deliberate, if no less intricate. It still showcases the best fight editing around, making us feel every strike by eliding the fast cutting style currently in vogue (see Thomas Flight’s video on this tactic for a more detailed discussion). There’s a pretty cool looking top-down oner used to show off Wick blasting through some minor assassins using explosive rounds. The fights scenes do occasionally involve noticeable CGI, but it’s good enough to not take you out of the action, until some particularly bad effects in the climactic scene.

Donnie Yen is an interesting presence in this world. Let’s be clear, his acting and fighting are exciting as hell. He plays a blind man in a way I’ve never seen before, and remains convincing as an actual match for Wick. But his vocal performance stands out like a sore thumb. Not because of his accent, no. But because everyone else in the whole series speaks with the cadence and weight of aristocracy. And Yen comes in like a bull in a china shop with his tossed off lines and casual, modern speaking style. It’s a strange juxtaposition.

One other performance I should mention is Shamier Anderson as The Tracker aka Mr. Nobody. The idea of his character is really cool and makes a lot of sense: someone who protects those on who there’s a contract, until the price gets high enough and they can collect the reward. Anderson does a great job blending his impression of Omar from “The Wire” with a martial artist/assassin. Which is part of why I was so sad to see his character so underutilized. He needed more to do, more of an arc, to really make it satisfying.

Save for some threads that go nowhere like Mr. Nobody, and not quite knowing when it would be more effective for John to say nothing, I actually think the screenplay is quite strong. We don’t get a full blown action scene until a good ways in (maybe 30ish minutes? maybe even more?), instead using that time to put all the pieces on the board and build tension. Relationships are formed, and stakes are established very effectively. We see where it’s all headed, and just can’t wait for it to get there. It’s a thrilling build, and makes the huge fight scene that follows feel earned.

The issue, though, is that it revels a bit too much in that grandiosity. John Wick is the best assassin in the world; goons are no match for him. So the point of those drawn out scenes is A) to establish just how good Wick is, through weapons use and resourcefulness and 2v1 or 3v1 fights while gravely injured, B) to showcase badass fight choreography and stunts, and C) to showcase cool sets. But there’s only so much you can do in a fight with no stakes, and so after a bit, many of the fights start to drag. He’s just picking through guys like tissue paper, and it starts to feel boring. They know enough to end many of these big set pieces with an emotional beat, which definitely works. And in one particularly memorable set piece near the end, we actually get some character and thematic development through the long slog. But they probably could have cut 20 or so minutes combined out of the big fights with no ill effects.

One last thing to mention is the untimely passing of Lance Reddick, about a week before Chapter 4 released in the US. He was such an important part of the series, providing some humanity and levity through Reddick’s immense charisma. No matter the size of his role, he was always a standout, from Oldboy to One Night In Miami… to “The Wire”. And at 60, he was pretty young, especially as the cause of death has been reported as “natural causes”.

I was quite pleased to see they were able to get an “In Memory Of” card into the end credits. Its placement, no doubt due to the necessarily rushed nature of its inclusion, means few will see it; it’s even after the Lionsgate logo. But something it better than nothing. Hopefully it will be moved earlier in the credits for future showings, or the eventual DVD/streaming releases.

Wrapping up, the film showcases some quality subversions of both the genre and the series, while returning to the quality world-building and simple execution we’ve come to expect from the series. While John Wick will be hard for any sequel to surpass, for me, Chapter 4 lands on about equal footing as Chapter 2. I look forward to purchasing both the DVD and soundtrack, so that I may enjoy both on loop.