John Wick 4

By Joshua Xiang

"A valentine to all the action movie fans in the world" --- Joshua Xiang

John Wick: Chapter 4 piles on more of everything -- and suggests that when it comes to a well-dressed Keanu Reeves dispatching his enemies in a lethally balletic style, there can never be too much. (Rotten Tomatoes, critic consensus)

About: John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.

To me, this is just an artwork that breaks

away from all the commercial blockbusters and action movies. It is so pure like the most striking cherry blossom on top of the tree. Chapter 4 took this series to levels I did not even think were possible, the last 3 entries in the series were amazing and were near perfection but chapter 4 is the best by a mile.

The extreme pleasure of the John Wick series is that it glorifies violence without the usual rational justification and consciousness appealing part. Fierce battles between those assassins combined with sentimental light filters and aggressive music, really pull the audiences in. Like in the Japanese hotel and the underground nightclub, the director fully presents his understanding of neo-noir elements, and perfectly used the setting, sound, and light to serve the main character. The choreography of the action here can be simply breathtaking. I loved how often the world goes on around Wick and his unfortunate combatants. Wick has to battle a muscular Russian and his army of unlucky morons in a crowded nightclub. The dancers barely notice. They sometimes part a little bit to let them through, but they don't stop and stare. With water pouring into the club, the writing, and dancing bodies make for such a visually inventive backdrop. He is just like a ghost or a reaper and the world outside of him almost feels like they can't even see the legendary assassin and the hundred or so people he ends up killing. It's a fascinating, visually striking choice.

They also have very clear stakes. At some point in the film, John and the enemy determine the parameters of a fight, including timing, weapons, and variables. But that's true of all the major action scenes, where we have a pretty good idea of what John needs to do and what he needs to go through to "get through." The simplicity of the objectives allows for complex orchestration. We know what John needs to do to keep going the way the first movie started. So many modern action movies are filled with characters or confusing goals, but the Wick movies are so clear in their intentions that they can have fun within these simple structures. The best example of this is the final battle of the movie, the DUAL. The movie let the audience clearly know the rule of the Dual and indicate going to happen later. However, it is more because of the Soviet Montage method, you soberly understand that "one of the two is going to die" It makes you keep trying to guess and think that Cane (a character acted by Yen) is going to lose since John Wick is the main actor. However, at last, because of this audience presumption, the ending can surprise most of us.

Of course, a great cast helps too. Reeves may have fewer lines in this film than in any of other franchise nowadays, but he completely sells Wick's promise while also filling him with emotional exhaustion that makes this chapter all the more compelling. Unlike the vengeful Wick in the first film and the survivors in the later three films, Reeves knew exactly what the role needed. So many performers would add unnecessary embellishments to an already popular character, but Reeves is smart about simplifying that performance to fit the film around him. It's also allowed some backs to shine amidst disparate performance records, notably Yen and Anderson.

Overall, John Wick 4 is overwhelmingly good, no matter from the cast, the plot, the action scene and the emotion the director wants to convey are all at the top tier in the category of action movies.