Film review: ‘JOHN WICK: CHAPTER FOUR’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
I avoided the first three instalments in the ultra-violent hitman saga, John Wick as a cursory glance suggested they were ludicrous, mind-numbingly repetitive action films with about as much depth and credibility as a Fast and Furious flick. I haven’t completely abandoned that view but on the basis of latest film, John Wick: Chapter 4, there sems to be a bit more to the franchise than I thought.
Wick is like a modern day ronin, an assassin for hire whose schtick is that he maintains some sort of moral code while brutally dispatching chumps in their thousands. Here he’s gone rogue after violating the rules of the Continental Hotel, a hub for underworld assassins that had previously offered him sanctuary. Having also killed a mysterious crime lord in what bizarrely looks like a scene from Lawrence of Arabia, he’s seen fallen foul of the secret criminal organisation, the High Table, whose creepy leader, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard) has put out a contract on his life. With assassins from across the world pursuing him, Wick conveniently defies all of those pesky airport delays to flit around the globe while killing all comers.
There’s almost a terrific action film here. Director Chad Stahelski who has helmed every Wick film, has thankfully chosen to shoot the fight sequences in the style of 80s and 90s Hong Kong action movies with the camera holding steady rather than flailing around all over the place and with long, fluid tracking shots rather than manic editing. Essentially, this is a big budget update of John Woo films with nods to Spaghetti Westerns and the Christopher Nolan Batman films. The problem is that, while well shot, the fight scenes are tediously repetitive as one hapless goon after another politely steps up to be punched, kicked, stabbed, shot and ‘nunchucked’ in a meaningless and tedious production line slaughter that has the emotional impact of a video game and little connection to reality.
There’s room for poetic licence but when a film so outrageously defies logic it’s hard to take it seriously. For one thing, Wick spends much of the film obligingly walking around cities in full view so we would think an enterprising assassin might try an off him more discreetly from a distance. Admittedly, that might be futile as Wick frequently shrugs off beatings, falls and car crashes that would instantly kill any human. Also, there seem to be no police prepared to intervene in all this mayhem, even when the villains demolish a building in the middle of New York City or when Wick engages in a gunfight with hundreds of hired killers in the middle of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Just as big a problem, for this reviewer at least, is that it’s hard to connect emotionally with the central character. Reeves plays him as a taciturn, apparently thoughtful and at least partly honourable character, but lacking emotional complexity and conflict. He has a touch of Kung Fu’s Kwai Chang Caine but without that character’s intellect and rich back story. There are flickers of Wick undergoing a Sisyphean (or even Christ-like) struggle but as he spends most of the film as a mechanical killing machine, any philosophical or religious references ring pretty hollow. Had there been some brooding sense of fate hanging over him or some sort of catharsis in his actions this would have been a much more compelling film.
While Reeves is a little too monosyllabic, the supporting cast provide an entertainingly varied rogue’s gallery with Donnie Yen demonstrating his formidable skills as blind assassin Caine, Lawrence Fishburne occasionally making us think we might be in the Matrix with his former crime boss Bowery King, Shamier Anderson both likeable and convincingly deadly as the dog loving assassin Mr Nobody and Ian McShane a typically amusing embodiment of gentlemanly corruption as Wick’s friend and Continental Hotel Manager, Winston. They’re fine as cartoonish tough men but as with Reeves, when the script attempts to give them pathos and nobility it feels contrived and generally results in them making pretentious monotone pronouncements.
For all its flaws this film is terrific to look at. Full credit should be given to Stahelski, cinematographer Dan Laustsen and the production design crew for this film’s remarkable aesthetic. Drenched in wonderful lurid colours, filled with astonishing shots of a neon-lit Tokyo buildings, atmospheric Paris streetscapes, ornate gothic cathedrals and weird German nightclubs heaving with bodies, this film is nothing if not great eye candy.
Wick devotees will, despite some slow patches, no doubt revel in this film’s hyperkinetic fantasy world where laws both of society and physics are thrown out the window. Newcomers, not already enamoured of Mr Wick will probably find its epic 169-minute length a long haul.
Nick’s rating: ***
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Adventure/ Animation.
Classification: MA15+.
Director(s): Chad Stahelski.
Release date: 27th Mar 2023..
Running time: 169 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.