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Review: John Wick Chapter 4
Well, I could go through the whole rigmarole comparing all the movies, but that truly doesn't interest me. This is just going to be my feelings about the series as a whole, I suppose! I don't really know how to make this interesting without spoiling so I'm just going to Cut the gordian knot and put it in a cut.
SO.
I think the plot arc of the series is overall pretty fun.
John Wick 1: A gangster robs an ex hitman and kills his dog, returning him to his old ways for vengeance.
John Wick 2: Seeing this hitman in operation again, someone uses this as an opportunity to cash in on an old debt, earning the hitman's scorn and urging him into drastic action.
John Wick 3: Having broken the rules of his guild, the hitman is on the run with nearly every assassin in the guild interested in cashing in the price on his head.
John Wick 4: Out of options, he runs from old friend to old friend, fire consuming everywhere he walks. At last, he finds a way to stop fighting and running both.
Writing this out, I understand why I thought 3 was weak and, compared to the emotional stakes and the back-against-the-wall nature of 2, I also understand why I felt 1 was underwhelming. However, I also thought this conclusion at 4 was disappointing.
The literal plot there on paper, my thematic read of the plot is: Gangsters rouse a vengeful demon from his slumber. Unable to return to his slumber, he travels the old ways, unable to do anything but destroy and unable to break the barriers he must abide, he is forced to trudge forward endlessly until, at last, he finds the way out of his torment and is banished.
Now, while I think that's really fun on paper, the fact that it took four movies really wore it out. It feels like a thing in three acts that, due to idk capitalism, became four instead without a lot to pad that out.
And I can imagine someone reading this and going, "But...that's not really the point of these movies is it? They're just meant to be action movies, a studio made by stunt actors wanting to exemplify their craft?" And yes! That's true! However, the reason I'm disappointed is the same reason you need a plot to drive it. If it's just a man shooting his tiny pistol for four movies without any trappings of plot it's pointless. Like watching a chef cook ingredients in perpetuity without ever making a dish.
It has to feel narratively good for the kind of movie they made. We have to go, "oh you fucked up now" and thus we also have to go, "oh shit how's he going to get out of this one" and movies 3 and 4 really wore me out on that.
Narrative aside for now, the mechanical motion of the movies has almost a video game logic to them. That is to say, we see John getting one shot kills on people in the first couple of movies far more frequently (I believe?) than we do in the last two. It feels like the main reason for this is to make it feel like he's progressing in strength, we're increasing the bombast so we have to see how he defeats this heavily armored assassin with impenetrable head armor. (It's a helmet with a mask that goes to their chin.) And then we're at that level, so let's just throw more at him. The mini boss becomes the fodder enemies to show that you're getting stronger.
The problem is that they're extremely bullet spongey. All of his exciting shooting is in the service of enemy control. Here let me lay out how this fight went in my memory:
Two men in full armor assault John.
John shoots both in the head.
This stuns each of them and John engages one, flipping them on the ground in a takedown.
The other aggresses him once out of stun and he gets another headshot to reproc the stun.
He wrestles with the one under him and ultimately switches targets.
He suppresses the original man with another headshot.
He takes the second one down, gets his gun under their helmet and finishes them.
He returns to the first, now only.
He shoots them in the head to prepare for a grapple.
He grapples them to the floor.
He may use an environmental kill here or else repeat the move under the helmet.
Two new armored targets show up. Repeat.
It felt like those moments in Doom (2016) where you've used your chainsaw enough that you're just kind of bored during the canned animation. And that was in the first hour.
There were some novel fights. There's one in France later where they do an overhead tracking shot between rooms and give him an incendiary shotgun so you can just clearly see his progression. There was one in the Arc de Triomphe with a lot of car combat, but even here! There's a moment where about four cars create a barricade from which they fire at him and he circles them with his gun drawn, shooting, firing, spinning his car around their barricade. Conceptually it's really fun to look at! Practically it is 2-3 times longer than it needs to be.
I think ultimately these movies are fun, but they certainly overstayed their novelty.
gonna give john wick 4 Two John Wick 2's out of Four.
SO.
I think the plot arc of the series is overall pretty fun.
John Wick 1: A gangster robs an ex hitman and kills his dog, returning him to his old ways for vengeance.
John Wick 2: Seeing this hitman in operation again, someone uses this as an opportunity to cash in on an old debt, earning the hitman's scorn and urging him into drastic action.
John Wick 3: Having broken the rules of his guild, the hitman is on the run with nearly every assassin in the guild interested in cashing in the price on his head.
John Wick 4: Out of options, he runs from old friend to old friend, fire consuming everywhere he walks. At last, he finds a way to stop fighting and running both.
Writing this out, I understand why I thought 3 was weak and, compared to the emotional stakes and the back-against-the-wall nature of 2, I also understand why I felt 1 was underwhelming. However, I also thought this conclusion at 4 was disappointing.
The literal plot there on paper, my thematic read of the plot is: Gangsters rouse a vengeful demon from his slumber. Unable to return to his slumber, he travels the old ways, unable to do anything but destroy and unable to break the barriers he must abide, he is forced to trudge forward endlessly until, at last, he finds the way out of his torment and is banished.
Now, while I think that's really fun on paper, the fact that it took four movies really wore it out. It feels like a thing in three acts that, due to idk capitalism, became four instead without a lot to pad that out.
And I can imagine someone reading this and going, "But...that's not really the point of these movies is it? They're just meant to be action movies, a studio made by stunt actors wanting to exemplify their craft?" And yes! That's true! However, the reason I'm disappointed is the same reason you need a plot to drive it. If it's just a man shooting his tiny pistol for four movies without any trappings of plot it's pointless. Like watching a chef cook ingredients in perpetuity without ever making a dish.
It has to feel narratively good for the kind of movie they made. We have to go, "oh you fucked up now" and thus we also have to go, "oh shit how's he going to get out of this one" and movies 3 and 4 really wore me out on that.
Narrative aside for now, the mechanical motion of the movies has almost a video game logic to them. That is to say, we see John getting one shot kills on people in the first couple of movies far more frequently (I believe?) than we do in the last two. It feels like the main reason for this is to make it feel like he's progressing in strength, we're increasing the bombast so we have to see how he defeats this heavily armored assassin with impenetrable head armor. (It's a helmet with a mask that goes to their chin.) And then we're at that level, so let's just throw more at him. The mini boss becomes the fodder enemies to show that you're getting stronger.
The problem is that they're extremely bullet spongey. All of his exciting shooting is in the service of enemy control. Here let me lay out how this fight went in my memory:
Two men in full armor assault John.
John shoots both in the head.
This stuns each of them and John engages one, flipping them on the ground in a takedown.
The other aggresses him once out of stun and he gets another headshot to reproc the stun.
He wrestles with the one under him and ultimately switches targets.
He suppresses the original man with another headshot.
He takes the second one down, gets his gun under their helmet and finishes them.
He returns to the first, now only.
He shoots them in the head to prepare for a grapple.
He grapples them to the floor.
He may use an environmental kill here or else repeat the move under the helmet.
Two new armored targets show up. Repeat.
It felt like those moments in Doom (2016) where you've used your chainsaw enough that you're just kind of bored during the canned animation. And that was in the first hour.
There were some novel fights. There's one in France later where they do an overhead tracking shot between rooms and give him an incendiary shotgun so you can just clearly see his progression. There was one in the Arc de Triomphe with a lot of car combat, but even here! There's a moment where about four cars create a barricade from which they fire at him and he circles them with his gun drawn, shooting, firing, spinning his car around their barricade. Conceptually it's really fun to look at! Practically it is 2-3 times longer than it needs to be.
I think ultimately these movies are fun, but they certainly overstayed their novelty.
gonna give john wick 4 Two John Wick 2's out of Four.
no subject
that's such a fun way to put it. i feel like at some point watching said chef prepping ingredients and start the prep process would give me a tremendous amount of anxiety as he keeps swapping between the pans on his hob to keep everything from burning.
no subject