John Wick Chapter 4 Review

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John Wick Chapter 4 Review

!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!

John Wick 4. Where to begin…

After Chapters 1-3, my anticipation for this movie included: an overload of action, a plot seething with revenge, and for the High Table to go down. What Chapter 4 served was an unexpected story.

Donnie Yen

Let’s talk about some martial art supremacy here. Donnie Yen was one of the main reasons I was thrilled to finish off this franchise. If you don’t know Donnie Yen, get to know Donnie Yen. You won’t regret being entertained by his talent.

Donnie Yen plays Caine, a blind assassin with an endearing backstory. But do you know why they made him blind? Because Yen’s skillset superseded Wick’s, so they had to up the stakes by blinding him. (This is a semi-joke.)

Credit: IMDB

For once in a movie with an American lead, they let the Asian guy LIVE ALL THE WAY THROUGH! Praise God! FINALLY! It’s about time, Hollywood!

Donnie Yen was not a side character. He was not a one-scene antagonist. He played a vital role in the entire storyline and he made it all the way through to the end. Thank you, God!

Yen’s performance was as flawless as I expected. He made the choreography look easy. What impressed me most about him, though, was he actually played the character blind. During fight scenes, you’ll see him hesitate while he’s tuning into his surroundings before reacting physically. Just like a sensory-deprived person would. He didn’t react instantly to situations or portray the combat scenes like the practiced sequences they were. Major props for playing blindness realistically!

I also love that Chad Stahleski (director) didn’t go super dramatic with Yen’s sword use. There were no scenes with swords bursting out of the chests of adversaries, spraying blood everywhere. It kept Yen’s fight scene classy, and then the one time when he did cause arterial spray had more impact because of the clean set up prior to. Nicely done.

Listen to Her Purr

For a solid three minutes, we were spoiled with the pleasurable roar of that V8 in the car fu scene around the Arc de Triomphe. Wick’s car wasn’t a Mustang, but my goodness, a girl can’t complain about an engine like that sweet talking through an exhaust like that.

Credit: Wallpaper Abyss

Now that I think about it, it’s probably best that it wasn’t a Mustang. The adrenaline-packed action sequence of John driving headfirst into oncoming traffic mixed with the sound of that engine and the sight of a Stang might have just made me ooze in my seat. I’ll let the ‘Cuda have its moment. Least it’s not Mopar.

Pulling Punches

The reason I dove headfirst in John Wick to begin with wasn’t the allure of his Boss 429, though a Stang like that does rev up a girl’s heart. No, it was the action for me. I have always preferred the raw and real fight scenes over the cosmetically appealing fight scenes. Fight Club over Rush Hour, if you will. So, when John Wick came out with choreography that was bloody and practical, I was all in.

But in Chapter 4, punches were definitely pulled, and logic was thrown out the window. Two scenes in particular stand out:

At the Osana Continental when John was using nun-chucks against the armored guards, he hit one of them in the helmet and they reacted as if they were wounded by it. We know from John Wick 3 that the armor of the High Table troops is bulletproof. So, if a bullet can’t penetrate their armor, tell me how they all died by getting shot in the chest and hit in the head with nun-chucks.

John tumbled down—gosh, I lost count of how many—flights of stairs right before the final fight scene and got back on his feet like nothing even happened. And that’s after he’d been fighting for over eight solid minutes. Where was the realism I had come to love and know about the John Wick franchise?

Not only that, but the extras were stalling for their chance to have Wick one-on-one. One guy in the Osana Continental even shuffled his feet like he was slipping on butter to give Wick a chance to finish with his current attacker. Come on…Wick has spent three solid movies establishing his entire identity on being able to take on the world. But in Chapter 4, he couldn’t take on more than one guy at a time?

And in fight scenes where there were three or more guys in a tight location all aimed at Wick, not a single one of those trained assassins managed to even wound the Baba Yaga.

Filmmakers overused the Kevlar suit and downgraded the opponent to elevate the main character. That’s a cheap shot you won’t find in the previous three films.

Asian Culture Birthed a New Story

Having ties to Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sanada brought a wisdom to the storyline that wasn’t present before. Revenge had fueled the first three movies, but here we saw revenge ironed out with loyalty and brotherhood. These are trademarks of Asian culture, especially when it comes to martial arts films, and it gave Chapter 4 a rich sense of purpose. A heart, per se.