Keanu Reeves as John Wick in John Wick 4 (c/o Murray Clos)
Plenty of movie franchises find themselves running on fumes multiple sequels in, but the “John Wick” series, helmed by director Chad Stahelski and starring Keanu Reeves as the eponymous assassin, has only gotten bigger and better with each entry. The latest installment in the series, “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which came to theaters on Friday, March 24, and was written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, is a meticulously-staged spectacle of color and motion on the scale of a classic Hollywood musical that propels viewers at such a breakneck pace as to make its hefty 169-minute runtime breeze by.
The first “John Wick” was a simple revenge thriller; the titular hitman came out of retirement to exact brutal payback on the snot-nosed goons who killed his puppy, a final gift from his late wife. In the later installments, the franchise’s universe was fleshed out with wonderfully silly and arcane mythos. The central location of the fictional Continental Hotel became the hub of a global network of assassins, ruled by a shadowy governing body known as the High Table.
When we last saw John at the end of 2019’s “Chapter 3” he was on the lam, with a multimillion-dollar bounty placed on his head by the Table for breaking their rules. In “Chapter 4,” he’s found a path out: a one-on-one duel against the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a senior member of the Table. A sociopathic dandy with a ridiculous faux-French accent and an equally ostentatious collection of glittery menswear, the Marquis is perhaps the best villain the series has come up with for John, remembering from its first installment that in a world where even our heroes are killers, the worst are those who are annoying about it.
Fleshing out the arcane underworld of assassins is a colorful supporting cast. Returning faces from previous entries include Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of New York’s Continental; his loyal concierge Charon (the late Lance Reddick, to whom the film is dedicated); and the flamboyant underground crime boss known as the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne, reunited with his “The Matrix” costar, Reeves).
Early in the film, John seeks refuge at the sleek, neon-lit Osaka branch of the Continental. Here, we meet Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), the hotel’s manager and an old friend of John’s, as well as its concierge, Koji’s daughter, Akira (singer Rina Sawayama in a scene-stealing acting debut). Hot on John’s tail is the mysterious sniper known only as the Tracker (Shamier Anderson, in an extremely different mode from when I reviewed his performance as a stern father in “Bruiser”). Like so many of the assassins in the series, the Tracker’s dynamic with John is amusingly ambiguous. The Tracker respects John for his prowess in their shared profession (and as a fellow dog aficionado) but would kill him for the right price. However, right now, that price isn’t high enough.
Perhaps the film’s most memorable supporting character is Caine (Donnie Yen). A blind, retired assassin, Caine is hired by the Marquis to take out John. Though Caine and John are old friends, the Marquis threatens to kill Caine’s civilian daughter if he refuses. Yen delivers a rich performance, layered with dry humor but also inner tragedy. Caine and John’s scenes together are a treat to behold, with the tense dynamic of friends forced into a life-or-death conundrum accompanying fight scenes which are given an extra burst of energy by Yen’s sharp, speedy martial arts expertise.
Of course, at the center of it all is John himself. In “Chapter 4,” Reeves firmly establishes John Wick as among his most iconic roles, alongside Neo in the “Matrix” series. Reeves reportedly did around 90% of his own stunt work in the film, and his endurance, speed, and intensity are marvelous to behold. Though John is a man of few words, Reeves makes him a magnetic screen presence.
Without giving away too many machinations of the film’s plot, John’s journey to face off with the Marquis takes him on a globe-trotting adventure. In each new locale, Stahelski and cinematographer Dan Laustsen luxuriate in colorful lighting and sets that seem designed around the principle of making everything look as slick and eye-catching as possible. From bright orange seas of sand dunes to neon-lit cherry blossoms to a rave filled with indoor waterfalls, every scene is a spectacle to behold. In an era of flatly-lit blockbusters filmed on dull green screens, this film’s commitment to gorgeous real-life sets is heartening.
Of course, the central attraction of any “John Wick” film is its action scenes. The film’s style of action, with its “gun-fu” blend of firearm combat and martial arts, precise choreography, and well-shot staging, has spawned numerous imitators in the last decade. “Chapter 4” offers some of the most inventive, satisfying, and visually appealing action sequences of any film I’ve ever seen; any one of its action scenes would be the standout in a lesser movie. In one, Caine uses motion-sensing doorbells to detect enemies before dispatching them with a cane sword. Later, we witness a long shootout filmed in an overhead crane shot that resembles a video game come to life. In the film’s mammoth climactic battle, John fights his way through Paris to get to the Marquis, going from weaving through speeding traffic at the Arc de Triomphe to tumbling down the vertiginous stairs of Sacré Cœur in a sequence that blends nail-biting tension and laugh-out-loud slapstick.
To be clear, the violence is extreme. Headshots and throat slices abound as settings from nightclubs to apartment complexes are splattered with henchman blood. But it’s also so stylized as to feel divorced from more realistic instances of filmic violence; it’s simply another staged, choreographed art form to indulge in the joys of the moving image, much like the scenes in musicals where characters break from reality to perform expressive song-and-dance numbers. In a recent interview with IndieWire, Stahelski cited the work of iconic filmmaker and choreographer Bob Fosse and the classic Gene Kelly musical “Singin’ in the Rain” as influences on the action of “John Wick,” and it shows in the film’s loving focus on the impressive physicality of its fight scenes.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” is a pretty silly ride. Its mythology is intricate bordering on absurd. In some exposition scenes, you can practically feel Hatten and Finch sweating as they list the rules of the High Table. It’s also quite long. But when you’re taking in the pure kinetic pleasures of the film’s epic action sequences, filled with one “How did they pull that off?!” moment after another, the screenplay’s rough edges are the last thing on your mind. At the end of the day, “Chapter 4” is an exhilarating piece of action cinema, and for any enthusiasts of elaborate fight choreography, spectacular scenery, or Keanu Reeves, it’s all you could ever hope for.
Oscar Kim Bauman can be reached at obauman@wesleyan.edu.