**John Wick: Chapter 4 is at the peak of action cinema and fight choreography. What the film lacks in story is dramatically overcome with the most stunning action set pieces ever seen.**
John Wick: Chapter 4 is an overwhelming feast of action brilliance! For the entire 2.5-hour runtime, this movie transitions from weapon to weapon, set piece to set piece, and spectacle to spectacle topping anything ever seen. The fight sequences never stop, and their beauty and intricacies drop jaw while breaking jaw. From the scene with the nunchucks to swords to shotguns to hatchets to hand-to-hand - among the greatest, if not the pinnacle, of action choreography. The cinematography creatively showcases each scene and battle, painting the action in bright colors and finding clever angles to keep the action fresh and engaging. As always, Reeves is incredible in the role, but the supporting cast of martial artists helps make this film what it is with experienced actors like Hiroyuki Sanada and Scott Adkins. But the absolute standout is Donnie Yen; his speed and skill are breathtaking as he steals every scene he is in. Unfortunately, despite all of its stunning brilliance, the story takes a lot of shortcuts to wrap up John Wick’s story, which disappoints a little. The method to end it all seems like something that would have been mentioned several movies ago. But honestly, who cares? We don’t go to a John Wick movie for a deep story. We go for the martial arts and gun-fu, and John Wick: Chapter 4 delivers an unparalleled masterpiece of violence.
Now this is an whole lot better than "John Wick - Paracetamol" (2019) but it is still not very good. This time our wandering warrior (Keanu Reeves) is out for revenge, but not before the all-powerful "Marquis" (Bill Skarsgård), who has managed to get those at the "High Table" to give him complete control of their global operations, decides to seek some of his own - and that includes trashing the New York hotel and putting "Winston" (Ian McShane) out of an home and a job. A rather unnecessary, and fatal, side effect of that activity put's his nose out of joint too; and when the "Marquis" turns his attention on Osaka - possibly the last bastion of support for "Wick", we just know that we are in for a series of never-ending hand-to-hand fisticuffs that are straight out of a video game. Indeed, for almost all of the action sequences here the whole point seems to be: kill as many of the useless, hapless - but heavily armed - enemy as you can whilst perhaps bleeding a little from the mouth now and again. Use your finely tailored Kevlar®️ suit to deflect bullets, blades, flames - just about everything as you, inevitably, survive against constantly insurmountable odds for well over 2½ hours before a denouement that is, admittedly, quite quirky. That involves a sort of Sacre-Coeur version of snakes and ladders but again, luckily, against innumerable would-be assassins who couldn't hit a barn door with an Howitzer at point blank range. Skarsgård isn't remotely menacing - like a poor "James Bond" villain in a perfectly measured suit, Laurence Fishburne features only sparingly and the whole thing has as much jeopardy as the 'Wizard of Oz" (1939). Reeves does not act here, he performs - and the profusion of CGI, the complete lack of any police or domestic military in Japan, Paris or New York to address the increasingly chaotic and damaging carnage being caused in these locations all just wanted me to start shouting "thwack" and "pow" at the screen. There is a delightful twist at the end, but it's a very long time in the coming and to be perfectly honest, I was just a bit bored. I've never really been in love with this franchise, it's all too repetitive and predictable - and sadly, this is just the same.
