After a spectacular first chapter in deadly choreography but thin in narrative (a retired hitman takes revenge on those who killed his dog, a gift given to him by his wife before dying), the world of John Wick has become larger in through its chapters.
We discovered the laws that govern the “work” of the assassins governed by the Big Table, an international organization that brings together representatives of the largest crime syndicates. The quests of the chic and shock killer embodied by the impassive (and perfect in this) Keanu Reeves have become more risky and deadly: the number of dead explodes there like skulls under a revolver bullet. The CinemaBlend site also counts some 375 victims in the first three parts of the franchise alone.
Finally, the feature films recounting the said quests, all by Chad Stahelski, have gained in…length: from 101 minutes for the original film, we have gone to 169 for this John Wick. Chapter 4 (VF of John Wick: Chapter 4), with which the former stuntman who doubled Keanu Reeves in The Matrix and its sequels brilliantly uses the tools of the director he has become. Yes, it’s almost three hours. And for once, that doesn’t mean it’s too long. In any case, for those who have adopted this universe where the violence, punctuated by the impeccable techno soundtrack of Tyler Bates, is so stylized and exaggerated (we fight 50 against 1!) that it takes from the band drawn more than (false) realism at the Impossible mission.
As in The Raid by Gareth Evans, we grimace in pain (by proxy) while being blown away by the bare-knuckle fights and gun-toting cat-and-mouse games. We are transported from the streets of New York to the Moroccan desert, passing through Osaka and a Berlin nightclub where sweat, water and blood flow, before landing in Paris. There, we follow, open-mouthed, a dizzying motorized chase around the Arc de Triomphe; and another, crazy, in the streets of a Montmartre where any bucolic echo ofAmelie Poulain has been erased. We are finally flabbergasted when the 222 steps leading to the Sacré-Coeur basilica are used as a “ stairway to… hell “.
Moving target
All this to tell how John Wick, on whose back the High Table placed a target (good thing here to have seen John Wick: Parabellum) and on whose head is now an attractive bounty, will escape (or attempt to) the killers who are on his trail and demolish (or attempt to) the organization under whose screed he has worked for decades.
Among others at his side, the senior staff of the Continental hotels (veritable sanctuaries for killers who respect the rules) embodied, in Osaka, by the always spectacular Hiroyuki Sanada; and, in New York, by an imperturbable Ian McShane and by the late Lance Reddick, who died March 17 at age 60, displaying in the role he has held ever since. John Wick the mysterious smile of the Cheshire Cat.
Against the fugitive, among hundreds of other enemies, a blind assassin who has already been an ally (Donnie Yen, who knows how to do nothing but impress); an enigmatic killer played by Canadian actor Shamier Anderson (who deserves his own spin-off film within this universe); and The Marquis, a badder than baddie villain played by Bill Skarsgård who, unfortunately, seems on autopilot when he plays this kind of character he’s perhaps too often offered. For the occasion, he adopts a French accent as credible as that of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Philippe Petit in The Walk. No comment.
In the script, Shay Hatten and Michael Finch have taken over from Derek Kolstad (who created the character) and avoid the deceptively heavy convolutions of Parabellum, which made it seem like the franchise was running out of steam. This Chapter 4 monumental and assuming what it is proves that it is not. And justifies that a 5e pane as well as a spin-off series (Ballerina) are in preparation. To better wait for them, we stay until the end of the credits…