Phil_H

Honestly, I went into these first 2 episodes hope-filled and wanting something--anything--good to come out of it. But what we got was nowhere near what I hoped for. I should have known better. On first watch-through I thought the episodes were okay, but after a second viewing I had taken off the rose-colored glasses and was more critical of what was on the screen. And.... I didn't like what I saw at all. By this point, we all know Disney has this history of "Strong female character" and "dumb as rocks male character" as valid concepts to build a series or movie on, but this is ridiculous. The Obi-Wan series was, I thought, the low point, but I was wrong. Book of Boba Fett beat it out. Then comes the Acolyte saying "Hold my beer and watch this" as it swan-dives into literal stupidity, bad acting, bad writing, and sets that look small and cheaply made. Where is the grandeur? Where is the "Star Wars" epic scope? Nowhere to be found. Normally, I save a "4" score for "if only they tried harder, they would have been average fare," so this has to get a 3--a nice way of saying "what the heck is this?" Me and two of my friends, after a night of heavy drinking, could write a better episode than this with so little effort there would be more time for drinking when we were done with the first draft. I weep for what Star Wars has become.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is almost three hours of Keanu Reeves engaged in a gunfight, bookended with meaningless dialog-in-place-of-plot, and a lot of people being thrown down stairs. Of all the "Wick" movies, this is clearly the weakest one yet. Was anything added to the overall Wick-universe narrative? No. Did we see a whole lot of inconsequential people die? Yes. Did Keanu Reeves say "yeah" a lot? Yes.

Look, I was hoping for SO much more than this. A meaningful ending to the series (which it isn't, because apparently this made so much money they are working on a fifth film), but what we got here was something in very much need of more script doctoring and less "bang-bang."

With a little more work, this could have been an average movie. Don't talk to me about stunts or cinematography or the choreography of the actors in-play, wow me with a plot that makes sense and moves the story forward--John Wick 4 does not move the story forward. It just says "let's shoot a bunch of people, okay?" And that's what it does... for 3 hours.

In the end I was of the following opinion once the credits rolled: ...and?...

We all deserved better than this. John Wick did, too.

A visceral, gruesome showing of what happens in dead-locked trench-warfare. Camaraderie abounds, personal loyalties, and naivety is on full display. But, in the end, the real question is: Is it worth it? What cost could possibly justify what little changes that were gained? The German title for this is "Nothing New In the West", indeed, nothing much happened other than a great many of the young who were sent were killed, fed into the war-machine for the gain of a few; and all that happened was a temporary peace before the continent was again embroiled in chaos and destruction.

Some people are complaining that this is an anti-war film. Of course it is. It's meant to be so. War is, as the aphorism tells us, hell. People of good character cannot love killing. That should be impossible. But yet, here we are having to explain to arm-chair warriors about the horrors of conflict.

This is a film worth watching. It will, no doubt, reinforce the opinion that war is the worst of all possible outcomes.