John Wick : Chapitre 4

I entered the cinema with great expectations I left with PTSD ... far too much shooting, violence and good old 'death', what happened to substance. I'm sure I actually saw John Wick shake at one point as if Mr Keanu Reeves was reacting to the constant chronic violence.

The cinematography and music are strikingly very good at the beginning of the movie alas they fade to the norm as the movie continues. There is a great overhead scene, yes very violent set inside a building which I watch again.

Ian McShane has a peach of a part where as Donnie Yen,Bill Skarsgard fill the movie with atmosphere.

Sadly I wanted to give it a 10 but my ears are still ringing!

If you enjoy watching other people play video games then you'll definitely enjoy this.

There's lots of action, weapons and style - all the things we've come to expect from a John Wick film.

Of course it's ridiculous - all of them are. The mere idea that you can deflect bullets with a jacket lapel gives you an indication of how far from reality this film is. Keanu Reeves sustains what would be critical injuries half a dozen times - and shakes it off without any ill effects.

With one exception, the amount of damage a character can sustain appears to be directly related to how important they are to the story. Most of the victims in the extensive gun battles (at one point it appears Keanu Reeves is single-handedly depopulating Paris) are gone after a couple of shots. If you have a speaking part then you can take much more damage than any of the extras.

The whole idea of the "secret assassin society" only works if you don't draw attention to yourself". So having a full blown Blackwater Contracting reunion at the Arc de Triumph isn't exactly the best way of keeping things on the down low.

Throw in a Mr Chow-esque (from the hangover) character and then deciding to make him blind really shows how silly things have got. Last time I checked, gunfighting requires you to be able to at least the person you want to shoot. That said, he is at least still more convincing than Ruby Rose was.

The first John Wick film was such a hit because the audience felt a connection with his loss and wanted him to be successful seeking revenge on what were some nasty (if ineffective) bad guys. At this point I'm not really sure what John Wick is supposed to be fighting for. He just lurches from one noir styled location to the next before embarking on an unrestrained killing spree, leaving dozens dead in his wake - you wonder if these people have families.

If you liked the second and/or third film, then you'll like this. It requires little to no thought and the plot is as by the numbers as you'd expect.

That said, the action, although resembling a video game, is very well shot, there's lots of cool locations and stylish outfits. Despite the tactical nonsense and the fact that the bad guys wait in line for their turn to attack him, Keanu Reeves has genuine skill in martial arts and pistol shooting.

It's as constructive a use of time as playing 3 hours of Call Of Duty in your best suit.

Previous movies had a better story with more dialogues to make it interesting. Just felt like the movie was running out of ideas for the story and dialogues. But the action scenes were amazing shooting & fight scenes were taken to another level. Filming one shooting scene from above to see what is going on the other side of the room was awesome and interesting.

Hopefully this will be a lesson for the producer, that people want dialogues aswell as action in movies. Not just Keanu saying sorry and you owe me... The dialogues were to few for today's audience to completely enjoy this movie. Story and dialogues are as important as action in a movie.

For a conclusion to a franchise (at least the Wick story arc) you'd expect story. Each movie has gotten a little further away from telling an interesting story. I even enjoyed when they layered in more of this far-fetched stuff with the high-table & continental in 2 & 3. But, we still don't know much about this world, how it was created, or who is in charge. I thought this movie would do more with this secret government for criminals, but instead this movie made those aspects of the story pointless. So many elements from the past movies were just glazed over to essentially give this movie no story. No Elder, No Winston's betrayal, No past characters except Winston & The King, No Dog, No Wife. All of those things amounted to a few 1-liners in this movie. Instead they focused on the worst aspect of 3 and multiplied it with fights that last too long, and people that need to be shot 20 times. I personally preferred the realism and tactical focus to the action of 1 & 2.

I'm gonna have to rewatch this one another day. But I found myself beginning to doze off repeatedly like an hour 1/2 into the movie. I can't quite put my finger on it. The villain was definitely boring, the story line and dialogues seemed a bit stretched out. The fight scenes and overall feel of them didn't quite do it for me like the first 3 movies did. I think there's gonna be mixed reviews on this one. I felt there were several plot holes. And I'm in limbo about how I feel about the ending. It seemed fitting but then also didn't...? Lol. Idk man I just think some lazy writing went into play on this one.