With each subsequent entry, the series continues to expand on itself, turning the exquisitely enjoyable simplicity of that first film into a Russian nesting doll of mythology, world-building, and backstory. John Wick: Chapter 2<\/em> and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum <\/em>\u2014 my kingdom for consistent series nomenclature \u2014 over-complicated the formula, diving deeper into John\u2019s origins, as well as the crime world and its elaborate rules and goofily pretentious names. However, only the best set pieces remain fixed in memory, while plot details fade like bruises.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, John Wick: Chapter 4<\/em> gives us even more of the underworld and its structure, but it keeps things simple enough to follow through all the action. Keavu Reeves\u2019 taciturn John Wick still has a price on his head set by the mysterious The High Table, and the ultra-rich Marquis (Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd having fun with all his characters idiosyncrasies) sees the unkillable assassin as both a man and a symbol that has to be exterminated. Familiar faces return \u2014 Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, and an already-missed Lance Reddick \u2014 but the expected fresh blood keeps the series invigorated. Genre greats Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sanada are welcome, of course, but the lesser-known Shamier Anderson brings something new to the franchise too. (No one is mad about his character\u2019s very cute, very devoted, very lethal dog either.) Legendary stuntman and actor Scott Adkins has been long overdue for an appearance in this series, but it\u2019s unclear why the decision was made to put him in a fat suit with a constant sheen of sweat for his big showdown with John Wick, where he complains about being shot in the ass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But beyond that misstep, Stahelski makes almost all the right choices in this hyper-violent, hyper-stylized opus. After shooting the previous two films, cinematographer Dan Laustsen returns for a third round, continuing the series\u2019 tradition of looking far better than it has any need to. The cameras capture solid stunt work and creative choreography, but it\u2019s all just so fucking beautiful<\/em>, especially the lighting and its incorporation into the dynamic production design from Kevin Kavanaugh. When almost every Marvel movie looks like dimly lit sludge shot on a soundstage with no concept of space or physics, John Wick: Chapter 4<\/em> gives you scene after scene of thoughtful approaches to light and shadow, with a real sense of where the characters are in a place and exactly how hard that punch lands. (Really hard.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Wick: Chapter 4<\/em> runs almost three hours long, at once exhilarating and exhausting in its excess. It\u2019s too much and not enough, leaving you both battered from its brutality and begging for more. It meanders during its beginning scenes in New York and beyond, escalates the action in Osaka, and then downshifts in a not-entirely-necessary layover in Berlin (though that section admittedly features a killer club scene that justifies the jaunt\u2019s entire existence). Yet it\u2019s the final stop in Paris for the inevitable showdown with the Marquis that turns John Wick: Chapter 4<\/em> into something truly amazing, with set piece after set piece upping the ante and leaving the audience as breathless as John Wick should be after all that<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s all epic, silly, and utterly thrilling, and everything in me \u2014 except perhaps my bladder \u2014 would have delighted in another reel. Any human body other than John Wick\u2019s can only take so much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “John Wick: Chapter 4” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/JW4-2-1-1024x577.jpg\")
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As one of my least favorite proverbs proclaims, there\u2019s more than one way to skin a cat, but that\u2019s nothing compared to the number of ways to kill a man explored in John Wick: Chapter 4<\/em>. Guns, knives, swords, bows and arrows, nunchucks, and sheer blunt force trauma spill blood and stop hearts in New York, Osaka, Berlin, and Paris, and the creativity involved in each death is impressive. Across four films, John Wick has amassed a body count usually reserved for war movies with heavy artillery, but each death here feels like something new from a sick genius.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nA-<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n