John Wick: Chapter 4

Director: Chad Stahelski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Bill Skarsgård , Donnie Yen

Genre:  Action

If you want to explode your imagination and want to witness severe carnage, blood-shedding, and nonstop rampage. Then John Wick chapter 4 is waiting for you. I have never witnessed such brutal scenes. I assure you the high-octane fighting scenes will make you jump from your seats.

The movie is created in the unique style of depicting massacre, the filmmakers create a full-on action fantasy epic, complete with appalling strike levels. Across a never-ending running time, the film builds up an enthralling tale of revenge and redemption that's unusually involving. And indeed it seems fabulous, with unique design touches and atrociously insane fight choreography. One should really enjoy the fight scene where the maze angle of Camra is used.

After cleaning the international criminal community's elders, John Wick continues his journey of killing his foes. John (Reeves) observes the bounty on his head growing drastically. Furious, top boss Marquis (Skarsgard) pulls down New York's safe castle The Continental, leaving its manager Winston (McShane) homeless, and he compels blind henchman Caine (Yen) to slay John. They come across face-to-face at Osaka's Continental, where an unknown tracker (Anderson) shows up with his faithful dog and a plan to wait until the bounty is even higher. Then in order to challenge the Marquis in Paris, John first needs to stop in Berlin and amalgamate his support.

With its ‘an eye for an eye’ narrative, the film gradually builds momentum, tightening its grip using each elegantly shot set-piece. The great budget is evident in the enormous scale of the action, from eye-catching location work to intensely ambitious fight sequences. This is never gritty or naturalistic, as the people are indestructible: like relentless zombies they will only be killed when you shoot them in the head. So the violence is far over-the-top, heavily stylized to amp up the desperation in each battle.

 

Many monstrous figures assemble in John's wake, all trying to kill him. Reeves efficiently molded in the role, frustrated but unrelenting, loyal to friends and ready to dispatch another faceless attacker or iconic goon. Loyal cohorts McShane, Sanada and Fishburne get great scenes of their own, while Skarsgard appears a remarkably spooky villain. Besides Anderson and Yen there are more cunning minds having the intention to keep John alive. For a little while longer.

Each sequence is profoundly amazing, from a crowded waterfall rave battle in Berlin to frenzied all-out war on the streets of Paris. A breathtaking set-piece in a vintage building is staged like a videogame, while John's ascension of the Sacre-Coeur steps is heart-stopping. The immeasurably vivid settings add conventional touches at every turn, often with aesthetic views that have a great impact on the biggest screen possible. As before, it's John's internalized yearning that adds surprising resonance to the mayhem, throwing yet another clue that makes us hope that there is more to come.

 

-Sajid Ali

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