Nobody expected that ‘John Wick’ would become one of the most important action sagas in the history of cinema, and it is that the career of Keanu Reeves It was not exactly going through its best moment when the first installment was released back in 2014. In fact, the film was not even released in Spanish theaters, but that did not prevent it from becoming an indisputable commercial success, with its revenue in theaters multiplying its cost by four.
Then came the sequels, each more expensive but also more successful. This has led to ‘John Wick 4’ having a budget of 90 million dollars when the first installment barely cost 20. That is also noticeable on the screen, since we are facing the most brutal and ambitious film in the saga. That does not mean that it is the best, although it does It easily surpasses the third installment.
One thing that this franchise has taken care of quite well is their mythology. In the first installment it was a curious addition that served to give it its own identity, but its importance has not stopped growing since ‘John Wick: Blood Pact’, and soon it will do so even more with the development of different spin-offs with those who lionsgate he wants to fully squeeze the popularity of this universe.
However, ‘John Wick 4’ feels like a kind of closure for the symbolic trilogy started by the second installment. The character played by Reeves is still dealing here with the consequences of the drastic decision he made at the end of that film and, of course, the dangers he faces continue to grow exponentially.
I don’t forget that at the beginning of ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ he was persecuted by an inexhaustible number of hired assassins, but in ‘John Wick 4’ they have managed to far exceed that, and also without the need for highlight it so much from the first moment. Here the script written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch he prefers to bet on a narrative that goes from less to more, with the particularity that the first big action scene is already impressive.
The miraculous thing is that later the film she does not stop surpassing herself without feeling like a mere concession to the show. It is true that there comes a point where the excesses on the screen are such that there are situations in which the only possible reaction to what happens on the screen is to laugh.
The fact that John Wick go from being a legendary action hero to almost an invulnerable superhero Any kind of physical contact could have turned against him, which already happened at the time in the case of John McClane – it still hurts me how horrible ‘The Jungle: A Good Day to Die’ was. Here is something with which she flirts in more than one moment and forces the viewer to adopt a different perspective when facing her.
Of course, the film makes all this clear from the first moment, marginalizing any type of realism in favor of the search for a continuous catharsis that culminates in an outcome with a clear farewell flavor. Since those “yeah“with an unmistakable pronunciation by Reeves to those impossible falls, ‘John Wick 4’ It is such a playful film that it is difficult not to get carried away by what it proposes.
For my part, the saturation of action had to end up working against it, an evil that the third installment suffered from and that here could be aggravated by being, by far, the longest film in the saga. However, the manager Chad Stahelski seems to have taken note of what didn’t work so well in ‘Parabellum’ and here he constantly looks for the different set pieces shine as much for their fit within the story as for what they contribute individually.
It’s clear that the wild sightseeing tour of Paris during the last hour of footage stands out above the rest, as it’s non-stop violence, death and destruction, but even then it takes care to differentiate each small stage in this brutal maelstrom. Therein lies one of the keys so that ‘John Wick 4’ is never indigestible, since the action sequences had also been considered before as isolated pieces instead of pulling mere accumulation, one in which Stahelski shows off working especially well of an unbeatable use of the sequence shot with a zenithal perspective.
Obviously, we all took it for granted that Reeves was going to nail it again as Wick and I can assure you that no one is going to be disappointed with Wick’s incredible physical delivery. That does not mean that he needs major rivals and there we find another of the great successes of this fourth installment. On the one hand, donnie yen shows that at almost 60 years old he can still destroy anyone in a fight -and that his character is blind-, while bill skarsgard He’s great in that typical role of despicable villain who makes himself hated and you’re looking forward to getting what he deserves. Also watch out for an almost unrecognizable scott adkins in a very important character in one of the most colorful sequences of the entire function.
Another striking aspect of ‘John Wick 4’ compared to previous installments is that humor has more presence. It is not something exaggerated -come on, don’t expect something along the lines of Marvel-, but it is used as a punctual relief very effectively, both when it is done in a somewhat more veiled way through violence -how well trained it is the character’s dog shamier anderson to attack where its owner tells it- like when comedy is used in a more direct way.
In short
‘John Wick 4’ is a must see movie for any fan of the saga. Stahelski has taken off his sleeve a masterpiece of the most excessive action cinema, without neglecting the rich mythology of this universe at all, also taking the mythical character played by Reeves to the limit. For my part, perhaps I will continue to stay with the narrower and more focused approach of the first part -it is still not clear to me-, but that does not mean that I have been delighted with what they have offered me here. If anything, maybe I’ve missed a little more blood taking into account the massacres we got to see on the screen, but hey, it’s not serious either.
