Movie Review : John Wick : Chapter 4 (2023)
* This review contains spoilers *
If I told you about a film series featuring an invulnerable organized crime hitman with a dead wife and a grudge involving a murdered pet taking on the entire underworld in instalments of lengthy, intricate gun fu massacres that involve little else than that, you'd think John Woo * finally ended up in psychiatric care. The John Wick movies shouldn't be working anymore, but they do. They're silly, simplistic, unrealistic and hyperviolent, but we're up to John Wick : Chapter 4 now and the spell has yet to be broken.
In the fourth instalment of the John Wick series, we find our man (Keanu Reeves) alive and well in the sewers of New York, being nurtured back to health the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) after being betrayed by Winston and left for dead at the end of the previous movie. John's grudge against the High Table is still controlling his life, but he might’ve found a loophole that'll allow him to clear his name and start anew. Of course, that plans involves murdering one of their important members (Bill Skarsgard).
There's something about John Wick
In essence, John Wick : Chapter 4 is the same exact movie than the previous entries in the series. He kills a string of anonymous underworld henchmen for over two hours (close to three in this instalment) in order to free himself from what I like to call "a burden of death". What he does essentially is buy himself time and opportunities for a quite theoretical happiness by acting morally towards himself and the few friends he has in this godless underworld, which unequivocally involves murdering people.
What is it about John Wick that makes him different from any other hitman stereotype in cinema history? Well, I do believe Wick is different and that his difference lies in the idea of mastery. Wick lives in a world where he doesn't control anything except himself. The table sets arbitrary rules, which inevitably change when he starts to succeed within their parameters and all Wick can really hold on to are his physical, technical and intellectual skills who allow him to thrive in this world where rules keep changing on him.
I believe that is why John Wick is so goddamn relatable. In relinquishing control over his environment, he enforces a supreme control over himself which ultimately enable him to control that environment. The murders are almost inconsequential. John Wick is a problem solver and a threat neutralizer first and foremost and that is aspirational for the everyman. His countless murders are a cinematic device meant to illustrate his two most enviable character traits: ruthless efficiency and self-control.
Anyone would love to keep their cool under pressure like John Wick.
John Wick & Death
Another fascinating aspect of the character, which makes him work against all odds is his relationship to death. Any good character has a clear and relatable need and the beauty is Wick's need is that it can only be fulfilled in defeat : renewing with his wife Helen, who died of an undisclosed illness before the first movie. Although thoroughly unfair, her death has nothing to do with the underworld that controls Wick’s life. His true drama is an everyman drama he can share with any people in the audience.
That's why he makes a lot of sense that he… uh, dies at the end of this movie. You might not like it, but he does. He welcomes it in his final moments on the front steps of Sacré-Coeur cathedral. It's not YOUR reward, it's his and he undeniable deserves it after being put through a physical and emotional wringer that lasted almost a decade (the franchise started in 2014). The John Wick extended universe is not going to die by any means, but the titular character death will allow it to renew itself without ever growing stale.
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But is John Wick : Chapter 4 a good movie? Kind of. It also goes through the motion of what a John Wick movie is supposed to feel like without ever challenging or upending any preconceived ideas about itself. The Paris setting was fun (especially that I visited Paris a month ago) and the Western-inspired ending offered a different texture to the series’ neo-noir gun ballet. But the best thing about this movie is how it ended and how it offers different perspective in the future. I'm glad it'll be the last of its kind.
7.1/10
* Never realized this before today, but John Wick's name is an obvious homage to Woo who's cinema is all over these movies.
