‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ delivers in style for its fourth entry
“John Wick: Chapter 4″ was released in theaters on March 24 with more exciting choreography and cinematography.
Actor Keanu Reeves returned as the titular character of the series. Despite his age, Reeves felt like a believable action star with the way he moved in various scenes. You would not guess that the actor is almost 60 when watching the film.
Even though the film carries on with a basic plot of John Wick being wanted, it stays engaging because of the action and stunts, along with the writing and acting performances. Many characters have enough screen time and backstory for viewers to engage with them.
Ever since the series’s inception in 2014, part of the appeal of these films has been the impressive action scenes from the camera angles, the editing, the fight choreography and the stunts.
The action was on the same level as the other films, if not an improvement as the action scenes tend to improve on each film. This film was a good example of improving on the action. Director Chad Stahelski, who was a stuntman before directed these films, has a style when it comes to his direction. According to an article from Post Magazine, Stahelski goes with an aesthetic that is symmetrical that feels like a live performance, with the anamorphic camera angles and the colors and lighting.
Many of the action scenes integrated unique camera work. An example of the impressive camera work was in a scene where it was shown from a bird’s-eye view with action below as it elevated the scene and made the action even better by the camera.
Other action scenes took place in nightclubs and in the middle of traffic, which made things interesting when seeing some of the characters use some of the environments to their advantage in battle.
Oddly enough, the environments also made those moments feel like common occurrences in the world and not realistic. For example, club patrons continued to dance while fights took place right next to them.
While it was implausible for what was happening, it added a touch of levity for how the scene played out, which made it work.
This film was the longest of the entire series with a runtime at nearly three hours. It didn’t drag in its length because many of the scenes had storytelling and enough action to drive its plot that it would be hard to imagine some parts cut out if they added anything to the story.
Overall, this film felt like the swan song of the series. If that is the case, it was a satisfying way to end the series.