As dismissive as that plot recap is, there is compelling stuff happening around the braindead central action. De Gramont extorts the equally gifted assassin Caine (Donnie Yen) to hunt Wick, lest the High Table kill Caine’s daughter. Yen infuses the film with a desperately needed contrast to Reeves’ dourness, and the difference is all in their fighting styles. The gun-kata that Wick utilizes was once innovative but has become boring and a little gross. Yen spices things up with a katana that he waves around impossibly fast, and is given the added wrinkle of being blind. Caine’s head will be turned in one direction while his weapon is precisely flitting in the opposite. Coupled with an extended stay at a Japanese assassin hotel run by the always-welcome Hiroyuki Sanada, the martial arts influence provides an effective reset. Both Caine and Sanada’s character have daughters that give their characters’ stakes, with Sanada’s played by Rina Sawayama as a deadly archer capable of making the viewer feel something for the first time since Wick’s dog got stomped.
Stahelski’s past as a stuntman gives the Wick films credibility, and Chapter 4 lets him bust out his obscure favorites within the action genre. The climactic nighttime race through a city is pure The Warriors, while a mid-film brawl at a German club between Wick and a fat-suited Scott Adkins calls back to Sammo Hung opposite Yen in Kill Zone. There is something so hypnotic about a giant man moving quickly. Chapter 4 isn’t lacking for set pieces but what jumps out is how bloodless everything is. What is the physical effect of taking several nunchaku blows directly to the head in quick succession, and does that person need two bullets to the head after? How is anyone able to walk on a floor where a dozen men have just been shot when they should be slip-sliding in gallons of blood? The clock is running on every Wick film on when will this turn into a video game. Chapter 4’s theoretical centerpiece sequence, a continuous overhead shot that tracks Wick blowing away goons with explosive shotgun rounds is when the clock finally runs out, a cruel and meaningless killfest that is indecipherable from a PS5 youtube video.
In at least trying to improve in its past films, John Wick: Chapter 4 gets points for effort. Donnie Yen is a better actor than Mark Dacascos, who’s a better actor than Common. Also, in an era when summer blockbusters are clocking in at budgets of $300 million, Chapter 4 gets a shocking amount of runway for its meager $100 million. Stahelski doesn’t skimp on the set dressing or the wardrobe or the armory, but these films continue to be exercises in body counts, small improvements notwithstanding. I swore off this franchise after Chapter 3, and while I don’t exactly regret going back on my word (we’ll see if my Euphoria ban sticks), it’s hard to imagine banging out another exhausted review if there’s a Chapter 5. C