SXSW Film Review: John Wick: Chapter 4

Nine years ago, star Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski brought a little action flick called John Wick to Austin for its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, and the rest is history.

Now the series returns with the North American premiere of John Wick: Chapter 4, and the question is simple: does the history of John Wick finally come to an end?

After all, the series has gone from a hyperviolent, hyperstylized and yet oddly heartfelt story of a widower and dog lover out for revenge to a globe trotting Loony Tunes adventure with lots of headshots. Seriously, how many times can John Wick, the monosyllabic killer of thousands, fall off a building or be sent spinning by a speeding car and just ... walk it off?

The series has now established its rules so firmly that there's no asking questions: it takes place in a parallel world where the sinister international crime syndicate called the High Table rules all, and somehow a massive gunfight in the middle of Place Charles de Gaulle barely disrupts the traffic, never mind attract les gendarmes.

It's a challenge for the franchise, that it's become so overblown that it's almost cartoonish (that Parisian gunfight is oddly reminiscent of a game of Frogger). And, wisely, Stahelski embraces that silliness. Everyone is bullet proof, even the endless hordes of wannabe assassins that have been unleashed to kill the unkillable Wick.

What's surprising is that so many of the players seemingly left on the board from earlier installments - Cassian from Chapter 2, Sofia from Chapter 3 - Parabellum - don't make an appearance in the most massive and incendiary Wick to date. At least hotel manager Winston (a perfectly roguish Ian McShane), concierge Charon (the always impeccable Lance Reddick) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) return as John follows his bloody trail of revenge to its inevitable, bloody conclusion.

The script by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch understands that the story has blown past John's quest for vengeance and has now become a war with the High Table, and most especially the out-of-control Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård deliciously vamping as aristocratic eurotrash), who has realized that it's not enough to kill John Wick, but kill everything he represents and has touched.

Of course, there are two killers who have a realistic shot at taking down Baba Yaga: Shamier Anderson as the Tracker, a freelancer with canine commitments of his own, and Donnie Yen as Caine, a Zaitoichi-esque blind swordsman. What emerges is a strange dynamic that's more than a little reminiscent of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - and the film knows it. With this story arc clearly coming to a conclusion before it collapses into absurdity, it's a chance for Reeves and Stahelski to throw in every action star and reference they can before the last casing hits the ground.

The end result is undeniably overstuffed, but for the best reasons, even if some components are simply whacky, such as martial arts mainstay Scott Adkins submerged under a fat suit and a questionable German accent. Equally submerged is Reeves as Wick himself, who was understated in the earlier films but is almost a supporting character for Chapter 4, elevated only by Reeves' incipient and effortless charisma and steely yet soulful magnetism.

And yet Chapter 4 manages to balance all this through suitably hyperbolic and memorable action sequences, across a neon-soaked Osaka, a glossily skeezy New York, and a Berlin that's basically a rain-soaked giant leather fetish rave. There's familiarity that verges on repetition, as John blasts his way across another dance floor, but then there's true innovation, like a de Palma-esque top-down camera drift as John clears room after room of faceless bad guy after faceless bad guy.

Yet, even in the hail of bullets, shrieking needle drops, and blinding lighting effects, John Wick: Chapter 4 still works as a cohesive, linear film with a strangely philosophical heart. After three movies of increasing violence and mythology, the script takes a little time to question what John's ultimate intent is. The script quietly merges seminal work of samurai philosophy Hagakure and the series' sentimental roots (after all, the first 10 minutes of the first film has the same character beats as the opening of Disney's Up). It's a tribute to Reeves and Stahelski that, even as these films have become uncontrollably wild, that John's fate gives the series, the fans, and John the touching denouement that is so richly deserved.

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John Wick: Chapter 4

Headliners, North American Premiere

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