Chapter 4 Is Proof That An Motion Film Can Have Too A lot Motion

I ought to hasten to level out that the motion choreography in “Chapter 4” is, as these items go, first-rate. There’s a intelligent battle sequence early within the movie whereby the blind murderer Caine (Donnie Yen) finds out the place his prey is situated by pasting motion-activated doorbell chimes on the partitions of a kitchen. There are virtuosic photographs whereby John Wick, driving a automobile with out doorways, cuts donuts round a gaggle of attackers, mowing them down with a pistol. As a result of tuxedos are bulletproof on this universe, John Wick has to assault individuals’s heads and necks, usually requiring him to shoot his victims within the eye socket, then shoot them once more to trigger them to fall down and unobstruct his view of his subsequent potential sufferer. On a visceral degree, a number of the violence is certainly thrilling. 

However after a lot of it, the eyes start to gloss over. It definitely does not assist that Stahelski’s cinematographer Dan Laustsen (the Oscar-nominated photographer of “Silent Hill” and 4 Guillermo del Toro films) gave the impression to be hellbent on obscuring the motion’s readability, taking pictures in darkish rooms or at nighttime, usually using comfortable focus, uncommon neon coloration palates, and flickering strobes that depart even huge, one-take photographs trying vague. It is like Nicholas Winding Refn tried to make a online game. That is not a praise.

The viewer could possibly inform what’s occurring in a common sense — and thank goodness for small blessings — however the clear-eyed violence of the unique “John Wick” is lengthy gone right here. It additionally does not assist that Reeves, now 58, appears to be struggling by a few of his extra acrobatic stunt sequences. Three or 4 occasions, his backflips seem like he and his fellow stunt performers barely made it.