AnotherGuy
Hero
I suggest you do not read this until you've watched it, and have formed your own opinion.
Please do not let me colour your experience beforehand!!!
So I saw it last night. I'm not going to be popular for this piece since my post is about the negative aspect only. Sorry.
At the outset I obviously greatly enjoyed 1-3 since I was willing to pay monies to experience the cinema experience for the 4th installment.
I'm not going to focus on the good (and there is much good)...others can do that. I'll highlight my issues - and the reason I'm doing so is because I really wanted this to be better than it was as I'm a fan of the franchise.
I've put my spoilers in tags.
IMO the movie required much editing and polishing - it suffered the same fate as Dark Knight Rises. It fell a little flat.
Dialogue. It was, for the most part bland, and specifically our dearest lovable Keanu requires better dialogue given his wooden acting.
Action Scenes. Unnecessarily long in places, read repetitive - as we have had 3 movies to see his skills, by this stage we do not need to see him against every Minion, Mook and Bosses level 1-5. Not unless there is something new to introduce (new setting, new weapons, new combat style, new way of filming)
Exposition. Some of the time saved from the long action sequences above could have been used for further exposition on certain characters which would have been far more enjoyable.
Emotional beats: See post #13*
And lastly, this is a personal preference, more ties into the World of Darkness would have made for a better film.
They lean into his Fortitude, but I feel they do not translate that well enough to the viewer adequately which makes it seem silly in 2 places in particular.
And just some other stupidity - in Parabellum he goes through this entire effort for Safe Passage to avoid the High Table and its reach, only to have him zip across the world in Chapter 4 with absolutely no issues. Which weakens the franchise since they are not consistent in their world-building consequences. And so much of the entire John Wick universe is about consequences...
There are other complaints, but I think the ones I've listed, for me, were the most egregious.
And now we interrupt my complaints for my own take on Mr Nobody.
Finally, there is an example of Art imitating Life or Life imitating Art near the beginning, and that is all I'm going to say on that.
I look forward to others thoughts on things/connections I may have missed.
EDIT:It took me a few days to realise what actually frustrated me from the experience. So I edited the above post to include emotional beats which I elaborated more in my later post #13.
Please do not let me colour your experience beforehand!!!
So I saw it last night. I'm not going to be popular for this piece since my post is about the negative aspect only. Sorry.
At the outset I obviously greatly enjoyed 1-3 since I was willing to pay monies to experience the cinema experience for the 4th installment.
I'm not going to focus on the good (and there is much good)...others can do that. I'll highlight my issues - and the reason I'm doing so is because I really wanted this to be better than it was as I'm a fan of the franchise.
I've put my spoilers in tags.
IMO the movie required much editing and polishing - it suffered the same fate as Dark Knight Rises. It fell a little flat.
Dialogue. It was, for the most part bland, and specifically our dearest lovable Keanu requires better dialogue given his wooden acting.
Action Scenes. Unnecessarily long in places, read repetitive - as we have had 3 movies to see his skills, by this stage we do not need to see him against every Minion, Mook and Bosses level 1-5. Not unless there is something new to introduce (new setting, new weapons, new combat style, new way of filming)
Exposition. Some of the time saved from the long action sequences above could have been used for further exposition on certain characters which would have been far more enjoyable.
Emotional beats: See post #13*
And lastly, this is a personal preference, more ties into the World of Darkness would have made for a better film.
They lean into his Fortitude, but I feel they do not translate that well enough to the viewer adequately which makes it seem silly in 2 places in particular.
The dude literally falls again, twice from ridiculous heights hitting everything on the way down, with no consequences. Its just more shock and awe for the sake of it, with no fun or interesting take-away
And just some other stupidity - in Parabellum he goes through this entire effort for Safe Passage to avoid the High Table and its reach, only to have him zip across the world in Chapter 4 with absolutely no issues. Which weakens the franchise since they are not consistent in their world-building consequences. And so much of the entire John Wick universe is about consequences...
There are other complaints, but I think the ones I've listed, for me, were the most egregious.
And now we interrupt my complaints for my own take on Mr Nobody.
My opinion he is the Bowery King's estranged son. He has Animalism like his father, except he focuses on his dog as opposed to pigeons. He is the antithesis of his dad in that he is Nobody while his father proclaims himself the King. He is black, dresses like a hobo and most telling of all knows much about John Wick from that book, perhaps stolen from his father.
Finally, there is an example of Art imitating Life or Life imitating Art near the beginning, and that is all I'm going to say on that.
I look forward to others thoughts on things/connections I may have missed.
EDIT:It took me a few days to realise what actually frustrated me from the experience. So I edited the above post to include emotional beats which I elaborated more in my later post #13.
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