After waiting for a long time, "Fast Chase 4" is finally online.
This movie was originally scheduled to be released at the same time as "The Matrix 4", realizing the magical linkage of "killing God vs Neo", but it was delayed until now due to the epidemic.
Fortunately, it is not afraid of being late, it did not reproduce the fate of "The Matrix 4", but after experiencing three previous works, it became more and more fierce and tired, becoming the best reputation of the "Fast Pursuit" series.
Counting up, the first part of "Fast Pursuit" was released 9 years ago.
At that time, no one expected that this low-cost B-grade action film could revive the career of Keanu Reeves, the long-standing "Hollywood god".
Keanu plays a retired killer in a suit and a cold face in the film, because his shot is fatal, people don't talk much, and the record of killing nearly 300 people in three movies, he is called "killing God" by the audience.
However, viewers who have not watched the first three do not have to worry.
The plot of this series is very simple, telling the story of retired killer John Wick who was killed because of his dog, re-embarked on a killing journey to avenge the dog, and successively overturned the gangster family and the major killer forces.
In the process of revenge, John broke the rules of the industry to achieve his goal.
This caused him to have many revenges and fall into a situation where he could not protect himself.
At the end of the third part, he has become a target hunted down by the killer industry, but thanks to the mercy of his old friend, Winston, the manager of the Continental Hotel, he saved his life.
And in the opening scene of this part, Winston was sanctioned for letting John go.
At the same time, the "High Table", the power body of the killer world, assigned the "marquis" of the Gramont family to remove John Wick, and only by eliminating this "rebel" with unfettered ability can the industry restore order.
Therefore, the main line of this part revolves around John Wick's confrontation with the "Marquis".
On the Marquis's side, he found Kane, a blind killer played by Donnie Yen, as a helper.
It is worth mentioning that Kane is not a trick, but the protagonist second only to John in importance, and the character relationship between the two is also friend and foe throughout the plot.
The martial arts design with the blade as a blind staff and the combination of hot and cold weapons also brings a lot of novel highlights to the action scenes of this part.
On John's side, because of his weak strength, he had to travel all over the world to contact old friends for support... The film follows his escape route, taking the three cities of Osaka, Berlin and Paris as a stage stage.
As a 169-minute action movie, "Fast Chase 4" can be regarded as a success without urine spots.
Its coolness comes first of all from crisp and neat, one-go-ready action scenes.
In this part, divided by location, the design of the three climactic action scenes has its own emphasis.
The action scenes of the Osaka chapter are set in a Japanese-style hotel, and the melee of bows and arrows, katanas and firearms highlights the fighting characteristics of combining hot and cold weapons, and the moves are gorgeous and fancy;
In Berlin, it was a neon-lit nightclub axe gang hand-to-hand fight, highlighting the fist-to-flesh melee and the raw sense of strength of blunt heavy blows;
And the decisive battle in Paris was directly based on the city streets.
Draw guns and shoot at each other on the busy avenue, block and kill Buddha on more than 200 steps, kill hired killers lurking in the shadows, and check in famous attractions such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.
All three chapters are dominated by action scenes, but the venue, combat style, and camera language are not repetitive, and effective narratives can be completed in action scenes.
This brings us to Chad Staherski, the director of the "Fast Pursuit" series. He was originally an action actor and served as a stuntman for Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix", and it was at that time that the two formed a friendship;
Later, he switched to martial arts instructors, and has a deep affection for Hong Kong martial arts films, and has always firmly believed in the concept of action movies that "martial arts is narrative".
This concept can be said to have been implemented to the extreme in the "Fast Pursuit" series. On the one hand, when the protagonist in the film kills, most of them use the means of martial arts melee + gunfight headshot.
This not only ensures that the action design is fancy and good-looking, but also avoids excessive fighting, so that each battle ends neatly.
On the other hand, the director actually intends to shape the character through the way of fighting.
The reason why John Wick received the evaluation of "people don't talk much" is that in addition to the fact that there are really few lines, it is said that the protagonist only said 380 words in this nearly 3-hour film, and his lines in one-third of the dialogue scenes only had one word; In addition, he is ruthless in taking people's heads when he rises and falls.
After putting down the opponent, the protagonist will make up the gun in the head every time, confirm the opponent's death and then turn around, this brave man is obviously super strong and overly cautious.
In terms of character relationships, the film's handling is not dragged down.
For example, John and Kane in this part, the two were originally friends, but they went to opposite sides because of different situations.
According to the routine, there can be a lonely and sympathetic but helpless literary drama sensationalism, but in the film, the two only greeted each other to express their apologies before the battle, and then quickly started fighting.
There is no unnecessary emotional exposure, but thousands of words are condensed in a meticulous interlacing of knives and guns.
And in one dizzying battle after another, the underground world setting where the killers survive is gradually completed.
If "Fast Pursuit 1" is still a simple "return my dog's life" vendetta story, then from the second part, gradually led to the power organization "High Table", several major family forces occupying seats, and killer information transfer stations all over the world "Continental Hotel",
Specific functional roles such as "arbiter", "messenger", etc.,
As well as the "blood pact" that John violated, the "duel" he initiated in this part, and other rules pursued by the killer industry, they are all shown to the audience step by step.
Seeing now, in addition to each necessary high-energy action scene, the audience will also look forward to what novel settings are in this "killer world" that intersects fiction and reality, and how John Wick's stabbing in order to avenge the dog will end.
If you think about it, the coolness of this series is actually not only the hearty martial arts, but also the killer world it creates that is both anti-social rules and subject to another set of rules, which is similar to the "rivers and lakes" in martial arts novels.
In this world, there are many settings that deviate from reality, such as the protagonist is an undead Xiaoqiang, who can also get up instantly to join the shootout when falling from a tall building, such as the corpses everywhere he goes, and the police are never seen.
When expressing the action scenes, the director also used a lot of long shots, a first-person perspective, and a top-down long-range shot that follows the protagonist's movement to create a strong sense of gameplay.
Therefore, even if the plasma is spilled violently, it is only an outlet for the audience of violent aesthetics. But in addition to the hearty fighting, there are some points of warmth and blood that can resonate on the emotional level.
It has to be admitted that "Fast Pursuit 4" can be regarded as one of the representatives of Hollywood's top action movies today, regardless of the cost of $90 million or the box office and word of mouth it received after its release.
Moreover, it also plays the concept of "universe" like a superhero movie, and "Ballet Killer", which is expected to be released next year, is a character derivative film that has appeared in the third part of the series.
It can be seen that even if John Wick no longer kills all the time, there is no shortage of interesting killer stories to dig in this worldview.
How long the legend of "killing gods" can continue, we can wait and see.