Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Nik Hasta]

Another set of reviews

John Wick 4: Definitely a fun film and a step up from 3. The action is great as always, but this film was one that impressed me with its shots, characterizations, and pacing as a step up from the previous films. Really worthwhile to have seen it in theaters. It's also the least realistic/most videogamey of the group I think, but I don't mind that.

John Wick 4 is legitimately one of the most disappointing films I have ever seen. A critical missteps for an others excellent series on just so many levels.

Bad movie, please pretend it doesn't exist and that the franchise stopped with 3 and remains forever tantalisingly incomplete rather than ending on this wet fart.

[Postmania]

John Wick 4 is legitimately one of the most disappointing films I have ever seen. A critical missteps for an others excellent series on just so many levels.

Bad movie, please pretend it doesn't exist and that the franchise stopped with 3 and remains forever tantalisingly incomplete rather than ending on this wet fart.

Interesting. I was pretty much of the opposite opinion for reasons I mentioned. 3 was the film that was definitely the weakest for me.

What made you think this?

Of all those points I think the closest I agree with is that the ending is kind of whatever, but I wasn't really expecting much on that front based on the previous movies.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Nik Hasta]

Interesting. I was pretty much of the opposite opinion for reasons I mentioned. 3 was the film that was definitely the weakest for me.

What made you think this?

Of all those points I think the closest I agree with is that the ending is kind of whatever, but I wasn't really expecting much on that front based on the previous movies.

The first three films of the franchise really flow well together and create an increasingly complex world that reacts to John's decision-making. Each film is largely precipitated by the consequences of the actions he took in the last in a tightly focused and satisfying way that raised the stakes for John personally each time. To run through the first three films of the franchise:

spoilers:

John Wick 1 > You killed my dog > I destroy your entire organisation and effectively go back to the life. John Wick 2 > Going back to the life has reactivated a life debt with a terrible person who blows up my house to make a point about how serious he is. > I break the rules of assassin world to finally put this terrible person in the ground because fuck him. John Wick 3 > Breaking the rules has turned the whole assassin world against me. I must do the impossible to try and buy forgiveness from the mysterious head of the High Table > I forego my bought forgiveness to side with my friends against our oppressors, we win the conflict and gain the chance to parlay but they instead stab me in the back and almost kill me.

end of spoilers

John Wick 3 ended with...

spoilers:

John finally declaring wholesale war on the entire system, no longer being willing to work within it and joining up with the King of the Underworld to wage direct and brutal war against the High Table. Which promised to be an escalation of the stakes from all previous films. Being Ex Communicado put an open contract on him and cut him off from his normal resources, going to active war with the Table should have been waaay beyond that. And it just wasn't. John kills the head of the Table largely offscreen, finding a dude it took most of the previous movie to locate in a scene transition and then ending him with nearly zero escalation of the stakes from the last film. Then they introduce some nameless guy to be a less good version of the antagonist from the second film, a man who John already killed, and, wouldn't you know it, John ends him as well. The King? Barely in the movie. Winston's betrayal? Barely mentioned or acknowledged because this movie doesn't want to be complex. Any sense of escalation of the stakes or evidence John actually challenging the systems of the assassin world? Completely missing. John's Ninja magic from the last film? Forgotten. The Adjudicator? Not present. The post credits scene was one of the most stupid and pointless things I've seen in a while because it served entirely no purpose. John renouncing his connection to his family and apparently cutting himself off forever by punching his ticket? Actually that wasn't permanent so that whole scene now means less. The action was good, though as a John Wick film it barely gets points for that because if that creative team don't have action they have nothing, and overall it was fun enough. But it was just /very/ mediocre and i'd come to really respect the series for managing to iterate and build on the previous films so well each time they made a new one.

end of spoilers

My feeling was disappointment. I expected significantly better and they really dropped the ball.

Donnie Yen was good but that's about it. Very very disappointing stuff. Me and the podcast crew watched it and then didn't even record because we were all just left kind of sad and depressed afterwards.

[Nik Hasta]

Also, John Wick 3 didn't let him even so much as touch a gun for like the first 15 minutes of the film because that film understands escalation. It gave us a bunch of CQC, knife throwing, book murder, hatchet combat and weaponised horses ahead of the first major gun fight. And it kicked ass because it created tension, pacing and variety.

John Wick 3 climaxes with the introduction of bulletproof guys as a fun new problem for John to deal with.

John Wick 4 remembers that those guys exist in the first action scene of the film but then fails to escalate and has the climax of the film be John fighting generic French men and a lot of stairs.

Just lame, no sense of pacing or escalation throughout. A flat and frankly lifeless entry in an otherwise very strong and consistent franchise.

[Postmania]

Interesting. I think with John Wick 3, for reasons I can't really define specifically (maybe the overuse of dogs) I found it generally a slog after a certain point and most of my impression of the film is coloured by that feeling of "okay, it is it over now?" after about halfway. For that reason alone I held a significantly lower opinion of it.


In contrast I just had a good time overall with 4 and thought that the pacing was helped in that any time I started to drift away there would be a new thing introduced that I liked, that particular action scene everyone talks about, the stairs, the cars scene, the tracker. I can kind of agree that it stayed generally the same throughout but I preferred that to 3 a bunch bc of that earlier point. I think also just my being less interested in 3's stakes worked for my opinion of this one because by the time of midway through the film (maybe around the time I wasn't feeling it mentioned before) I just kind of wasn't buying it wholesale. The threat was gone for me; John just came across as too capable after a certain point, so them trying to setup stakes just elicited a shrug for me. So for my viewing of 4 I was pretty okay with them scaling back things that you mention in favor of just John tanking ridiculous amounts of damage and the introduction of other faces.

Of course, part of this is also coloured by time and memory as well. Maybe I would like 3 more now looking back at it.

No arguments about them not escalating from bulletproof guys after a bit though.Though to be honest, I felt like, as in the videogames it kinda draws inspiration from, the "guy is really armored" trope also is just kind of hard to interest me after a point because the solution is almost always "just shoot with more accuracy into weak spots" which John already kind of does normally or "use special item/method and armor no longer matters" which is also kind of whatever.

Also watch the Witch 2 so you can share in my disappointment of the film lol

[Dark Soul # 7]

Hajime no Ippo: Don't fucking do this Mashiba! We have a chance at some actual progress in Ippo and Kumi's relationship. Please resist your natural instinct as a cock-blocker.

And just can't take Mashiba's upcoming opponent seriously. His hair is too fucking stupid.

Gash Bell 2: A brief moment of fun respite for our heroes. But the villains aren't going to stop moving. And somebody's gotten quite the glow-up since the last series.

Four Knights of the Apocalypse:
Arthur: So I fucked around with fate, and the only consquences are that two of my disposable minions died. And my enemies are feeling bad. This is nothing but a win for me.

Arthur is a fun villain.

[Guy1]

Power Rangers Once And Always is Morphenominal.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Len Ikari145]

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Vinland Saga continues to hit it out of the park with character writing.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Power Rangers Once And Always is Morphenominal.

The story was quite nice and heartfelt, if a bit non-sensical. But the acting was bad, the effects and suits were ok at best, and the action just didn't have the same energy as the show's japanese stock footage.

...so naturally I loved it. Wonderful little celebration.

[Postmania]

Happy 4 of 20

[Sharkerbob]

Thank you for reminding me this exists. :V

Happy 4 of 20

Wouldn't it be 20 of 4? :B

[Len Ikari145]

Jujutsu Kaisen: spoilers:

It's so good to have Gojo back. Especially since the first thing he does is go to Kenjaku's HQ, point out how pathetic and hypocritical Sukuna is for bragging about how he could completely possess Yuji but had to resort to Megumi because Yuji was too strong for him, and one-shot his fangirl(boy?).

end of spoilers