Life Through the Lens: What is prophetic to some is pathetic to others
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"How you do anything is how you do everything."
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This world is so predictably unpredictable. What works for one rarely works for another. What is rock-solid truth to one is laughably preposterous to another. How can "undeniable" coexist with "unbelievable"?
Is all truth just subjective? Can a being trapped in relative consciousness ever fully touch something objective? Is anything truly real?
Don't look at me, folks! I am just a guy asking tough questions!
Consider this: a charismatic leader enters the scene. He presents revolutionary ideas that transform the lives of those that surround him. Due to political problems and cultural complications, this man is largely rejected by the very people he is determined to save; the more rejected he becomes, though, the more he is embraced by his disciples.
When the pressures on him become too great, death becomes imminent -- he is running out of time! In his last attempt to change humanity, he invites all those that follow him to join him beyond death, beyond struggle, beyond pain. It was not obligation that led to his disciples laying down their lives... it was love and a willful obedience to that love.
No, that is not the story of Jesus of Nazareth. That is the story of '70s cult leader Jim Jones, the cyanide-flavored Flavor Aid, and the subsequent discovery of over 900 dead bodies!
What the masses saw as indefensible, the few died for as indisputable.
I see two choices for all of us: embrace the emptiness of it all, the instability and unknowability of life -- OR -- embrace the empathy of it all, the desire to know so deeply embedded in everyone. I choose empathy; after all, objective truth might be all we get on this-here blue/green ball.
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So...there's this magical staff. Good thing it is broken because, when whole, it unleashes an ancient realm's ambitiously evil plans...oh, shoot! Two costumed ladies just put it back together! So much for the neighborhood!
Meanwhile, Billy Batson (Zachary Levi) is doing his thing: saving the day with his friends as mystical superheroes one minute while debating on doing his high-school homework the next. As chosen champion, he has been gifted amazing powers at his disposal with only the simple spoken word: Shazam! As a teenager, it is super hard not to misuse this superpower.
Having these powers is awesome, but the double life is catching up to our crew. Each one is striving to be real and present while also larger-than-life and world-shaping. As internal tensions rise, external distance is forming... and Billy hates it! He has finally found a family, and he refuses to let it go!
Before the super-family knows what is coming... here it comes anyway. The daughters of Atlas (Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren) are seeking revenge for their father's murder at the hands of the Wizard, and Earth will be laid waste in the process.
What happens next is hard to explain...but it involves a flimsy teenage romance, a magic pen named Steve, a wrastlin' match with a 78-year-old-woman, a wooden-yet-fiery dragon, a city full of monsters... who just smash municipal property, Skittle-eating unicorns, and a random Wonder Woman sighting... AFTER the world almost ended.
When all is said and done, a few risked everything to save everyone... but it is dismissible to most. An inconvenience or inconceivable to billions. Such is life.
I am struggling to find the words to review this movie. It is... bad? That word is lacking passion, but I am choosing my words carefully. It is the movie equivalent of a room temperature glass of dishwater... an empty-closet scented candle. It is bad.
I have little to say about the direction of David F. Sandberg. It is unambitious and uninspired. The screenplay by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan is, at times, almost unbearable; it is stale in its best moments and garbage in the rest. It feels like a B-grade artificial intelligence... which is low on RAM... and running on 1.5 AA batteries. It is bad.
REPORT CARD: Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Grade: D-
Assessment: Giving an F feels too mean
***
Since 2014, 530,600,000 people have died... but John Wick remains. Actually, I think more people have died in the four "John Wick" movies than the figure previously stated! John Wick just can't die, won't die.
Although it's been a wild ride (with swimming pools full of blood and dumpsters full of bullets), John (Keanu Reeves) wants out for good. The only way to do that: kill a bunch more people. More specifically: kill a bunch more people "seated at the head of the Table."
When John's presence and intentions become known, the Table makes a statement by laying waste to John's last known whereabouts, the New York Continental Hotel and its leadership. The Table appoints Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgaard) to seek and destroy John Wick, giving him all its power and might. The Marquis enlists the help of a highly trained, albeit blind, assassin named Caine (Donnie Yen) to accomplish the impossible task of snuffing out John Wick's wick.
After another couple million deaths, John keeps a-shooting and the bad guys keep a-exploding. With some advice from high places, it becomes apparent that the only way out for John (besides just murdering all 8 billion people on planet Earth) is to challenge the Marquis to a gentlemen's duel. To do that, John must be welcomed back into his family, kill someone literally called "Killa," and survive the night with all of Paris trying to end him.
Good thing we have no morals and endless ammunition!
Now, gory action flicks are not my thing. I typically avoid them, honestly. Let me begin this review by saying I enjoyed myself in "John Wick 4"... (awkwardly long pause)... until the last 40 minutes.
The John Wick franchise has cashed in on its unique ability to know exactly what it is. For all its violence and deadpan dialogue, it is a beast with self-awareness. After the next few weeks of earnings, the Wick-i-verse will reach $1 billion. Love it or hate it, it has tapped into something with its bare-knuckle bullet-filled excess.
Director Chad Stahelski has style to spare yet substance too bare. He has certainly shown the world that he knows how to film some creative fights; I definitely feel a lack of creativity in other places... but the fights are epic.
The script by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch is shallower and drier than a kiddie pool in January. Once again, though, this movie knows what it needs, and it ain't depth.
The cinematography by Dan Laustsen, fight choreography by Jeremy Marinas, and the production design by Kevin Kavanaugh provide some breathtaking moments. The movements are often captured and highlighted with grace and grit. I was blown away at some of the set design: grand, beautiful and textured. I was supremely disappointed in the last scenes for that reason -- they rang false, flat and fake.
The acting, with one glaring exception, was exaggerated but effective: Skarsgaard, Yen, Laurence Fishburne (as Bowery King), Ian McShane (as Winston), Rina Sawayama (as Akira), Hiroyuki Sanada (as Shimazu), Shamier Anderson (as Tracker) and Scott Adkins (as Killa). The award for most vapid and vaporous performance goes to Keanu Reeves. Like... what?! Every line uttered and mumbled is shockingly unpleasant. I think his performance hurts worse than the bullets, honestly.
With this movie, you get what you expect... as long as you expect bodies on the floor.
***
REPORT CARD: "John Wick 4"
Grade: C
Assessment: Action at full speed