The “John Wick” franchise now spans four movies and after the resounding success of “John Wick: Chapter 4” this year, there’s no end in sight. Not only will there be a fifth part, the spin-off “Ballerina” and the miniseries “The Continental” are also coming. With its relentless, over-the-top action and polished fight choreography, the series and its protagonist, Keanu Reeves, continue to amaze audiences.
But as with everything, there is a headwind here too – and sometimes even from a prominent direction. In an interview with director Oliver Stone (“JFK”) has now spoken out about his new documentary “Nuclear Now” and left a bad hair on “John Wick 4” (after seeing it on the plane).
“Like a video game”: that’s what Oliver Stone says about “John Wick 4”
“The movie is incredibly disgusting. Awful! I don’t know what people think,” is Oliver Stone’s verdict on the fourth “John Wick” in the -Conversation. “[Keanu Reeves] kills maybe 300, 400 people in the goddamn movie. As a war veteran, I can tell you that no murder is credible.”
Stone references his past as a soldier in the Vietnam War, which he also worked on in his critically acclaimed films “Platoon,” “Born on July 4th,” and “Between Heaven and Hell.” But his rant against “John Wick” didn’t end there, he just doesn’t seem to be a fan of the FSK 18 ripper’s deliberately over-the-top, sometimes downright surreal action inserts:
“I know it’s a movie, but it’s more like a video game. It has lost all connection with reality. The audience may like this video game. But I’m bored. How many cars can crash? How many stunts can you do? What’s the difference between ‘Fast And Furious’ and any other movie? It just comes one after the other. Whether it’s a superhuman Marvel character or just a human like John Wick, it doesn’t matter. It’s unbelievable.”
Criticism of the entire blockbuster
The digs at Marvel and “Fast & Furious” make it clear that Oliver Stone’s criticisms are apparently directed against modern blockbuster cinema in general and not just “John Wick” or the excessive depiction of violence in it, how to look for the “disgusting” – Quote might guess. After all, he himself has sparked controversy with his awkward brutality in his work, especially in his abysmal 1994 media satire “Natural Born Killers.”
Much earlier the 76-year-old seems to be troubled by the interchangeability and complete lack of reality of riot cinema – and is certainly not the first major veteran director to feel this way. The MCU, in particular, has been heavily chastised in the past by legends like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola (in fact, Coppola used very similar vocabulary to Stone’s when he said “disgusting”).
However, these high-profile allegations do not detract from the success of the blockbuster. In any case, all three of the franchises mentioned by Oliver Stone are getting a few more movies and series in the near future.