drumskostas

I was already rolling my eyes a few times during chapter 3 of John Wick and couldn't believe what I was seeing at the end, after the unreal fall where his back was using iron beams as cushion to slow down to safely land his face on the asphalt below. I thought to myself that there is no way they can top this and boy oh boy they did. This time he straight up used the asphalt as a cushion....

Let's face it, we know the real reason there were 3 sequels after the first movie (money). They figured out there is an audience (money) for one man army movies so they decided to make 3 more with less and less plot the more the story progressed (money), just senseless violence and progressively crazier scenarios who are making even the most tolerant people roll their eyes.

But I still watched them all you would say and you would be right. What I enjoyed in the first 2 movies was the great choreography during the fights and the camera work which elevates them to a whole different level compared to other similar movies. Then there was the 3rd movie which still had great choreography but it felt like they stopped taking it seriously with scenes where the enemies were very conveniently giving time to John to recover or straight up not killing him cause they wanted to fight him some more.... Then there is the fourth one which is just a parody of itself... The choreography is using exaggerating moves, the enemies wait for John to kill the men he is fighting before they attack and they are running towards him while aiming their guns so he can kill them easier instead of shooting right away from a safe distance... Not to mention scenes that I straight up said "oh, no way he lived through this" but then he just walked it off...

Now for the good which made me give a 5 star rating instead of a 2 star one. Keanu is not a very good actor in my opinion. It always feels to me like he is just reading his lines and his performance is flat in this and every other movie he played. But when it comes to fight scenes he is on a whole different level. You can feel how much time and effort he put to gain the skills necessary to perform these scenes and that's why I always enjoy his films no matter how bad the plot or how flat his performance is. Then there is a long, one shot scene that was shot from above with so much going on that I was just amazed! The amount of work that was needed to time everything perfectly into this one shot must have been insane.

Overall it's a 3 hour film of senseless killing, unrealistic scenarios and a plot that has strayed so much from the first film that it feels like a different movie all together.

Let me be clear about one thing; I have no problem with 3 hour movies nor how dark the theme of a comic book movie is. This is especially true with Batman movies since it's all about dark stories. This is exactly why I enjoy DC comics and movies in a different way than Marvel's which have become more about silly jokes than serious stories.

With that out of the way, the main reasons I rated this movie so low were the bad casting, the cheesy romance, Batman's emo design and the slow, very slow pacing of everything.

First of all, Pattinson didn't fit the role. The whole Emo vibe of Batman/Bruce just didn't feel right and made Batman less threatening as a character. Also the previous actors put the effort to bulk up for the role so they can look like someone who can take on several people at once.

Falcone also didn't feel right. The character is based on godfather and I certainly don't get any "Italian Mafia" vibes from Turturro. The rest of the cast is just OK, I guess we can never have the perfect casting like in Nolan's Batman.

The romance between Batman and Catwoman felt completely unnecessary and badly written. Catwoman is portrayed as a lesbian who lost her partner and immediately started flirting and kissing Batman after a couple of encounters with him....

Finally, like I said above, I don't have any issues with long movies but this is not a long movie, it's a stretched movie. Batman is moving so slowly during every scene except the couple of actions scenes. Walks slowly even while he is getting shot, grabs things slowly and combined with the relaxing romantic music throughout the film I was feeling sleepy all the time.

What I really liked about it was the dark atmosphere and color filter palette they used throughout the movie and the different approach which was more about mystery solving than action packed scenes which shows the detective side of Batman. Having said that, I would have liked to see Batman putting more effort into solving the mystery and not figuring out everything instantly. Also some real consequences when bombs explode in your face or during high speed crashes would be nice... Batman is not Superman...

I really don't get how this movie has such a high rating. For me it's a 5.5 or a generous 6 but certainly not a 7.8 star movie!

What the hell did I just watch....

You might think the one star rating is too harsh, maybe 4 or 5 stars would be more reasonable If I was being very, VERY generous but I have had it with marvel releasing one mediocre film after another....

This is not a serious movie series anymore about the character development of a superhero/god who lost everything and still managed to get through and become Kinder and more mature. This just became a movie about a superhero who finally snapped and decided to act as a complete idiot from now on... What a great way to destroy years of character development.

The writing is just lazy and the director made an excellent work of transforming it into a parody movie of itself. Actually, that was my father's first questions after watching the first 10 minutes of this movie, "Is that a Thor parody?"

Cristian Bale is great, as always, and I am saddened that he had to stain his filmography with this movie.

I could go on and on about all the things wrong with this movie but I have already wasted 2 hours of my life watching it and don't want to waste any more time on it. I DO NOT recommend this movie to anyone.