I'm far from the first to note just how nuts it is that three of these films came out in the same year, with the same core creative crew, and yet one of them is so wildly better than the other two it's almost incomprehensible. I knew it was the same director, so I thought maybe a different cinematographer - the shot design here is perpetually impeccable - but nope. Then I checked if it was a different editor - the use of patience, silence and control here in allowing tension to accrue through breathing is phenomenal, and the pyrotechnics flow gloriously when they do - but also nope.

The best I can figure, it's a combination of kick-ass source material - this is just such a superior story to #3 as far as opportunities for evenly portioned bloodletting and ass-kicking goes - and that sweet spot where the mechanics of teamwork are sussed out and creativity is flowing but exhaustion and deadline pressure hasn't settled in. That it doesn't revel in the sexual assault that's part and parcel of a lot of the rest of the series helps a bit for me, but regardless as to where you sit with that as a comfortable component of 50-year old cinema, I doubt it really affects your overall evaluation. Fan-fucking-tastic.