John Wick: Chapter 4 Review

John Wick has come a long way. From his humble origins of getting revenge for his murdered dog, his fourth cinematic adventure sees the reluctant assassin take on the whole secret society.

Since the events of John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has been hiding and training. The High Table has placed Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) in charge of the search for John Wick and The Marquis punishes John Wick’s allies to force the assassin out of hiding. There’s only one way out for John Wick: he needs to challenge The Marquis to a duel.

The original John Wick was the film that surprised everyone. It seemed like it would be a throwaway action film with a silly premise, but it ended up being revolutionary. It redefined the action genre in Hollywood and showed Keanu Reeves was still a credible action star. David Leitch, who co-directed the first film has gone on to be one of the most in-demand action directors in Hollywood.

Since John Wick, the succeeding entries have been on a mission to make things bigger and better. The action scenes have become more elaborate and build up on the lore of the world. John Wick: Chapter 4 has earned the best reviews in the franchise so far, and fans have been singing its praises.

From an action standpoint John Wick: Chapter 4 was breathtaking. There was a great amount of variety in the action. Various weapons were used, there were multiple styles, and it took place in numerous locations. The first action sequence was a modern Western where John Wick was riding in the desert and shooting at the Elder’s guards. John Wick: Chapter 4 turns into a cross of anime and ninja and samurai films when it moved to Japan. The section in Paris twisted the assassins hunting John Wick by referencing the cult classic The Warriors.

The action appealed to my primal side. The sequence in Osaka was a big battle between heavily armed men with machine guns and a cohort of ninjas with katanas and bows and arrows. It might be clichéd, but it was still awesome to watch. Pop star/model Rina Sawayama made her acting debut in John Wick: Chapter 4 and she was badass and sexy during the Osaka attack.

John Wick: Chapter 4 was most inventive when the action moved to Paris. One sequence was on the roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe and John Wick and various assassins were fighting in the middle of the road, so were having to avoid traffic as well as shooting and punching each other. The most remarkable action sequence was when John Wick was in a building armed with a shotgun with incendiary rounds. It was done as a one-shot through a birds-eye view. It was amazing to see people getting blasted and set on fire.

In the previous films John Wick was arguably rusty. In the first film he had been retired for five years and was taken by surprise by a gang of young men. The following two films were set soon after the original. John Wick: Chapter 4 implied there was a bit of a time jump because John Wick was able to train in secret and was close to being back at his peak. To counteract this Hong Kong action legend Donnie Yen was cast to act as John Wick’s fighting foil.

Yen played Caine, an assassin who was proficient with guns, blades, and his fists despite being blind. Caine was a tragic character because he was a friend of John Wick but was forced to go on the hunt because he needed to protect his daughter from the High Table. There was emotional drama between the assassins, not just a physical threat.

There were a lot of new cast members for this fourth entry. The two most notable were Skarsgård and Shamier Anderson. Skarsgård was pretty much playing a Bond villain because his character was an arrogant French aristocrat who was given the full force of the High Table at his disposal. He wasn’t just hunting John Wick because he was assigned to the job, he was launching an ideological war to prevent future insurrections. Anderson played a skilled tracker who acted like a gunslinger from a Western. He was a chaotic neutral character since he was willing to hunt John Wick for the right price and willing to disturb other assassins.

Throughout the series there has been a theme of ramifications. The first film was about how killing a puppy led to John Wick going on a killing spree, the second was about a deal John Wick made coming back to haunt, and Parabellum was about John Wick’s actions in the second film leading him to become a wanted man. This butterfly effect expanded to other characters in the film. Winston (Ian McShane) was made to pay for supporting John Wick in the previous film, whilst Caine was forced to suffer the consequences of the deal he made.

As the films progressed the mythology and lore expanded. It showed the rules and culture of this underground world and it became incredibly dense. But this led to John Wick: Chapter 4’s biggest problem: its length. John Wick: Chapter 4 had a run time pushing three hours, which was really long for an action film, and it was felt during the second act. John Wick needed to go to Berlin and get reinstated in his crime family and needed to kill a crime lord to achieve this. This subplot felt like a side mission in a Grand Theft Auto game and was the weakest part of the film.

The best part of the Berlin subplot was the casting of B-Movie action Scott Atkins. He was having fun performing with a German accent and despite being a fat suit he was still a formable fighter. I still grinned like an idiot when the action started because the henchmen were using axes, and the card game felt like Chad Stahelski was making his pitch to direct the next Bond film.

For action fans, John Wick: Chapter 4 was pure ecstasy and fans of the series will be satisfied with his entry. The adrenaline-pulling sequence makes up for the few moments that drag.