After delivering almost a perfect trilogy of action films (my reviews can be found here, there, and also here), John Wick is back and longer than ever. No, that’s not a euphemism (but it can be if you try hard enough ;-)) Chapter 4 is one hour longer than the first John Wick film. Therefore, despite the bad-ass trailers and my positive attitude towards these films (now I guess it’s a franchise), I was a bit worried. It is a fourth one; it’s almost three hours long; there is no way this film will deliver, right? All my worries disappeared when I finally sat in the cinema and caught this one (better late than never). And the further the film went, the more I loved it. And there are several reasons for that.
One of those reasons must be the casting. Sure, we can talk about the main stars like Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane or Lance Reddick, for whom this was his last fully filmed movie; may he rest in power. They all know their roles well, and despite some line readings that may be leaning too much toward them being bigger than life (mainly with Keanu and Laurence’s characters), it never distracted me. But this franchise knows how to cast the “side roles”, and this one might have been the best one yet. Everyone from Hiroyuki Sanada, Rina Sawayama and Shamier Anderson to our antagonists Bill Skarsgård and Donnie Yen were outstanding in their roles, each serving a different purpose; they never once felt like an unnecessary character. And especially Donnie’s character, one who can go toe-to-toe with John Wick himself; and survive… He might have been my favourite character in this film. I wonder whether they made him blind to equalise the “playing field”, as the real-life Donnie Yen is pretty much John Wick if you do some reading on him. I am not saying he is in some sort of mysterious world of assassins and kills people on the side; all I am saying is he could do that if he wanted to; that’s how good of a fighter he is.
Halfway through this film, when John survives yet another “how the fuck did he survive that?” moment, I began to wonder why am I not mad about it? It usually bothers me when our protagonist turns into a superhero, and there are no stakes. But then it hit me, or to be precise, they hit John again in another well-shot, well-edited action sequence. That is the key; I am willing to forgive a lot (and I suspect many others are too) as long as you give me something unique, like an action sequence shot from the top, with no (visible) cuts for a couple of minutes. Or your “standard” fight scene with slow and steady camera movements, where we cut only when necessary. Yes, I am describing what’s been the staple of the John Wick franchise since its first movie, but I feel like they have taken the action to the next level in Chapter 4. This movie has several long action sequences (after all, it is almost three hours long!), but they never felt the same. The one in Osaka feels different than the one in Germany or the other towards the end in Paris. They are specific to their location, to whoever is in them, but they have one thing in common, they are always well rehearsed, and you can tell they spend hours upon hours shooting them. And I appreciate it.
I think that is the main difference between this franchise and something like the Fast & Furious franchise. Both are “silly” movies on the surface, with regular people doing something special. But, and this is Megan Thee Stallion’s level of but(t), one franchise expects you to understand that all people within the universe are indestructible machines with a lot of CGI behind them. The other tries to justify most of its shenanigans (like bullet-proof suits and many different rules in the world of ruthless killers), and when it’s time to “let loose”, it gives you the unbelievable action of “hero beats 100 men” or “hero survives this and that!” scenes that feel real. They feel real, even though we all know deep down John Wick wouldn’t have survived 10% of what happens to him in this film, let alone all four movies combined, but the way everything is shot and edited, the way we can tell what is happening, where everyone is, that is where the cookie crumbles. So yeah, I am more willing to forgive some of these “there is no way he would survive that!” scenes as long as I can see everything happening clearly, without a headache or a pause button.
I also loved how this film ended. Without going into any spoilers, I don’t know whether we will get any more John Wick films. I know there are two TV shows in production right now (The Continental (2023) and Ballerina (2024) starring Ana de Armas), and I will be checking them both out; especially looking forward to Ballerina because Ana de Armas kicking ass? You don’t have to threaten me twice with a good time! But regarding any “official” John Wick films, they made it so the story is reasonably closed after this one, but I can also see how they could “reopen” it if they wanted to do John Wick 5. I wouldn’t mind if this were the end of the films, and they would just continue with shows. But, if we have to get a fifth one, they better bring back Chad Stahelski as a director, as he is currently one of the best (if not THE best) living directors who understand how to shoot compelling action sequences. He has proven himself several times now, so I am not afraid to make this statement; he gets everything, from making every sequence pop to understanding the audience is willing to accept (read: forgive) a thing here and there if you make it compelling enough.
Overall, John Wick: Chapter 4 is a blast. If you are worried about the runtime, don’t be. This movie justifies it, and I never felt it because the film feels like you are on several different rollercoasters throughout it. Each one is different from the last, but there wasn’t one that would bore you or leave you cold. To top it all off, we have gotten a plethora of outstanding supporting actors, who I hope to see more of in one of those TV shows. But most importantly, it is a satisfying conclusion (?) to this John Wick saga if the creators decide we won’t make any of these films anymore. I can’t imagine anyone who loved the previous three films being disappointed with this one.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke