Review: John Wick - Chapter 4
No Way Back. One Way Out
THE PLOT
With the price on his head ever increasing, John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe - and forces that turn old friends into foes.
QUICK REVIEW
Nine years ago the original John Wick was released and blew me away. Easily becoming one of my all-timer action movies and within my Top 3 of its release year. Since then the Keanu Reeves starring “one man versus the world” franchise that has been spawned from said film has only gotten more popular and more acclaimed with each film. While not at the level of the original for me, the sequels have all been great and now we’ve come to what has been said to be perhaps the last film of the series in John Wick: Chapter 4.
This is the longest film yet from the franchise and while I personally saw a few scenes that could have been edited down just a tad, it does for the most part use its nearly three hour runtime effectively. Nothing feels like filler, and all the action sequences are well shot and choreographed in a way to keep the audience engaged with every corner of danger Wick comes around.
From a techs standpoint this is easily the best from the series. The cinematography is great, the sound work is immaculate, and the editing is crisp when it comes to the action sequences - including a scene with Wick fighting and shooting through room after room of a building that came off like something I’d see in a Metal Gear video game. If we can give Top Gun: Maverick a Sound Oscar and nominated The Batman for a few techs, why not give this a few nominations thrown its way?
Character wise the series and its incredibly lore and world building stand out once again. There’s one antagonist here, Caine, played by Donnie Yen that is so incredibly well-layered that you find yourself at odds on how to feel about him. Then there’s Bill Skarsgard as our main villain, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, a member of The High Table that has been tasked to take care of Wick once and for all. While his French accent isn’t the best, he is great in the role which gives us what I think is the best “main baddie” of the franchise.
We’ve been gifted with an incredible action movie tetralogy that features four of the best films in Keanu’s catalog of movies. If this is truly the final movie in this series, it’ll leave on a high note as this is already looking like the most well praised and reviewed film of the franchise. I still have such a big place in my heart for that original movie that I wouldn’t rank this as high as that one, and I would be lying if there weren’t little nitpicks I could scruitnize. But as someone who has been on board with these movies way back since the first came out as a smaller budget word of mouth film, this delivered a great time at the movies and everything I enjoy about the John Wick series. John Wick: Chapter 4 has now surpassed Creed III as my favorite movie of the year so far, and only the second from 2023 so far to get an A-tier initial grade from me.
INTIAL GRADING
