'John Wick: Chapter 4' Review: All-Out Action Spectacle Sticks a Wick[ed] Landing
John Wick: Chapter 4
R: Pervasive, strong violence and some language
Runtime: 2 Hours and 49 Minutes
Production Companies: Summit Entertainment, Thunder Road Films, 87Eleven Productions
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Chad Stahelski
Writer: Shay Hatten, Michael Finch
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Ian McShane
Release Date: March 24, 2023
Exclusively in Theaters
The John Wick film franchise has come far since its humble beginnings in 2014. Back then, it didn’t even have a distributor and was titled Scorn until Keanu kept referring to it as John Wick in interviews two months before Lionsgate acquired it. They didn’t intend for the first “chapter” of the franchise to hit theaters. The oversaturation of mediocre VOD action flicks and Keanu Reeves’ box office decline at the time set up director Chad Stahelski and David Leitch’s running-and-gunning Frankenstein for failure. Surprisingly, the film soared. Once his dog, Daisy, was killed, the best action star of the 21st century was born.
Nine years after John Wick double-tapped his way into our hearts, we’ve hit the fourth (and possibly final) chapter of his epic journey to find his freedom. With John Wick: Chapter Four, Chad Stahelski hits that rare four-peat bullseye with an epic action-packed shoot-‘em-up spectacle that shows the big boys how to kill with style.
After the events of Parabellum, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) learns of a way to earn his freedom from the chokehold of The High Table. Because of Wick’s previous body-bagging actions, his old associate and confidant, Winston Scott (Ian McShane), is confronted by French senior High Table member Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård). With Wick on the globetrotting run, Gramont hires two assassin operatives: Caine (Donnie Yen), a blind assassin/former friend of Wick, and Mr. Nobody (a badass Shamier Anderson), a tactical gunman with a murderous canine at his side.
Watching a John Wick sequel is the equivalent of going to the ballet for a masterful performance with a seasoned director at the helm. With John Wick: Chapter 4, Chad Stahelski orchestrates a brand-spanking new array of high-octane shoot-‘em-up action sequences, reaching higher ambitions within his filmmaking and emphasizing the technical aspects to the height of his abilities.
Stahelski embraces the video game nature of the series, with each location applying a genre-type coat to its action sequences, blending the familiarity of several video games as the basis of the action sequences. Sometimes Chapter 4 replicates the look and feel of fighting games like Tekken, action games like Frogger (with guns), and top-down action shooters. Stahelski smoothly incorporated a stunning one-shot transition from a wide to aerial angle as Wick bursts baddies with a fire gun across an apartment. Of the numerous action sequences it offers, that one left me breathless. The dueling plot point is the equivalent of two 1v1 fighters setting up their showdown with stages and handicaps. I even envisioned health bars over every character’s head during most fights.
This film takes John Wick to 2/3 the cities mentioned in the chorus of Hilary Duff’s “Wake Up” (London Germany, Paris, Tokyo). Stahelski and his team of skilled stunt coordinators pour effort and coordination into the blocking, set design, and crazy new methods for Wick and his accomplices to kill countless goons. The details from the music department set Chapter 4 apart from its predecessors. When EDM isn’t blaring in the background, the sound team emphasizes the piercing sounds of each fatal blow, elevating the intensity.
In this entry, Wick is slapped around by captivating supporting characters who steal his thunder. He’s come across thinly veiled action flick stereotypes, but writers Shay Hatten and Michael Finch provide fun allies and adversaries for John, with each performance making the most of their screen time. Singer Rina Sawayama drops the mic and picks up a crossbow, delivering a fantastic debut performance as Akira, the daughter of Osaka Continental manager Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada). When Sawayama has to kick ass, she confidently showcases her stuff and slays with each baddie she puts in a body bag.
Donnie Yen, who makes his three-peat as a blind badass, is a true standout as Caine. When Gramont threatens his daughter's life, he wavers between helping or killing Wick. Yen delivers imposing martial arts skills with his fists of fury and effortless swordplay. An unrecognizable Scott Adkins in a fat suit also kills it as a German gangster named Killa. He chews on the scenery with delightful charisma, a thick German accent, and a funny thespian dialect.
The story gives John an epic all-out performance. While it teeters to overwhelming heights due to the precision and non-stop excellence of the blocking, choreography, shot composition, and use of space, it makes the nearly three-hour runtime feel like a breeze. Though the story is as thin as Dollar Tree-brand toilet paper, you know what you’re going in for.
We’re four films into this series, and criticizing the story and dialogue (or lack thereof) has become futile. That said, I sometimes found it hard to suspend my disbelief. It’s hard to ignore that this man is shot, falls down an infinite flight of stairs, gets hit by cars, flails from the highest altitudes, and can easily get back up. I’ve come to expect this for John Wick, but it can inadvertently break immersion.
It’s hilarious how far the series has strayed from feeling as realistic as the first film. This series is supposed to take place in the underworld of assassins, but they say “fuck it” with this entry and have Wick conducting murders in the streets of Paris and during a crowded rave. Once again, it sacrifices some of its own rules for the sake of spectacle. While I can certainly forgive, I simply can’t forget.
John Wick: Chapter Four sticks the landing as an all-out balls-to-the-wall action spectacle riveting from beginning to end. The equivalent of a beautiful ballet for hardcore action fans, this latest installment delivers the most exhilarating display of shoot-‘em-up excellence in the titular lead’s saga.
