John Wick 4 Review: Another Immensely Satisfying Chapter
Credit: Lionsgate
Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic
When I wrote my review for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum back in 2019, I said, “I worry that they may have upped the stakes a bit to the point where things may start to get unwieldy in the just-announced John Wick 4.” I feel like Red in front of the parole board in The Shawshank Redemption looking at those words the younger me wrote. “I wanna talk to him. I wanna try to talk some sense to him. Tell him the way things are… but I can’t.”
If I could talk to the me of 2019, I would tell him how naïve he was to think that Chapter 3 had upped the stakes too high and not to worry his little mind about things getting unwieldy, because Chapter 3 was really just a taste of the divine action that is John Wick: Chapter 4. Chapter 4 clocks in at a whopping 169 minutes, but flies by far too fast because of how enjoyable it is. The mandate for this chapter, possibly the final chapter of the John Wick saga, was clearly to make it “more.” Actually, maybe “most.”
After recuperating from the events of Chapter 3, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) remains “excommunicado” by the High Table with a bounty on his head and the entire hitman world after him. He uses what few contacts he has for safe harbor and to take his revenge on the High Table and possibly find a way out. The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) and the manager of the Continental Hotel in Osaka, Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada) offer him safe harbor.
Meanwhile, an upstart senior member of the High Table, the Marquis Vincent De Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), makes an example of Winston (Ian McShane), Charon (Lance Reddick) and the New York Continental before sending another old friend of John Wick’s after him, a blind assassin named Caine (Donnie Yen). As if the story needed any more complexity, a Tracker named Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson) is also on John’s trail, but is only willing to kill him when the price on his head reaches a certain amount.
The John Wick franchise has done an amazing job of world building, even from the beginning when, by director Chad Stahelski’s own admission, they had not fully conceived this Wickverse in their minds. I still get a chuckle thinking of the police officer that shows up to John Wick’s front door and says, “Hey John, you working again?” A hotel for assassins where no business can be conducted is a great concept. With each film they have expanded the scope of the lens out to reveal more and more of this world, and there is still enough that they have left unanswered to leave a bit of mystique too.
John Wick is a man of few words, and seemingly few friends, but the friendships he does have are deep and rooted in the mainstays of the genre: honor, code, professionalism, respect. Koji does not help John, and thus put his life and the life of his daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama) in danger, because he owes him a blood debt, but because they were part of a brotherhood. His loyalty to the person he worked beside trumps his loyalty to the High Table.
Donnie Yen’s Caine stands in stark contrast to Koji, as his loyalty is ultimately to his daughter, who he had to make sacrifices for in order to keep her safe. While Akira is part of Koji’s life and part of this assassin’s world, Caine’s daughter is a street violinist in Paris and he is not permitted to have contact with her, which keeps her alive. Like Koji, Caine has a shared history with John and there is a mutual respect between the two of them. Caine also is an interesting mirror to John, because John has already lost, his wife (and his dog), while Caine has something to lose. And then there is Mr. Nobody, who is skilled but has yet to make a name for himself in this business and, like John, has a dog that is close to his heart.
But, really, the story is merely the skeleton of the film to hang the action on, and it does not disappoint. The High Table gets wind of Osaka possibly harboring John Wick and their assassins descend upon the facility in a prolonged action sequence that is unrelenting and a beauty to behold. At one point, John Wick fights wave after wave of assassins, coming each time in pairs of two or three, and you just don’t think it is going to stop. It reminded me of a video game where you defeat a couple baddies and then the door opens with more henchmen popping out of another vehicle. When there is finally a pause in the action, John drops to one knee, panting, and you feel almost as exhausted as he does.
This action-packed movie is actually overstuffed with relentless action. All of these movies feature several outstanding fight sequences; I think my personal favorite is the knife fight in the antiques room at the beginning of John Wick: Chapter 3, but there are at least four scenes in this film that are as good as anything that the franchise has put forward for action. That does not even account for the fight in a German nightclub with actor Scott Adkins, whom I mistook for Steve Coogan, in a fat suit.
The Osaka set piece is one of those four scenes, for sure. The other three take place in Paris, at night, and could be considered one very extended and connected fight as John tries to survive to morning: a fight amongst the traffic around the Arc de Triomphe, one in a house where the camera floats in an overhead shot following John going room to room killing foes. The pièce de résistance, though, is the fight that takes place on the Montmarte stairs that lead up to the Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre. It is a ballet of fists and bullets and John and just bravura action that might be the pinnacle of action in this franchise, which is saying something.
It seems very likely that John Wick: Chapter 4 is the concluding chapter of the story of John Wick. There are definitely ways that they could return to the character if they so choose, but there is a definite feel of finality to the proceedings. They have also provided options for expanding the Wickverse and telling other stories in this world of assassins. Is 169 minutes of action in John Wick: Chapter 4 overindulgent? Yeah. Despite that, does the action deliver? Yeah. Is it incredibly satisfying? Yeah.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars