John Wick Chapter 4 review

If you haven't watched chapters one, two, or three, you should obviously watch them all in sequence first. And if you've made it through all three, I assume that means you enjoyed them. And if you enjoyed them, you will absolutely enjoy this one too.

This series has always been about the action. And I will say right off the bat: the action in Chapter 4 is amazing, perhaps the best in the series yet. I quickly lost count of how many really good gunfights, martial arts battles, and mixes of the two this movie has. I enjoyed pretty much all of it, though worthy of special mention are two extended action sequences that I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like before, I absolutely loved them. I would call this movie a must-see for action fans for those two scenes alone.

While the movie is full of action, it does take the time between battles to allow us to enjoy the stylish locations and characterful personalities that fill this world. The atmosphere is great, the heroes are cool and the villains are fun. The world of John Wick is just full of flavour.

Of course it's a great cast bringing that world to life. The movie is so stuffed with talent that Keanu himself doesn't actually get very much to do outside of the action scenes - but of course he really delivers in said action scenes. When he wasn't busy delivering pain to those in need, he was playing the title character in a quiet, introspective fashion. After all John has been through I think the anger is gone, leaving behind a grim determination to see things through.

I was very happy to see the late Lance Reddick again. His role was brief but in that time he delivered one of the most touching scenes of the movie. He will be missed. Of course it helped that he was playing alongside Ian McShane, who brought a sense of class and importance to his scenes. It was also nice to see Laurence Fishburne return to chew up the scenery; he definitely seemed to be enjoying himself.

Donnie Yen might have just stolen the whole movie as the blind hitman Caine; I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he ends up with his own spinoff prequel movie or something. Hiroyuki Sanada is great, I enjoyed him as Shimazu, the last honourable man in the world. Scott Adkins was quite entertaining as the cartoon-villain Killa. Clancy Brown worked well as the ominous Harbinger.

Rina Sawayama brought an intensity to her role as Akira that provided a good contrast to most of the other older, more world-weary characters. I liked Shamier Anderson's mysterious Tracker, he brought a touch of levity to the film. Marko Zaror was physically intimidating as Chidi. Bill Skarsgård was great as primary antagonist the Marquis: pretentious, self-important, and definitely someone you want to see dead.


I do have a couple of complaints about this film. The first is that the movie doesn't really do a good job of establishing John's motivation, what's driving him. This is an issue I've mentioned in previous reviews; after the first film, I just never really felt like I knew what John really wanted. Revenge? Freedom? Simple survival? I couldn't tell you.

My second complaint is not a new one for the series. It's common for action movies to build up an antagonist such that the audience enjoys a sense of satisfaction and closure when they are defeated. Funnily enough I think Chapter 2 was probably the only John Wick film so far to actually pull that off. Sadly Chapter 4 also stumbles here; while the ending was pretty good overall, I personally didn't find the conclusion to the film's main conflict to be all that satisfying.


I'm giving this movie 8/10. I was actually tempted to give it a 9; while it has it's flaws, it's a lot of fun and damn is the action good!




#####SPOILER WARNING#####
In Chapter 3 there was a big battle at the end of the movie where the opponents were armoured, which created gunfights with a different dynamic: just shooting an opponent wasn't enough, John had to either deliver repeated shots to the same area or find ways around the armour, leading to a mix of hand-to-hand combat and gunplay. It was new and interesting, adding to the variety of the action and elevating the challenge.

The first real action scene in Chapter 4 follows on from this, pitting two groups against each other where one side is armoured and so resistant to bullets. This time it didn't work for me as well though; I felt it wasn't obvious how effective any given attack was, and when they got hit or went down it wasn't clear how much damage they had taken and whether they remained a threat or not. It wasn't clear if John Wick was constantly fighting new faceless goons, or the same ones who had gotten back up.

Plus, somehow knives were stabbing right through these bulletproof suits? Overall it was just hard to tell what was going on and the battle, despite having some great choreography and stunts, was leaving me cold. With this being the first real fight of the film, I was starting to feel worried.

Turns out I had nothing to fear. Practically every other action scene was great. The shootout with the dragon's breath shotguns in the old building? Amazing, one of the best action scenes I've ever seen. The big fight between the traffic around the Arc De Triomphe? It was so intense, I loved it. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like those two, but even the slightly less original action sequences were usually still great. The battle up the steps before dawn for example was incredibly tense, and it was agonizing (albeit funny) to see John get knocked all the way back down again. I honestly could not see how he could come back from that, but was desperately hoping that he would.


I danced around this in the main body of the review, but the way the "Table" was built up as this ever-present all-powerful entity, it would be very hard to write the story in such a way that John Wick would be able to take them down himself. And yet that seemed to be exactly the direction that the series was heading ever since John sided with Winston against the Table in the third movie, with Chapter 4 only reinforcing that by showing the Table killing John's remaining friends - or forcing them to turn against him.

But the writers didn't seem to actually have a way for John to take the Table down - it seems to me they pretty much wrote themselves into a corner in Chapter 3 (I'm not surprised; I've complained in previous reviews about how I think the sequels over-exaggerated the criminal underworld, losing their grounding). Instead they created a new figurehead to serve as the proxy antagonist in this film. And yes, I did want him to die. But the thing is, he was never the real antagonist. He was never the one who was really behind it all. His death should always have been just a stepping stone towards ending the Table.

The movie even tells us, straight up, that his death would be meaningless, that the Table could easily replace him. And yet the film ends with his death, presenting as though John had won in the end. But he hadn't: he died to kill a replaceable pawn. That is not a satisfying ending. And with John's death, the goal that he had somehow ended up spending half the film working towards again - earning his freedom by killing the Marquis in a duel, which didn't really make sense to me since he seemed to have moved past that - was nullified. So all John had was the Marquis' death: the exact thing the film told us was meaningless.

Yes, Caine had earned his freedom, that part was satisfying and a big part of why the ending wasn't too bad overall, but remember Caine spent most of the movie as an antagonist, and he killed Shimazu (even if it was against his will). I don't feel sufficiently invested in Caine's happiness for it to be a completely satisfying ending.

OK, Winston got his hotel back. But Winston, much as I like him, is still a supporting character and his happiness is not all that important to me. Plus did betray John at the end of Chapter 3, so him getting his hotel back isn't the payoff I was after either.

And yes, I do believe Winston betrayed John; the argument that "he shot John in the chest even though he knew John was wearing a bulletproof suit" does not hold water with me because:
A) Shooting someone in the head is NOT easy AT ALL, aiming for center of mass is natural and we had no reason to believe Winston had the skill to pull off a quick headshot. On the contrary, he sat in a saferoom drinking while John and Charon fought off the attackers.
B) He shot John OFF THE ROOF; there was no reason for him to believe John would survive, and neither Chapter 3 nor 4 address the issue with any kind of an explanation for why Winston could possibly expect John to survive the fall.

OK, the films didn't expressely state that Winston DID betray John either, theoretically leaving it ambiguous, and John doesn't seem preocupied with revenge against Winston, but... I just can't see any way for Winston to expect John to survive. I'm sorry, but I'm trying to read between the lines, and what I'm reading is that Winston sold John out. Remember that, while Winston had delayed the kill-order against John in Chapter 2, he did ultimately sign it, so he has consigned John to death before.

Oh, did the Bowery King get his... "Bowery" back, or however that works?


I'm very disappointed that we never got to enjoy the death of the Adjudicator from Chapter 3.


Initially I was not sold on John's bulletproof suit; I felt it let him get away with too much, if that makes sense. And it wasn't very realistic, for bullets to just bounce off this thin fabric without doing noticeably harm to the body underneath. But ultimately I think it enabled the action scenes, allowing them to flow in a way that would have felt more forced otherwise. So overall I think it worked.


I guess the film does foreshadow John's death. My friend mentioned a poster in the subway for an anime in which the protagonist dies at the end. Thinking back I seem to recall Caine calling John "brother" at one point; in the Bible of course Caine killed his brother. I noticed in the poster his tie seems to be an hourglass full of bullets; is that trying to tell us the John's time is running out?

John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum review

Chapter 2 ended with quite the hook, so needless to say excitement levels for Chapter 3 were high. Once again this movie picks off right where the last one left off; calling these "chapters" is completely appropriate.

While Chapter 2 felt different to me from the first movie, Chapter 3 feels very much like Chapter 2, only everything is taken further. The action is bigger and better. The supporting cast is more characterful. John's opponents are more dangerous. The criminal underworld is even more exaggerated. There's more dogs than ever before!

Now I've generally been of the opinion that "bigger and better" is not the best way to make a sequel, because even if you actually do succeed in making something "better" than it's predecessor, it will probably still have less impact because the novelty will have faded; it will likely feel like "more of the same". And it's true that Chapter 3 has lost some of the novelty factor of the original or even of Chapter 2.

However, I think I prefer it to Chapter 2 at least. While the action in Chapter 2 was fantastic, the action in Chapter 3 has an additional spark of creativity. Fight scenes, whether they be gunfights or close combat, are more interesting and complex, with more environmental interaction, and even a touch more humor.

Furthermore, Chapter 3 addresses (or at least tries to address) a complaint I had about Chapter 2: John's own motivations and thought processes seemed to lack the depth of the original. While not as deep as the first, at least in my view, Chapter 3 at least touches upon John's motivations, something that Chapter 2 never really seemed to bother with.

Another factor I think is that, because of how closely each film in the series feels follows the last, they feel more more episodic than most sequels. I suspect that this contributes to these movies feeling  slightly less "same-y" than they otherwise might.


I really don't think there's much more that I need to say. I'm giving this an 8/10: it's just a great action movie that's very stylish and has a very well fleshed-out world.

#####SPOILER WARNING#####

I enjoyed the "playful" element of the weapon-museum fight scene. The shootout with the trained dogs was creative, brutal, and very well choreographed, really an action highlight of the series in my eyes. I loved the gunfight against the armoured squad, it really showed how good John is at overcoming obstacles. The martial arts battles at the end were great, though the setup felt a little awkward to me - the Table's assassins don't kill him when they have the chance and give him the chance to recover a bit, even though his killed a number of their comrades already? It's just a little bit... awkward.


As I touched upon in the previous review, I personally find the representation of the criminal underworld as being this supremely ordered and organized affair to be a little bit hard to swallow; it interferes with my suspension of disbelief I suppose. Chapter 3 takes this element even farther than Chapter 2, personally that was my biggest issue with Chapter 3. The Table is portrayed as being so large, so powerful, that it's practically omniscient - they knew that the Russians had helped John, they even knew exactly how many bullets were in the gun that the Bowery King gave him.

Sure, the first film gave us glimpses to a connected and somewhat organised criminal element, with the Continental being the most obvious element. But it all felt like just one local organisation, or possibly a collection of loosely associated local organisations, with some level of order. But now it feels more like all the crime in the world is rigidly controlled by one all-powerful entity. I'm just finding it hard to reconcile the structured, ordered, exaggerated world of Chapter 2 and 3 with the rougher, looser, more grounded world we saw in the original.

Well, being less grounded and more exaggerated is not a bad thing, it's more a matter of taste. I think I could enjoy it either way, it's probably just the transition that's bothering me; I think I like a certain degree of consistency in my fictional worlds. At the end of the day the change has given the franchise a direction to go that it might not otherwise have had, keeping it fresher than it might otherwise have been. And of course it provides a sense of escalation that is valuable for a follow-up.



This might be a bit of a strange comment, but I'm starting to suspect that John isn't actually very smart? I mean, no-one ever explicitly said that he was, but he gets built up so much as this terrifying boogey-man (to the point that he's actually described as the guy who kills the boogey-man) that it's just kind of implied that he's smart? I mean, don't you have to be kind of smart to be a good assassin? You just kind of expect him to be able to out-think his opponents as well as out-shoot them, right?

But I feel like he doesn't really make very intelligent decisions in the sequels (well, not in the original either, but it wasn't really an issue there he was operating on a purely emotional level). Perhaps the bigger problem is that, at least in the sequels, he doesn't really make decisions, he basically just does what people tell him to. He killed Gianna at Santino's behest, idiotically walked across the desert on foot exactly as he was told to rather than maybe figuring out a smarter way to get to the Elder (like maybe using a vehicle of some kind rather than, you know, WALKING ACROSS THE DESERT ON FOOT), he agrees to do the Elder's bidding, then immediately betrays him when Winstons suggests it, only to risk his life to protect Winston while the man relaxes in a bunker.

Yes, there's certainly times when he plans his next step on his own, but these are only when there's no-one there to tell him what to do. He only takes the initiative AFTER following directions gets him into a bad spot, but then he goes ahead and follows directions again as soon as someone shows up who's willing to give them. He never refuses to follow a path that someone else lays out for him (the exception of course is when someone wants him to die).

I don't exactly want to say that it's lazy writing, but it is very convenient for the plot and is focused more on setting up the next scene than on exploring John as a character. Which is a bit of a shame since I still think there was a spark of brilliance in the character development we saw in the first movie, but not since.


So why did the Zero and his men attack John after the Elder had pardoned him? I mean, I assume the Elder called off the hit; it would be kind of stupid to order someone to do something while the rest of your organisation is trying to stop them. I mean, the Adjucator seemed to know about John's mission, and Zero was working for the Adjucator, so... eh, whatever. The motorcycle scene was pretty cool after all.

John Wick Chapter 2 review

Needless to say I had high expectations for John Wick Chapter 2. This is something I generally try to avoid, but I enjoyed the original John Wick so much that I couldn't help it.

John Wick gave us a glimpse into an interesting hidden world of organized crime. Chapter 2 built on that, drawing us deeper into this world of connections, rules, and obligations. The world-building in this movie is interesting and impressive.

It also made it a little harder for me to buy into the premise. It's always been my understanding that criminals are generally not too big on following rules, so the idea of a massive criminal underworld that is pretty much built entirely on rules and codes of honour was a bit of an obstacle to my suspension of disbelief. Yes, I know that such things do exist in real life to a certain extent, but the degree to which Chapter 2 shows them as being organized highly functional and ever-present hierarchies was just a little much for me.

Perhaps it wasn't necessarily that I couldn't buy into the concept, but rather that to me it didn't exactly feel consistent with the first film. There John and his adversaries operated more or less as they wished. There were hints of structure, but overall my impression was that the Continental Hotel was an independent oasis of order in a sea of chaos. But in this film, we find out that the Continental is part of a criminal organization that seems to rule all with an iron grip, it's agents on every street corner, it's rules followed to the letter. Well, perhaps I'm exaggerating, but my point remains: I find it hard to imagine the events of John Wick 1 happening in the world of John Wick 2.


My other hang-up was that I kept looking for something like that little moment the original had that revealed what was really happening inside John, but I just never saw it. I didn't really feel as if I understood what was driving him through most of this movie; he seems so motivated, but I saw no indication that his motivation ever went beyond anger at being double-crossed. Consequently I just never felt as if this one had the same depth as the first.


Of course the John Wick films are first and foremost action movies, and the action in Chapter 2 does not disappoint. Keanu Reeves has genuine action chops, which the movie is eager to show off (as perhaps is Keanu himself...). The camera work and editing are great, the environments are stylish and colourful, and the cast is a great deal of fun.


Overall I give it a 7/10: if you're here to see Keanu Reeves punch, stab, and shoot his way through a medium-sized army, you won't be disappointed!

#####SPOILER WARNING#####

Santino tells John to kill his sister Gianna. My hangup here is: why did John actually go through with it? I know that he owed Santino a debt, but he has no issues saying to his face that he wants to kill him. And killing Gianna is clearly against the "rules". So don't the rules trump his debt, at least in this case? Plus of course he clearly suspects he is going to be double crossed (it was pretty much guaranteed in fact; can't leave witnesses lying around right?). Why not just tell Gianna that her brother is forcing him to kill her? Maybe even ask her to pretend to be dead for a short while to lure out the brother or something? Surely that works out better? I guess John is just really big on honour and paying your debts and stuff.


Keanu Reeves is really showing off in this film. He pretty much just straight-up runs a three-gun course in the sewers, complete with fancy shotgun reloads, then at one point he pulls a one-handed press check on a pistol... even though there's nothing wrong with or filling his other hand. But hey, I'm not complaining!

John Wick review

The last Keanu Reeves movie I'd seen before John Wick was Man of Tai Chi, which I loved, so I was reasonably optimistic going in to this one.

First of all, let me address casting. There were a great many actors in this movie who I am very fond of but many of whom I feel are under-appreciated: John Leguizamo (I love this guy!), Willem Dafoe (probably my favourite actor for playing a villain), Bridget Regan, Lance Reddick, Adrianne Palicki, Dean Winters, and Daniel Bernardt to name a few. Special mention goes to a short but enjoyable performance by Kevin Nash; I forgot how big that guy was! I enjoyed seeing them all here, although sadly most of them had only minor roles - even Willem Dafoe had surprisingly little actual screen time. Still, each of them put in a great performance and was enjoyable on-screen.

Michael Nyqvist's performance as the main villain impressed me at times, though there were occasions when I think going a little more over-the-top might have better suited the film. Still, there were certainly moment that endeared the character to me, which is more than I can say about many movie villains.

Keanu Reeves himself actually puts in one of his better performances here. Yes, he plays much of it in his standard "strong and silent" mode (which I have no problem with), but there's moments where the character's emotions come through, and I thought he handled them well.


Of course it's Keanu's physical performance that really shines in the film. Because where John Wick really stands out is in it's excellent action. Smart, hard-hitting and extremely well choreographed and shot yet acted out with just a touch of roughness that actually added to the realism, the is exactly the kind of action movie that I love. Both the gunfights and the fistfights are miles ahead of most of what Hollywood puts out. Despite being the action being fast and intense, I could still see and understand pretty much everything that happened on-screen, even in the darker scenes such as the club shootout. That's impressive.

Let's not forget that the brilliance of the action is in no small part thanks to the fantastic choreography and cinematography. The camera work and editing do a great job of showing off how John delivers death with confidence and skill, and the world he inhabits is a stylish blend of the old and the new, of upscale hotels with old-world charm, colourful neon-drenched nighclubs, gothic churches, and rain-drenched dockyards.


In a movie like this you might not expect too much from the story. And on the surface, the story of John Wick doesn't have too much to it, initially coming across as a simple and straightforwards tale of revenge. At least that was my own first impression. But there was one scene in the film that bothered me a little bit, and as I contemplated that scene I came to realise that this film had more depth than I originally thought. Though a little subtle perhaps, John Wick is a story of how we deal with grief, of how hard it is to change, and how easy it is to slip back into destructive habits when we are in pain. Well, that's my read anyway, and in my eyes that elevates the movie beyond a simple action movie.


Overall I'm giving John Wick an 8/10: a fantastic and stylish action movie with just a little bit more depth than you might have expected. Fortunately it seems other action movies have started to take notes from John Wick, hopefully we will eventually be rid of the plague of the "quick-cut shaky-cam". It can't happen quickly enough if you ask me.

#####SPOILER WARNING#####

While the film initially seems to be driven by Wick's desire for revenge against Iosef, the actual kill is not the climax of the movie. This is the scene that I mentioned bothered me a little, because it seemed to be given very little importance: John doesn't say anything before or after, he barely even looks as Iosef as he kills him, and doesn't seem to register any satisfaction when the deed is finally done. He barely even waits for the body to hit the ground before walking away.

That's because John didn't really care about Iosef. He was never after revenge, not really. John was always a killer; he left that life behind for his wife's sake, but it was still a part of him. Suffering after his wife's death, the dog was something to hold on to, a way to remember and feel close to her, but when even that was taken away from him he was left with no way to handle the immense grief and pain that was overwhelming him. So he reverted back to old habits: he decided on a goal and threw himself into it, focussing on it as a way to avoid thinking about what was really hurting him. Killing Iosef was his goal, but he didn't gain any pleasure from it. Quite the opposite, with Iosef dead John no longer had anything to keep him busy, to distract him from the pain.

I think that was a brilliant bit of character work and a subtle subversion of the standard revenge trope.


I personally found the final battle with Viggo a bit anticlimactic. Viggo had earlier traded his son's life to save his own, but it seems he later regretted it and deliberately antagonized John into killing him. He didn't try to set a trap for John, he didn't wait until he was safe before calling John with news of Marcus' death, he deliberately did things in a way that would most likely end with his own death. Suicide-by-Wick as it were. It was interesting and tied into the theme of grief, but John fighting one out-of-shape old man was not really the most satisfying climax to such an intense action film.


Something about the way John adopted a dog at the end felt a bit off for me. He didn't stumble onto a dog and decide to adopt him, he didn't pick a dog that reminded him of Daisy, he just walked into a pound and picked a dog at random (as far as we could tell anyway), as though one dog was as good as another. Perhaps that was deliberate? Perhaps the idea was less to inform us that John was going to heal, to be OK, and more to say that he still didn't know what to do with himself and figured he would try the dog thing again out of desperation more than anything else? Is this not actually a happy ending, but a nihilistic one? I find that rather interesting to think about, if not perhaps the most satisfying way to end the movie.