The original John Wick caught me by surprise. I wasn’t exactly the biggest Keanu Reeves fan, and the movie looked like a generic action movie. I opted to watch it one night off HBO and, well, it was very much worth it. Lots of great stunts, great action, and a character that fit very well with Reeves’s acting style. Naturally, I’ve seen all the rest in theaters, and I actually hold the second as the most fun since it was the first I watched in a theater full of likeminded fans. That sort of thing can make a theater experience more enjoyable.
I mean, I saw Chapter 4 is a fairly packed IMAX screening room, and some guy sitting a few seats back saying things like “What the fuck?!” and “Yeah!” really made for a more fun experience. He likewise was disappointed, as he put it, to sit through seven minutes of credits for what he felt was an underwhelming post credits scene. But what about me? Did I find it and the rest of the movie underwhelming?
Unlike the previous sequels, Chapter 4 does not pick up at about the moment the previous movie ended. An unknown amount of time has passed since the third movie. John Wick (Reeves) has been putting himself back into fighting shape to take on the Table and maybe find a way to freedom of its many obligations and threats. And while the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) can give John a place to stay and train, John is ultimately on his own. He’ll need to do something. One ambitious member of the High Table, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), has made it his mission to not only see to it Wick dies, but to see his legend dies with it. And he’ll use whatever methods are at his disposal to do it.
To that end, he’s punishing John’s remaining friends, starting with New York Continental manager Winston (Ian McShane). He’s also getting agents of his own. One old friend of John’s, the blind assassin Caine (Donnie Yen), will reluctantly help out under a very specific threat. Another, the tracker calling himself “Nobody” (Shamier Anderson), a man who goes everywhere with a well-trained dog, wants the biggest cash reward possible for his services. As for John, he’ll travel the world, possibly until he kills every last member of the High Table (something everyone else seems to believe is impossible as there will always be replacements), but there is one way out for John. He just needs to survive to see it.
Like all of the John Wick movies, this one has some great action sequences and stunt work. It probably helps that returning director Chad Stahelski is himself a former stuntman. The John Wick movies have a unique aesthetic with a cool style to burn. There may be moments here that act as tributes to The Warriors or just a good Western shoot-out, but this is still a franchise with a very unique and creative look. I don’t think I have seen anything in a long time to match the entirety of the Paris battle between John and hordes of anonymous goons. Chances are good anyone going to see any of these movies will want to see some great action set pieces, and Chapter 4 certainly delivers.
That said, and this is a minor complaint, the original movie had a very simple plot: John Wick wanted to issue some payback against the rotten guys who killed his dog. The longer this series went, the more it seemed to delve into the mythology of John’s universe, and this one maybe pushes some of the logic of the setting, where this underworld exists that outsiders are unaware of, to its limits with fight scenes in public that made me wonder how people could continue to ignore what was happening, and quite frankly, the use of the bulletproof suits seemed to be a bit much. But really, these are minor complaints, and even the least of the John Wick series is still a ton of fun. Chapter 4 is just as much that sort of fun as the other films in the franchise, all while the characters seem to question what John would do with freedom even if he had it. John may or may not be a killer to his core, but he’ll need to be to get out of a mess like this, and it’s very much worth seeing.
Grade: B+
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