Forced underground following the events of the third film, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) plans his revenge against the High Table. In return, a newly introduced member of the High Table, Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), is given full reign to do whatever is necessary to bring down Wick and his first stop is to destroy anyone that could be considered a friend of Wick, leading to the destruction of the New York Continental and the ex-communication of Winston (Ian McShane).
Wick travels to the Osaka Continental, run by his friend, Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), while the Marquis enlists the help of Wick’s former friend, retired blind assassin Caine (Donnie Yen). Caine tracks down Wick in Osaka but is stopped from completing his mission by a bounty hunter, Nobody (Shamier Anderson). After the destruction of the Osaka Continental, Wick heads back to New York to meet with Winston, who suggests he challenge the Marquis to a good old-fashioned duel. But, there’s a hitch; Wick needs to be a family member, so he travels to Berlin to ask to be re-accepted into the Ruska Roma.
After completing a request, Wick is accepted back into the family, and the duel is set at the Sacre-Coeur in Paris. If Wick wins, the High Table will stop chasing him, Winston will be reinstated, and the New York Continental will be rebuilt. But the Marquis has zero intention of duelling with Wick, so he nominates Caine as his second and realises the bounty on Wick. Wick fights his way through hundreds of assassins to compete in the duel.
John Wick 4 is one of the only films I’ve been looking forward to this year, and I was not disappointed. This film was non-stop action, and Wick rollicks worldwide at a breakneck pace. Let’s face it; you don’t go into a John Wick film expecting a complex plot, you go for the fight scenes. There are several, and most of the film is just one long fight scene. Reeves barely has any lines, mainly consisting of “yeah.”
You’d think the endless fight scenes would get monotonous, and they almost do, but right when you’re a little tired of the scenes, director Chad Stahelski switches up the angle or situation—like an extended scene at the Arc de Triomphe, fighting while manoeuvring through traffic. After this high-octane sequence, maybe you’d need a break, but nope. What follows is one of the best fight sequences I’ve ever seen in a film, featuring an overhead view. It looked like some video game, and I wasn’t the only one impressed by the switch-up. Multiple people talked about it as we walked out of the theatre.
The cast of this film was massive, bringing back some of the characters from past movies, like McShane’s Winston, Lance Reddick’s Charon, and Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King. The new additions to the cast were all pretty fantastic. I’m a huge fan of Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sananda, so I was most excited to see them incorporated into the world of John Wick. I wasn’t disappointed at all. Bill Skarsgård looked great in the three-piece suits and was a convincing villain, and Shamier Anderson’s Nobody was one of my favourite characters out of the lot.
Now, a few things irked me, only because they were repetitive, like the reuse of the same situations and scenes as the previous films. You can’t have a John Wick film without a pursuit through a nightclub where the dancers are oblivious to the carnage! I sighed internally when I saw it, but it was well-shot and entertaining.
I loved John Wick 4, and it was exactly what I was expecting and wanted out of the film. Though, I do hope this is Wick’s last outing. The ending was finite, and I hope it stays that way. I’ll watch anything else within the Wick-verse, but please give Wick a rest. Fans of the previous John Wick films will enjoy this instalment, and I recommend taking a trip to the cinema to see it on the big screen.
8.4
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I’m a Data Analyst, from the land of Matthew McConaughey. I’m an avid movie-goer and love seeing films in theaters. My most recent favorite films are Good Time, Only Lovers Left Alive, TENET, and England is Mine. When I’m not at the movies, I’m either reading or watching obscene amount of true crime and historical documentaries.
