My Thoughts on "John Wick Chapter 4"

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This was originally written and was posted on DeviantART on Sunday March 26, 2023. This was the third movie that I managed to see in theaters this year after Operation Fortune, and it was the first one that I actually wrote an individual review for. I probably should've started out with this one to keep these in chronological order. But, I felt like posting the Super Mario Bros. Movie review first, and these are all months old reviews anyway, so it doesn't entirely matter. It was one of the movies I was looking forward to, and I really enjoyed it when I saw it in theaters. I talk about this more in the 2023 New Years Recap, but I sort of liked this movie a lot less rewatching on Blu-Ray 💿. Sort of like with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the cracks definitely started to show when I rewatched John Wick Chapter 4 on Blu-Ray 💿. 

For one thing, I felt the movie's length a lot more on the second viewing at home than I did my first viewing in theaters. When I saw the movie in theaters, the 169 minute, or 2 hour and 49 minute, run time really didn't bother me when I saw this movie in theaters. Probably because I wasn't sitting there for the full 2 hours and 49 minutes, I had to get up and pee. I cannot really explain it, but I just didn't really perceive this movie's length runtime when I saw it in theaters. But, once I bought the Blu-Ray 💿, and I watched it again at home with my PS4, I definitely noticed and felt the runtime. And yes, it is pretty ridiculous. The movie is way too long for the kind of movie that it is. 

I mean sure, a movie like Killers of the Flower Moon (which I did not see) or a movie like Oppenheimer (which I also did not see), or even a movie like Zack Snyder's Justice League have justifications for being three hours long or even four hours long in the case of Zack Snyder's Justice League. But, a movie like John Wick Chapter 4? A movie that's about an assassin or former assassin who came out of retirement to avenge the death of his dog 🐶, and then ended up in this long odyssey where he's killing all kinds of other assassins and goons which all goes all the way up top to the High Table. That doesn't really need to be almost three hours long. Like, I know that with each new John Wick, they got a bigger budget than the previous film, and they really wanted to flex that with this entry, and really make it this a sprawling epic, but it doesn't work with John Wick.   

John Wick isn't a series of prestige dramas that are for film snobs and are trying to win awards, these are action movies about a guy who kills people in the most creative and inventive ways for reasons that I think even he doesn't understand anymore by the fourth film. It's like Chad Stahelski and other filmmakers involved in these movies want them to be taken more seriously, and want them to be seen as "real cinema," which is why the mimic so many famous shots from classic movies in this movie especially. 

But, they're losing sight of what these movie actually are. They're pulpy B movies essentially. I mean, like I said, this is a series that started out about a guy who wanted to get revenge on a bunch of Russian mobsters 🇷🇺 for killing his dog 🐶. That's it. But, now, it's morphed into this weird thing where it's about the secret society of assassins, and there's all these new rules, and new figures that work for the High Table that are trying to kill John Wick because he broke the rules in the second movie. These movies have become so big, that they're losing sight of what they were originally, and that's to their detriment in my opinion. 

It especially looks bad when The Equalizer 3 was released the same year, but like 6 months later. John Wick and The Equalizer are somewhat intertwined because both franchises began the same year, 2014, and have "ended" the same year, 2023. And watching both, I actually think The Equalizer 3 is a better movie than John Wick Chapter 4. I know, that'll probably get me canceled in some movie circles, but I don't care. Unlike, John Wick Chapter 4, Equalizer 3 never loses sight of what it is, and doesn't try to anything more than what it is. It doesn't pretend to be a prestige film, or try to be taken seriously as "real cinema." It just gives the audience what they want to see, which Robert McCall kicking ass, and helping people out, changing the lives of people around him by being a kind and upstanding guy. 

Robert ironically is a more engaging and more "relatable" protagonist than John Wick especially by the fourth movie. By this movie, John Wick is so invincible, and so unkillable that it's hard to be engaged. There's no suspense because we know that none of the bad guys are going to kill John Wick, and we know that John Wick is going to survive and kill the bad guys in the end. Like, you can't tell me that the guy who survived falling out of a three or two story building, and survived being hit by a car multiple times is somehow relatable. Like, sure, in the first two movies, you could say that John Wick was just a regular guy and was even sort of relatable. 

Like, I'm sure most people sympathized with John Wick, and were rooting for him in the first movie because there's a lot of people out there who like dogs 🐶, especially puppies 🐶, and like them more than humans. So, when John Wick's dog 🐶 was killed by the bad guys, everyone was cheering him on to murder them in the most brutal ways, like "Yeah, kill those assholes!" And John Wick was more vulnerable in those first two movies, like he could actually be hurt. But, by the fourth movie, he's basically a superman, like he might as well be Neo from the Matrix series. 

And his reasons for killing people have come flimsier and flimsier in each new film. Like, the third and fourth movies aren't even revenge flicks. Like, who he is actually getting revenge on in Chapter 3 or Chapter 4 and what for? In Chapter 4, he isn't getting revenge for himself, he's getting revenge on behalf of Winston, the owner of the New York Continental, the hotel that John and all the other assassins based in New York stay at when they're on assignment, all because the Marquis killed his concierge and demolished his hotel, stripping away any power and status he might've had in his secret assassin society. 

But, Robert McCall by comparison is more of a regular guy than John Wick, and you can tell he is actually vulnerable. And unlike, John Wick, who uses invincibility and sheer dumb luck to take out the bad guys, Robert McCall uses his wits to take them down. He outsmarts the bad guys, and makes them look like the overconfident fools that they are. And doesn't do anything that would be physically impossible for him, or survive anything that would be difficult at best for most people to survive like John does. And the movie doesn't overstay its welcome like John Wick Chapter 4 does. The Equalizer 3 is 109 minutes long, or 1 hour and 49 minutes, which is perfect for that kind of movie. 

But, I don't want to sound like I'm just hating on this movie, I'm not. I don't think John Wick Chapter 4 is a bad movie, not at all. I just think that it's a flawed movie, and I don't think that it's the perfect, flawless masterpiece that so many on the Internet have made it out to be. Like, people were genuinely saying that this was one of the greatest sequels of all time and even one of the greatest movies of all time, and I think that's pushing it too far. This movie isn't perfect, and isn't one of the greatest of all time. It's just good. It's flawed, but it's good, and you know what? That's perfectly fine. Not every movie needs to be perfect or be this game-changing masterpiece. And I feel like this movie is neither perfect nor a game-changing masterpiece. 

People tend to overhype the John Wick movies and elevate them to greater heights than they truly deserve just because these are the only mainstream mid budget action movies that people know about, and are seeing. I mean, Chapter 4 isn't a mid budget movie, it's actually a big budget movie with a $100 million budget 💵. That's a lot of money 💵, especially for a movie like this. So, definitely not mid budget anymore. If there were more non-superhero or non-science fiction action movies getting made and released theatrically, would be people elevating John Wick to the levels that they have? That's a question for you think about. 

 

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(This is the teaser poster for John Wick Chapter 4.)

 

 

I just watched John Wick Chapter 4, and I thought it was pretty good. I definitely liked it more Parabellum. I wouldn't say that it's better than Chapter 2, but I would say it gets pretty close. The way I would rank the John Wick movies from best to worst would be Chapter 2, Chapter 4, John Wick, and Parabellum. I'll keep this one short, and just mention a few things that stood out to me without spoiling too much.

It was cool to see Hiroyuki Sanada and Donnie Yen together in the same movie. Even though they aren't on screen together, it is magical whenever they are. It definitely makes you wish that they star in another movie together after this. Their roles were not what I expected. Hiroyuki Sanada plays the head of a Continental hotel, the Osaka Continental to be exact, and Donnie Yen plays a blind assassin who is estranged from his daughter, and is in debt to the main villain of this movie, Marquis Vincent de Garmont (played by Bill Skarsgård).

I guess I just pictured them both being assassins out to kill John Wick, and while Donnie Yen is, he has more to him than just being another grunt wanting to challenge the Babayaga. And Hiroyuki Sanada is thoroughly an ally and friend of John Wick, he doesn't turn on him like so many other of his friends and allies over the course of these four movies. That means we get an entire section of this movie that takes place in Japan 🇯🇵, so if you're into Japan 🇯🇵, then you'll definitely get a kick out of that part of the movie.

It was a very interesting choice to have Donnie Yen play a blind guy in this movie, it meant that he had to adopt a very different fighting style, and that was really cool to see. It was also cool to see both Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sanada do some gunplay, we hardly ever see them use guns in their movies, but we get to see them shot some guns in this movie.

And it was a bit interesting to see Scott Adkins play a mob boss type character. He plays the head of the German Table 🇩🇪 to be exact, and John Wick is forced to confront him in order to get the token of his "family," so he can be reinstated to challenge Marquis to a duel...I think. The lore of these movie gets a little complicated and convoluted sometimes. But, anyway, it is cool to see how much Scott Adkins's acting has improved. He's no longer just limited to playing stoic tough guys, or playing nasty over-the-top bad guys like in Triple Threat, he's completely transformed and become a whole other character.

You probably wouldn't recognize him unless you're really familiar with his face and his voice, he's wearing a fat suit, he has several pounds of makeup, and he's wearing prosthetic gold teeth, and he's putting on a German accent 🇩🇪; although his German accent 🇩🇪 sounds more like a stereotypical Italian-American accent 🇮🇹🇺🇸 to me, which is why I said he was a mob boss type character 😄.

I guess, Scott Adkins now knows what Brendan Fraser went through when he had to get into his Academy Award winning role as Charlie in The Whale 🐋. Given that this character's meant to be German 🇩🇪, you can probably guess that there's a part of this movie that takes place in Germany 🇩🇪 as well, in Berlin to be exact. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, Scott Adkins still does some martial arts in this movie, even when he's wearing a fat suit.

Lastly, this movie has probably some of the best shootouts of the entire series so far. That final climatic shootout in that house or apartment in Paris with the overhead camera shot is pretty awesome. It is one of most creative action scenes I've ever seen. And that shotgun that John Wick uses that fires incendiary rounds is beyond awesome. That's the best weapon of this franchise, even better than the Benelli M4 in Chapter 2. Bill Skarsgård is pretty good as the villain, Marquis, he plays a really slimy and smarmy bad guy who you instantly hate. You almost want to kill him yourself by the end 😄, so you're rooting for John Wick all the way to the end to kill this guy. And it is really satisfying when he does kill him, my whole theater cheered when John Wick shot him.

Speaking of which, I saw this movie in a pretty packed theater, that I was probably most packed theater I've been in since Top Gun: Maverick. So, I think this movie's going to do just fine in the box office, I think this movie is going to be a hit, in fact, it already is a hit. What can I say, the John Wick movies are really popular 🤷‍♂️, they're probably the most popular action movie franchise right now; and no, I don't count any superhero movies from Marvel or DC, those are their own thing, and I don't count the Fast and the Furious franchise, which has completely run its course, and finally coming to an end, thank God.

The Bowlery King isn't in the movie all that much. You might think that after watching the ending of Parabellum, the Bowlery King would play a major role in this one, but he really doesn't. But, when he is on screen, it's always a treat, Laurence Fishburne is great in the role, and the Bowlery King truly is one of the best characters in these movies. I especially like the part where he interacts with Winston after the Continental in New York gets demolished by Marquis. One more thing before I wrap this up, if you go to see this movie, make sure you stay until after the credits, there is an after credits scene, don't miss it ☝️.

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I guess since it's been a few days since the movie was released, I guess I should address the ending. After John Wick shoots Marquis and kills him, he "dies," and both Winston and the Bowlery King have a funeral for him, where they bury him next to his wife, and give him the tombstone 🪦 he asked for that says "Loving Husband" to compliment his wife's "Loving Wife." This ending has lead to some confusion over the future of the franchise. If John Wick's really dead, then how can there be more movies? Well, I think they left this ending intentionally open-ended and open to interpretation, to gauge what people's reaction would be.

If they liked this movie and were satisfied with the ending, then they would just leave it at that, but if they weren't satisfied with the ending, and wanted John Wick to be alive, then they would bring him back alive again. We never actually see John Wick get shot in a lethal area, as far as we saw, he just feel unconscious due to exhaustion and being shot in the arms and legs, and there's always a possibility that he faked his death with the help of Winston and the Bowlery King, and he's still roaming around somewhere, perhaps living a peaceful, normal life just like Bruce Wayne at the end of The Dark Knight Rises.

This franchise is really popular, and this movie is doing pretty well at the box office as far as I can tell, so I don't think it's going anywhere. It's not ending any time soon. This movie wasn't even marketed as the finale, so clearly they weren't really planning on just ending it here. So, I think it is likely that John Wick isn't dead, and this was all a ruse to help give him a way out, so that no one would ever come looking for him, and he could put his assassin days behind him. And if he really is dead, then maybe they'll bring him back to life as a zombie 🧟‍♂️ or something 😄, with how unrealistic and over-the-top the franchise has become, I wouldn't be surprised if they went in that direction; Zombie John Wick 🧟‍♂️ 😂.

Another thing to consider is that they're going to release a spin-off movie sometime in the future called Ballerina 🩰, which is an "in-betweenquel" that's set in-between John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum and John Wick Chapter 4, and focuses on one of the ballerinas 🩰 that we saw in Parabellum going on a revenge path of her own. The ballerina assassin character 🩰 was played by a different actress in Parabellum, but has been re-cast for the Ballerina 🩰 movie, with Ana de Armas, of Blade Runner 2049 and Knives Out 🗡️ fame, taking the role. John Wick is actually set to appear in this spin-off movie, in a minor role, perhaps as a mentor to this ballerina assassin 🩰 maybe, or maybe as a target that the ballerina assassin 🩰 is set to kill, but decides to let go. I'm not sure what John Wick's role in this movie is going to be, but it seems like it'll just going to be a minor role.

And another interesting thing about this Ballerina 🩰 movie is that it seems like it's going to be a much more significant Russian influence 🇷🇺 or more significant Russian flare 🇷🇺 to it than any of the main John Wick movies. John Wick comes from a Russian "family" 🇷🇺 (they're not his actual biological family, but his assassin family), even though they're actually from Belarus 🇧🇾 according that little chant they do when he gets branded and welcomed back into the family in Chapter 4; but Belarus 🇧🇾 has a lot of Russians 🇷🇺 too, and has been thoroughly Russified 🇷🇺. And the people who taught him how to be an assassin in New York, that lady with the ballerina dance troop 🩰 that we see in Parabellum, is also Russian 🇷🇺.
 
So, we going to see more of that side of the John Wick world in this. Ballerina 🩰 movie, more of that Russian side 🇷🇺. Which could be cool. I don't know how that would play now in the current climate considering that Russia 🇷🇺 is disliked in the world right now, and everyone wants to pay more attention to Ukraine 🇺🇦, and give Ukraine 🇺🇦 some love since it's being attacked by Russia 🇷🇺. But, this is like the Russian criminal underworld 🇷🇺, or the Russian assassin underworld 🇷🇺, not the actual nation of Russia 🇷🇺, so I think it'll probably be okay. I just hope that Ana de Armas can pull off a Russian accent 🇷🇺. She didn't really put on much of South American accent in Knives Out 🗡️, even though her character in that movie was supposed to be from a South American country; an unspecified South American country, but still. And she literally played a hologram in Blade Runner 2049, so it doesn't really count.

With the John Wick franchise expanding into a full-on cinematic universe with spin-off movies, I think it's safe to say that it's going to be around for a while, and I think It's likely that we'll see more John Wick in the future. He is not dead, but very much alive. What form that will take is anyone's guess. There could be a John Wick Chapter 5, or the character might just only appear occasionally in the many spin-off movies that they have planned, including this upcoming one, Ballerina 🩰. It just all depends on what Chad Stahleski and Keanu Reeves want to do.

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Update:

🇨🇺

I just found out after watching her recent SNL opening monologue that Ana de Armas is actually from Cuba 🇨🇺. She's not European, as I initially thought, she's actually Cuban-American 🇨🇺🇺🇸, which makes her authentically Latin American; Latina, if you will. So, her being a Latin American immigrant in Knives Out 🗡️ was not whitewashing. That surprised me so much because she is so light-skinned, and she looks so white, that I just assumed that she was from Europe. But no, she's not, she's from Cuba 🇨🇺. Still, I wonder if she can pull off a Russian accent 🇷🇺. I don't doubt her acting ability nor her ability to do action, but can she put on a Russian accent 🇷🇺, and be believably Russian 🇷🇺? That's yet to be seen in Ballerina 🩰, whenever that movie comes out.