I’d like to preface this review by saying that before this I had never seen a single John Wick flick in my life. I was entirely unfamiliar with the franchise before watching John Wick: Chapter 4. The reason I suddenly decided to watch the fourth one was a dearth of options in the Cinema. I was out with my family on Eid day and figured this ought to be similar to Bond films, where the action is the focal point and the plot takes a backseat, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to understand what was happening. Boy was I right.
But let’s not get into it straight away, first of all, let me introduce you to the film.
Introduction – John Wick: Chapter 4
The protagonist of Derek Kolstad’s American neo-noir action thriller series John Wick is John Wick, a former hitman who is compelled to return to the criminal underworld he had previously left.
Three sequels—Chapter 2 in 2017, Chapter 3 – Parabellum in 2019, and Chapter 4 in 2023—were released after the 2014 release of John Wick, which served as the franchise’s debut. The Continental: From the World of John Wick is a limited series in 2023, and Ballerina is a movie in 2024. A fifth main installment, which was initially planned to be shot back-to-back with the fourth feature, is also in development.
The Synopsis of John Wick: Chapter 4
So basically IMDB describes it as:
John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.
The Good Points of John Wick: Chapter 4
The amount of money spent on this sequel was impressive. In fact a lot of things about this film counted to me among the impressive. From the obscene cash spent on settings and special effects, to the amount of deaths, to the absurd comic book levels of plot armour, to the immortal Keanu Reeves, (seriously, is he a vamp or what, how come this dude doesn’t age?!).
A lot about this film just keeps you engrossed and discombobulated. I sorta felt like I was watching a comic book or anime come to life, with no care taken to translate cartoon physics to real life…
Settings
The movie takes us on a whirlwind tour of the world, jumping from nation to nation at the speed of a bullet. The various nations and locations are a lot of fun to watch, they make you feel immersed in the experience, almost like you are the one actually traveling.
Villain
The villain of this one was actually my fave character. He was just so casually cruel, while looking like the poster boy for goody-two-shoes too-rich-for-my-own-good college student. Nothing about him gave off the gravitas or grit of a mafia boss, or villain, but then he turned around and calmly stabbed a dude. It was honestly intriguing and kind of macabre, a good villain, although, of course he got dumber when the plot needed it.
Action
They went all out here, JW killed so many dudes in so many different locations that anyone watching the movie for action can’t have possibly left dissatisfied.
The Bad Points of John Wick: Chapter 4
The movie is like one of those horrible disasters you can’t just look away from, fascinated and weirded out all at once. John Wick is absurd to the point of disbelief. It follows no discernable laws of physics, or even common sense. The whole thing is full thrust ahead on ACTION, while disregarding story, character, dialogue, and basically all other requirements of a good story are disregarded.
The story
They put the minimum possible effort into the story. It seemed to me as if Keanu might have been charging them per word of dialogue spoken cause he must have said about 40-50 words in total in the entire film. As you can imagine, it’s quite difficult to progress a story with so little verbal participation by the protagonist.
Overall
It’s a solid 6/10. I loved watching it cuse of the absurdity, but if you go in expecting something deep, you are going to be disappointed.
Disclaimer: John Wick: Chapter 4 and all of its materials are owned by their Creator, Derek Kolstad, along with their various production companies. We are merely using some of them in this post to illustrate a point (fair use). If you wish for your materials to be taken down please contact us and we will remove them immediately.
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