“John Wick 4”, an Action Masterpiece!

This is probably the best action franchise of all time given how consistently magnificent each one of the John Wick movies have been. But somehow, this 4th installment blows the rest out of the water. You know how in the last movie where in the continental hotel, John Wick and the staff have to fight an army of high table soldiers with bulletproof armor; which essentially acts as the major climax of that film?

Well in John Wick 4, that’s the level the action starts at and it keeps getting raised from there like someone doing the salmon ladder jump in Ninja Warrior. Each consecutive scene elevates the action and either gives some cool variation in either the physical aspect or something visually spectacular is happening on screen to make up for the fact that John Wick isn’t doing constant 360 no-scopes while running around in Paris. Because that’s essentially the last 30 minutes of the movie. It's a constant marathon of outstanding action that offers unique elements in each set piece. It kind of reminds me of Jackie Chan films where every action scene uses the environment in some creative way. And in John Wick 4, almost every scene has a fun angle it plays with. Whether it being John fighting people in the middle of busy traffic, fighting on a massive staircase where people are rolling down endless flights of stars, or picking up a gun that shoots flammable rounds. John Wick doesn’t necessarily interact with the environment as much as Jackie Chan does, but the setting in which the action takes place keeps everything fresh and exciting. Making it to where the choreographers are always having a field day in how John Wick dispatches his foes.

Another great thing is that the enemies here mostly have bulletproof suits, so it makes them much harder to overcome for John. In the earlier movies, it became a bit annoying how easy it was for John to clear rooms full of people. Now that isn’t an issue because each foe he faces feels like a major obstacle. So, the main solution to killing these enemies is getting creative with up-close combat. Even though John Wick is supposed to be the deadliest assassin, he’s still being pushed to his limits here. Meaning that the conflict he has to overcome is that much better than prior movies. They also made it to where John is not able to execute constant headshots, so it’s nice that he’s a bit more realistic in terms of what he can achieve. In the first couple of movies, him running into a room instantly killing everyone started to become stale to a degree because it lacked that hard conflict for John.

So, every scene in John Wick 4 isn’t hindered by that fact and tests him. And even though some enemies don’t have bulletproof armor, they’ll still throw dozens of people at John at a time or introduce some other elements to spice up the scene. Like an example being people trying to run over John with cars. Action of this caliber is extremely rare and this is the utter peak of what the genre has to offer. This is a gold standard for high-budget action. Actually, on the topic of budget, it’s crazy to me that John Wick 4 has a budget of 100 million dollars and other action movies are significantly more expensive and are worse.

As an example, a recent bad action movie was The Gray Man rocking a budget of 200 million dollars. So, the fact that John Wick 4 has half the budget and is infinitely better is funny. Kind of goes to show that practical and realistic action will always trump VFX mayhem. If this film doesn’t satisfy you, then I don’t know what action movie will. Because even the first act of the movie basically has one massive uninterrupted action scene that felt like it lasted for over 30 minutes. It just floors you right out of the gate and if you think it can’t get better, it somehow does. One complaint that I assume may bug some people is that the movie is 3 hours long and personally, I think it earns that runtime. Action takes up the bulk of the screen time and it makes the movie feel like it’s 2 hours long. Chad Stahelski said that the original cut was almost 4 hours and I’d honestly love to see that as a director’s cut or something.

John Wick 4 has quite a bit of scenes dedicated to story and character development and I think they did a great job with them in comparison to the last couple of John Wick movies. Because for the last 2, they set up some silly notions within the world like practically everyone on the streets being assassins and the weird desert scene where John has to find the Elder. In John Wick 4, everything feels more straightforward and there’s never a moment in which I’m scratching my head because of some weird writing decisions.

The movie doesn’t retcon anything so these past writing choices are still present, but everything that’s introduced going forward is good and plausible for the world. Like a lot of new high-table information is established in this movie and it really is fascinating. The characters were all interesting and were very complex with varying motivations. They had cool dynamics and seeing them clash on screen were some of the best fights so far. Like Donnie Yen’s character is John’s friend but is essentially forced into a position where he has to hunt him down for the high table. But the entire time while doing so, they have this layer of respect for each other. Donnie Yen is also blind in the movie and that offers a cool perspective in terms of action.

It’s kind of crazy how he’s able to dispatch of people with this hindrance and he is basically Daredevil but as Donnie Yen. Going back to the fact that John Wick is constantly being tested, seeing Donnie Yen’s character overcome his conflict in fights is also great. A blind Donnie Yen rolling people would be the price of admission alone for me, let alone everything else the movie offers. Then the other new assassin character has some cool weapons he uses throughout the movie while also having a loyal dog that helps him in combat. At each point in the story, he has a fun dynamic with one of the characters and his relationship with Bill Sarsgaard was really funny. So, in comparison to some of the other assassins in the earlier films, this roster is more varied and fun all around. Along with them having a more consistent presence within the plot.

So, it makes them more relevant and have character arcs throughout the story. Instead of being an assassin who shows up to fight John and that being it. The effort being put forward by the writers for this movie feels like an upgrade overall. The stakes and tension feel extremely palpable in every scene and the scenarios they concoct are genius. An example of that is making it to where John has to fight through Paris under a strict time constraint. It just made the ending feel like an incredible rush and it really gets your adrenaline pumping. Even the dialogue scenes are injected with suspense. Like there’s a lot of posturing between the characters and you never really know how they’ll interact given their complex histories. It makes them that much more engaging to watch because there is so much subtext to be mined from each character. The writers don’t flat-out tell you their backstories and it’s fun to infer from the subtle information we are given as to what happened in the past.

So, the writers are able to make even the dialogue scenes good and this paired with a solid pace makes the movie feel like a great 3 hours. And from this better writing, I think they have the best villain in Bill Sarsgaard. His accent was a little annoying to me, but he was very menacing despite not particularly being physically powerful. Bill has a way of getting under your skin with his unsettling vibes and as one of the most powerful men in the world, he slays it. That and he’s also dressed in some insane drip, so visually he’s a tour de force. The overall cast is just stacked and when they were announcing them one by one it was like unwrapping Christmas presents. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast and seeing these people on screen together was a constant delight. Scott Adkins in particular, who hasn’t had many popular roles really stole his scenes and it was kind of surprising.

Another aspect about the movie was amazing, was the music. It’s constantly bumping and the final act has this person on a radio that broadcasts out to assassins and she keeps playing some fun songs that carry over into the action scenes. It really energizes the last act and even other scenes like the big club scene has loud booming music that puts you into a loving trance for the spectacle on screen. Really every aspect of this movie is brilliant and it will be kind of disappointing if the cinematographer doesn’t get any award recognition. Because this movie is gorgeous.

The trailers have some incredible shots, but the entire movie carries on with these awe-inspiring visuals. The colors in every frame pop and are contrasted so well. Like just a random example outside of the action is John standing around in Japan silhouetted by some cool backdrops. The director and cinematographer picked some great locations to film and every set piece is visual eye candy. Just like the last movies honestly. John Wick 4 is one of the best actions of all the time.