John Wick 4 held absolutely nothing back. The fourth installment in the franchise brings the story back the basics and delivers one of the greatest action films you will ever see. Everything about this movie is fantastic; from the action sequences to the simplicity of the story and the incredible chemistry of the characters.
Taking place after the events of John Wick 3, John is still looking to be exempt from the high table, he faces it head on as his newest enemy is a representative of the high table named The Marquis de Gramont, played by Bill Skarsgard. He marks Wicks biggest threat yet as he has unlimited resources to attack John with.
Standing on the shoulders of three amazing action movies, this film has big shoes to fill in the action category. It brings back all of the classic John wick elements and unique action sets but also builds on them and incorporates many new fighting elements that the series has not dabbled in yet. Even though it includes many set pieces that we know and love, like vehicle fights, the locations are what set it apart from the previous instalments.
This movie is almost three hours long but has very little downtime. With a big chuck of the movie dedicated to major set pieces, there is barely any time for boredom. The short bursts of downtime are well placed and are well utilized to propelle the store and build on the many unique relationships in the film.
Keanu has fully embraced the minimalist nature of John Wick and most series lovers know he is not much of a talker, thankfully the newcomers to the series are the real stars of the film. Toronto actor, Shamier Anderson plays Tracker; a strong willed assassin who means to make a name for himself by taking out John Wick and claim that massive bounty. I was not expecting Shamier to have such a large role but I am glad he did because he brought a fresh take to the assassin world.
To mirror John Wicks ambition to leave the assassin world behind him, The high table calls in a favour from a retired assassin, Caine played by Donnie Yen. These three have an incredible dynamic in the film that really elevate it to new hight. Caine and Wick desperately want to retire and Tracker is much newest to the game and trying to The films action is obviously something special but it’s the characters and their rich story that really separate this film from the rest of the series.
The action sequences are some of the longest and coolest I have seen in a while. Even though you are getting well over two hours of action, each sequence brought something new and fresh so not to feel repetitive. There was also this insanely cool overhead shots that is one of the longest overhead shots and continuous shots I have ever seen.
John Wick 4 deserves to be seen in theatres on the big screen.
4/5
Review by: Stefano Bove
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