Yeah…this is going to go down as one of
the best action movies of all time. And honestly, 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 noscopes 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 in my opinion. 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 I
saw 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 to me. 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 I just found all that really 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 Skarsgard 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 to me. 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 Skarsgard. 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 I remember
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 I was kind of surprised by that. Another aspect about the movie I loved 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 I will be kind of disappointed if the cinematographer doesn’t get any award recognition. Because this movie is gorgeous. The trailers as you can see here 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 also has one of my favorite oners
of all time. Like when the oner started I immediately leaned
forward in my seat and started uncontrollably smiling from how amazing it was. John Wick running around eviscerating people
with flammable rounds is truly just peak cinema. The people in my theater were losing their
shit in almost every scene and you should really see this with your friends if they
appreciate action. I haven’t had this much fun in an action
movie since probably Mad Max: Fury Road. I’d be surprised if John Wick 4 is able
to receive the same respect as that movie because Fury Road got nominated for Best Picture,
but hey, we’ll see. It’s only like this will probably be the
best action movie you’ll see in the next 5 years or so. I’m also going to go see John Wick 4 again
which is rare for me, especially considering it’s a three-hour movie. And I’m really excited to see how the Ana
De Armas’ movie Ballerina will be. Thank you for watching and let me know in
the comments what you thought about John Wick 4.
