My Review of "John Wick: Chapter 4"

John Wick: Chapter 4 is finally out in 2023. Fans of the franchise have been waiting for a long time for this one. Those that are fans of the series kind of know where this movie franchise was going so they will be totally satisfied with what happens with this movie. If you haven't been keeping up with the franchise you will be lost but can still enjoy some of the action sequences.

This movie starts off not too far off from the end of the last movie. John is now on the run and trying to end this bounty on his head. He's constantly being harassed by bounty hunter like assassins around the world and needs to seek refuge. Unfortunately as we remember from Chapter 3 he's ex-communicated so he doesn't have many places to go.

Fortunately for John he has made numerous friends over the years and still has a few good ones that will still lend him a hand. I found that each movie we realize why John continues to gain friends that will fight for his cause. He is willing to risk his life for doing the right thing and some people see this as an act of honor and are willing to follow his path. This holds true to this new iteration in the franchise.

This time we have a new big villain known as Marquis. He's your stereotypical videogame villain. He's pompous, rich and egotistical. John has made a bad mark on assassin's evil organization and Marquis is planning to kill John as well as anyone that is associated to helping him. How will he do this? Well enlist one of John's good friend's to kill him of course! Wait didn't we see this in the first movie? I believe they did and that didn't go too well.

I didn't say this movie was going to be unpredictable. It's as predictable as they get but that's kind of what fans of the franchise want though. John's good friend, Caine, is told to kill John for fear of the evil organization will kill his only daughter.

To add to the chaos we enlist another new character named Nobody that is trying to increase the bounty on John's head so that he can score a huge prize. He's supposed to be an x factor to the whole movie but he's kind of a fun little distraction that helps along the way sort of like Sofia in the last movie.

The way this movie is set up is similar to a video game. There is a bit of exposition to build up the next action sequence and then we get a big bombastic action sequence. It will go from level to level until he reaches the top of the food chain. Even the shots for the movie look like a video game. There are dancers that continue to dance despite the crazy violence and people dying in front of them. It's like they're NPC's (non-player characters) in a video game. This goes the same for an amazing traffic sequence.

Still if you shut off your brain (and that's what you're expected to do) you will be able to have a good time with this movie. The action sequences are over the top, very violent but almost artful in the sense of creativity. I wouldn't say that they outmatch the brilliance of the last movie but they're pretty close. Much of these sequences can be so over the top that they can feel a bit comical at times too.

There are call backs and homages to previous movies and nods to some of the talented stars that cameo in this movie. This is a movie that panders to its fans and nerds of the action movie genre and it's great in that aspect. Those that are going into this blind will not know what is going on. They can still enjoy the crazy action sequences but the extremes of the violence can be an acquired taste as well.

Fortunately for me I love these types of movies. This was a fun roller coaster ride for me but there were a few lulls in some of the exposition. The formula is still there and you can tell that they put a lot of thought into the set up of everything. It is a very well crafted movie.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this movie. If you haven't kept up with this franchise I would highly advise you to start from the beginning and then get to this movie. Fans of this series will have a grand old time and I believe it is everything that you had hoped it to be. That's why I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I'm actually happy with how it ended up a few hiccups in the movie but they don't distract me enough from the fun.