Keanu Reeves’ titular assassin continues to fight for his freedom, although the High Table won’t let him go without a fight.
Keanu Reeves returns as hitman John Wick in the fourth instalment of Chad Stahelski’s action-packed franchise.
As you may remember from previous outings, Reeves was deemed “excommunicado” for the unauthorised killing of High Table crime lord Santino D’Antonio.
The High Table, represented by The Marquis (Bill Skarsgard) in this film, is still searching for Wick to kill him for his crimes and the bounty on his head keeps rising and rising… Wick must fight his way through the criminal underworld to earn his freedom.
Considering the action quota in previous John Wick films was already very high, you may be shocked to learn that this film has even more. Unbelievable, but true.
The action setpieces are longer, more frequent, ambitious, and elaborate. They get bigger and more impressive as the film progresses, with some mind-blowingly complex and creative sequences in visually stunning locations in the latter Paris segment.
The film is two hours and 50 minutes, which is shocking considering it’s a film about assassins killing each other.
Thankfully, the movie as a whole doesn’t feel quite that long, however, some of the earlier action sequences do drag. The film could have easily been around 20 minutes shorter if Wick didn’t kill quite so many people in every setpiece.
The hand-to-hand combat and sword-fight sequences are expertly choreographed and the most exciting to watch, but sadly, the film is very reliant on guns and those get rather repetitive.
There are only so many ways to kill someone with a firearm after all.
It’s very clear that Reeves pulled off a lot of the stunts himself, which is remarkable given how complicated some of them are.
Wick barely speaks and his speech feels stilted when he does, but that’s probably the weak script’s fault. Reeves is an action star and he nails what is required physically.
There are a lot of newcomers in this film but the most noteworthy is martial arts legend Donnie Yen as blind assassin Caine.
He has a good backstory, a quirky personality, great platonic chemistry with Reeves and innovative killing methods.
The script isn’t the strongest and the film could have done with more humour but you don’t come to a John Wick film expecting a zingy screenplay, detailed plot, and well-rounded characters – you come for the action, and it delivers that in spades!
John Wick: Chapter 4 is an epic, ambitious and visually spectacular action blockbuster that deserves to be watched on the big screen.
In cinemas from Friday 24th March.
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