Movie Review: John Wick: Chapter 4

At this juncture, there's no guarantee that John Wick: Chapter 4 will be the final entry in the main franchise. Chapter 4 had the best box office debut of the series to date and Lionsgate doesn't have a deep roster of IP's at their disposal to make up for the loss of a prized asset like Wick on their balance sheet, so it's perfectly understandable that the studio would want Keanu Reeves to keep dawning the suit and violently dispatching legions of lesser assassins around the world for as long as humanly possible. From a creative standpoint, John Wick: Chapter 4 deserves to be the character's swan song. 

Not only does John Wick: Chapter 4 provide a fitting, poetic conclusion to Wick's quest to finally find peace after living a live full of violent sin, it's just hard to imagine Chad Stahelski coming up with something that could top this. Granted the luxury of a $100 million budget-which is roughly 5x more than the original was made for back in 2013, Stahelski is able to execute a no-holds-barred vision that puts Wick on an unrelentingly epic heroes' journey. 

The threat posed by the High Table's latest shadowy goon leader (a delightfully menacing and weaselly Bill Skarsgard) couldn't possibly be more dire to the life of Wick and his allies (Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, series newcomer Hiroyuki Sanada), which results in a constant threat of danger that burns down whatever sense of security that Wick still had in his life as a nomad outlaw. Wick's relationship with his longtime friend turned adversary Cain (Donnie Yen, who lights up the screen with his unreal fighting skills and charisma) powers some meditative moments that beautifully convey the themes of honor, mortality and the high cost of living a life driven by violence that sit right underneath all of the impeccable stylized action. Every action setpiece is an intricate piece of grand-scale mayhem filled with so much visual flare, giddy ambition and creative choreography that suits each characters' personality that it makes you wish more movies put this much effort into crafting action. The mammoth 169-minute runtime is used perfectly as the film is masterfully paced and every arc of this packed story is satisfyingly tied up by the time the end credits roll. Organically building a riveting franchise that consistently grew in scope with each film without ever being overwhelmed by the challenge of expanding something that began as a pretty straightforward action/revenge thriller is nothing short of a miracle and further proof that Stahelski's talent extends far beyond directing kickass fight scenes.  

So where should the John Wick universe go from here? My proposal: Use next year's Ballerina as the means to make a broader pivot into the world of Wickverse spin-offs. There's so many characters (Yen's Cain, Laurence Fishburne's The Bowery King, Ian McShane's Winston, Shamier Anderson's Mr. Nobody-who is a bounty hunter that works outside of the jurisdiction of the High Table, Rina Sawayama's Akira-who makes quite the impression in her pretty limited screentime here) and corners of the film's fascinating assassin underworld that are daring to be explored more. And best of all, the events of Chapter 4 provided all of these characters with logical jumping off points for potential future adventures. 

At the end of the day, I just hope Lionsgate doesn't give John Wick the Toy Story treatment and retcon a perfect conclusion for the sake of making more $$$. After all he's been through in these four films, John Wick deserves nothing more than some extended fucking rest.  

Grade: A