by John Wick 4 reviews are in – and critics say the fourquel is packed with spectacular action, but maybe it’s a little too long.
The new film pits Keanu Reeves’ titular hitman against the High Table, which picks up on the events of John Wick 3. Bill Skarsgård joins the franchise as the villainous Marquis, while Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sanada are also new to the lineup. Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick all reprise their roles from the previous episodes.
We’ve compiled a selection of John Wick 4 reviews below so you can get an idea of how the latest film in the series is being received. And don’t worry – the following is completely spoiler-free.
Full Movie – 4/5 – Kim Taylor-Foster
“If you’ve been curious about what Wick can do with a pencil (JW2) and a book (JW3), wait ’til you see what he can do with a playing card, let alone a set of nunchucks. Battle Sequences, Action Scenes, Neon: Every aspect for chapter 4 is dialed in on 11111 (deep-cut reference alert!). And if there’s one area where returning director Chad Stahelski’s film actually delivers, it’s the characters. The villains from previous episodes pale in comparison to Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine in hot suits – a funny, charming, super-cool badass that we like almost as much as Wick.
“Bigger, worse, bolder, longer and with almost more spectacular set pieces than a movie can comfortably handle, this epic action film practically redefines the stakes. If it’s sometimes hard to avoid feeling that the excessive chaos is dangerously close to overkill, that seems appropriate for a film series that has body counts higher than some wars.”
IGN (opens in new tab) – 10.10. – Tom Jorgensen
“In Chapter 4 of this story, John Wick’s vendetta has forced the table into open war, and it thrives on John’s acceptance of the fact that even he cannot win this war alone. The Rules and Consequences of the John Wick Universe So much care was taken to give its fourth chapter a rock-solid structure that allows director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves to enact a symphony of on-screen action with every component driving it to uplift the others. It’s the longest John Wick film is the most John Wick movie. And it’s the best John Wick film.”
The guard (opens in new tab) – 2/5 – Charles Bramesco
“To paraphrase a sentence, everything happens so much to our killer machine hero when he burns a bloody trail from New York to Osaka to Berlin to Paris. Scene after scene stretches well past the point of redundancy, the zillions of solemn ceremonies and more-the-shoulder flips ending up in monotony without the saving grace of a wink of laughter. A wholly serious and utterly deadly fondness for itself has a franchise that Once prized for its skinny and mean savagery, drawn into a logical death march set on a death march Roger Ebert has memorably declared that no good film is too long, his argument is not that fun can go on forever but that a a well-told story lasts as long as it lasts. Where unbridled excess has thrown open the door to insane inspiration in so many others, director Chad Stahelski lacks the showman’s instinct for construction and payoff.”
diversity (opens in new tab) – Owen Gleiberman
“John Wick: Chapter 4 is 2 hours and 49 minutes long, but it has a story that, if told more briskly, could fit into an 83-minute pot you might have seen in a grindhouse in 1977 that Chad Stahelski , the series’ stuntman-turned-director, directed it, Full of subdued, sinister, ritualistic verbal showdowns meant to be hypnotic as they build to each new action scene, Chapter 4 feels like the first John Wick film, who wants to be a spaghetti western by Clint Eastwood. It’s like Sergio Leone crossed paths with John Woo as seen in Times Square.”
BBC (opens in new tab) – Caryn James
“The twist in Chapter 4 is that John Wick goes full James Bond, running the world and shooting his way through glamorous cities with even more spectacularly staged action. Running at 2 hours and 49 minutes, it’s bigger than the previous films in every way – not better or worse, just more.”
meeting (opens in new tab) – Peter Hammond
“This new film begins with the assumption that the High Table, that unseen cabal of crime lords who want to make a deal for John’s head, is Wick dead. He’s not, and instead in a sequence that could be described as John Wick meets Lawrence of Arabia, we’re reintroduced to him in the Jordanian desert as he takes part in the first of those many, many action sequences that are obviously the signature attraction here represent riding on horseback. Director Chad Stahelski, a former martial arts expert and stuntman for Reeves in the Matrix pictures, knows exactly what audiences want and expect and seems determined to take things up a few notches. Luckily, even if it just seems like overkill at times, John Wick: Chapter 4 delivers.
John Wick 4 hits theaters on March 24th. In the meantime, find out everything else the year has to offer in our guide to all the upcoming big theatrical releases.
