John Wick: Chapter 4 review: Wonderfully over the top, in content and length

With a running time of almost three hours, the action thriller is far too long, but that’s also the point

Keanu Reeves as John Wick in John Wick: Chapter 4. Photo: Lionsgate

Let’s just get the obvious criticism out of the way immediately. It’s utterly absurd that John Wick: Chapter 4 lasts for 169 minutes.

As a result of the bombastic action thriller’s elongated running time, most of its action scenes go on for too long, so much so that they verge on becoming monotonous.

Everything about John Wick: Chapter 4 is over the top. Not just the fights, the violence, the gore and the deaths. It is also relentlessly awash with camera movements, pounding music and flashing lights, all stylishly incorporated into the movie.

The only thing that there’s not a lot of in Chapter 4 is dialogue. But Keanu Reeves has such a stern and mesmeric presence as the hitman that there is little need for words when he can just use his fists and a weapon instead. Considering Reeves’ astounding career, and his performances in The Matrix and Bill & Ted films, it’s remarkable that John Wick is now probably his most identifiable character.

For Chapter 4, after being condemned to a life on the run by the High Table in the previous film, the protagonist has now gone into hiding as the price tag for his assassination continues to rise. After his safe haven is exposed and overrun with assassins, Wick finally discovers a way to defeat the High Table, and its new ruler the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard).

To achieve this he has to travel from Japan to New York to Berlin and then to Paris, all the while encountering some of the deadliest assassins in various underworld settings. One person keeping track of Wick is the blind assassin Caine (Donnie Yen), an old friend of Wick’s, who has been forced out of retirement to ensure the safety of his daughter.

Once again directed by the former stuntman and co-ordinator Chad Stahelski — who has now overseen all four instalments — there’s an assuredness and control to this chapter that means that, despite the blatant extravagance, the film never becomes overwhelming. Just when you fear it might, a fight will be punctuated with a slapstick joke or brutal kill to show that you’re in the right hands.

It’s also clear that, following the huge success of the franchise, Lionsgate gave Stahelski and Reeves carte blanche to do exactly what they wanted. The rumoured budget for John Wick: Chapter 4 was $100 million and you can see every cent of it on-screen and in its numerous luxurious locations. Wick chases his foes through a desert on horseback, and then does battle with them through a hotel, museum exhibition and a nightclub, all of which progressively ups the ante and makes the film wonderfully watchable.

But all of these sequences pale in comparison to the concluding 45 minutes in Paris. Once again the fighting is utterly remarkable to behold, especially since it takes place at a famous landmark, before its final scene changes speed, and is all the more engrossing because of it.

John Wick is that rare franchise that gets better and better with each instalment. Chapter 4 takes the series to new heights and is undoubtedly its best film yet. It embraces the chaos, style and relentlessness that made its predecessors so popular, before pushing viewers to their limits. It’s the sort of movie that you’ll walk out of feeling exhausted. Most of all, though, you’ll be incredibly satisfied and pining for the next chapter.